Main results of this project could be divided into six categories. Please refer to the following:
1. Researching and augmenting regulations of control technology of stationary pollution sources in Class 3 control regions
The air pollution control system in Taiwan is similar to the United States. In accordance with Article 6, Paragraph 4 of the Air Pollution Control Act., this plan helped EPA to research and augment regulations on reasonably available control technology (herein referred to as RACT), best available control technology (herein referred to as BACT) and lowest achievable emission rate control technology (herein referred to as LAER).To reinforce the regulation within Class 3, this plan had targeted the industrial processes to amend efficiently.
This plan assisted in drafting the threshold of specific large pollution sources and providing suggestion. The yearly emission of TSP, NOx, SOx and VOCs of stationary sources in power industry exceeds 100 tons or totally exceeds 200 tons shall apply LAER. Moreover, in response to the global net-zero emissions targets, this plan also researched and evaluated the concept of energy efficiency.
In response to the ozone trend, this plan proposed plans for BACT and RACT to reduce the emission of VOCs. By reviewing emissions, emission characteristics and current regulations, this plan provided suggestion about the project of the processes to amend BACT and RACT. This year, the plan established BACT and RACT on coil and boat coating, and also held the meeting to elaborate the issues. Besides, to further enhance air quality, this plan collected the information about the foreign regulations, including strategies and control technology, and reviewed the current situations in Taiwan to draft BACT and RACT for Copper Clad Laminate (CCL) and Printed circuit board (PCB) industry. Lastly, a document was also provided for examining control technology.
2. Establishing local air pollutant emission factor and management system
In order to further develop emission manage system which benefits to build effective control and review strategies on air pollution, this plan searched the USA system including testing declaration and emission inventory and compared it with our emission manage system.
Besides, in accordance to the program last year, to complete local emission factors system, this plan collected necessary information and give suggestions. Firstly, it was necessary to build integrating management system, which needed soft copy format and analysis-related information. Secondly, regarding data quality, this plan dedicated to compiling our testing methods and gave accessible suggestion including adding functions and testing results on program.
3. Analyzing and organizing the current the standard of air pollution from the emission of boilers
Due to the fact that burning fuel is likely to produce a large amount of emission of air pollution, EPA has adopted the measures to have a control on both the origin and the terminal in order to avoid the cause of poor air quality. Given that the emission of boilers is one of the major origins of domestic pollution, while the standard of emission is looser than other countries. The boilers’ emission standard was thus announced on September 19, 2018 so that the boilers used by all industries can be regulated accordingly. Furthermore, the standard for proportion and the content of co-firing for the fixed pollution sources from the public and private places was announced on March 23, 2020 to control the fuel quality from the origin to reduce the emission of air pollution. In order to control the use of domestic fuel precisely, this plan conducted the cross-reference through fixed pollution sources management information system, air pollution control fee and emission reporting system to update and control the use of fuel in our country. Through the analysis of current situations of fuel emission pollution, the research found that the use of boilers was one of the major sources of air pollution. Consequently, the suggestion was that EPA and other Ministries should make a plan to replace all the boilers to improve the emission pollution. This plan gave command of the current situations and problems concerning the implementation of the improvement on the boilers through the inter-ministerial communication. In addition, to continue the guidance plan on the improvement of the fuel-fired boilers in 2021, the improvement of fuel-fired boilers and the channel of waste wood clearance are consistently under tracking and analyzing to avoid the limitation of the waste wood clearance channel.
In response to the rapid development of the global economy, which causes the dramatic consumption of the limited resources on the earth, the resource recovery of the waste and the sustainable development of the society has become an essential international consensus nowadays. EPA is also committed to promoting the related policies of solid recovered fuel (SRF) and transforming the waste into energy in these years. This plan has integrated the SRF fuel control specification of our country including the technology guidance and quality specification of manufacturing solid recovered fuel by the Department of Waste Management. The authorities in charge of each industry have also prepared suggested documents classified as recycling. As to the SRF, since it originated from the waste energy, it has allowed to use the standard of dioxin and heavy metal for the incineration facilities. But considering that SRF may be defined as product afterwards, which means the standard might not be available any longer, it is necessary to regulate it according to the standard of emission. With the aim on the control of terminal emission of air pollution, this plan suggests to add the standard specification for the dioxin and heavy metal emission of the SRF on the basis of current standard of air pollution from the emission of boilers. The standard should also be available for the pollution sources of heating facilities using the SRF.
4. Survey on the technology of controlling the fixed pollution sources and the application of digital technology
This plan has aimed at the fixed pollution sources from the process of producing copper clad laminate (CCL) and printed circuit panel (PCB). There have been 10 real site interviews on the prevention abatement technique. As to the CCL, the priorities are given to the factories with large amount of emission, the types of prevention facilities, and the types of products. As to the PCB, the priorities are given to the factories with large amount of emission, the types of prevention facilities, and the types of gas gathering. Through the real site interviews, the process of gas gathering, the technology level of prevention facilities, and the limitation of the improvement on the emission can thus be under the control. These can be the feedback used as a reference for the research and modification of BACT and RACT.
In addition, the emissions both at public and private places are monitored through periodic inspection or continuous emission monitoring system (hereinafter referred as CEMS). The concentration and amount of the emission detected by the system can be used not only to monitor the emission situation in public and private places but also to determine the operation condition of pollution control equipment indirectly, such as whether the equipment is working properly or installing two sets of CEMS at the front and rear end of the pollution control equipment to measure the change of emission concentration respectively and then calculate the removal efficiency of the equipment.
However, the installation and operation of CEMS costs so much that there are many countries around the world have made the provisions one after another to require the public and private places to install continuous parameter monitoring system (hereinafter referred as CPMS) to monitor the condition and operation of the pollution control equipment. This plan is to take the idea as a reference to ensure the pollution through the monitoring control equipment operating parameter. The technology of AI image recognition is integrated to evaluate the feasibility of applying image recognition on the monitoring pollution control equipment parameters so that the monitoring will become cheaper, less complicated, and more efficient. It will reduce the administrative workload of meter reading and recording. It will also help to monitor the pollution emission simultaneously at the public and private places so that the authorities are able to master the operation of the pollution sources.
5. Augmenting and maintaining stationary sources management system
The USEPA has built the stationary sources management website presenting the control technologies (RBLC) in public to provide local government or factories with references to grasp the progress of modification and updated technologies. Based on this concept, this plan developed searching functions for give local executive agencies to manage emission of stationary sources.
Firstly, the searching function, GA(Google Analysis), was augmented to the stationary sources management system by analyzing the emission sources, types of apparatus and efficiency to implement the development of an open system for executive organizations and citizens. Also, this plan conducted the maintenance works incorporating consultant service, troubleshooting and auditing to fulfill information security.
6. Administration
In order to implement the regulations, this plan held at least four meetings. Those included two meetings to elaborate the issues about LAER and RACT. This plan also consulted specialists to discuss the SRF. Besides, to further well-develop the control technology regulation, this plan conducted on-site visiting to grasp the emission situation.
