Journal of Cleaner Production 18 (2010) 1440e1445

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Journal of Cleaner Production

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Analysis of the sustainability of reusing industrial wastes as energy source in the

industrial sector of Taiwan
Wen-Tien Tsai*
Graduate Institute of Bioresources, National Pingtung University of Science and Technology, Pingtung 912, Taiwan

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: The objective of this paper was to provide a preliminary analysis of energy utilization from industrial
Received 26 January 2010 waste in Taiwan, a densely populated island country with high dependence on imported energy. The
Received in revised form discussion thus focused on the status of industrial waste generation and its management since the year
3 April 2010
2002. This paper also presented the updated information about the new/revised regulations concerning
Accepted 4 May 2010
the governmental regulations and policies for promoting industrial waste as energy source as well as
Available online 12 May 2010
controlling the emissions of hazardous air pollutants from industrial waste-to-energy facilities. It showed
that the main types of combustible waste in the industrial sector of Taiwan include pulp sludge, scrap
Keywords:
Industrial waste management
wood, sugarcane bagasse, textile sludge and scrap plastics, which were being reused as auxiliary fuel in
Reuse the utilities (e.g., boiler and incinerator). Based on their reported quantities, the energy potential and the
Waste-to-energy environmental benefit of mitigating CO2 emissions were also analyzed in the study.
Energy policy Ó 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Benefit analysis

1. Introduction million kiloliters of oil equivalent (KLOE) in 2008, in contrast to

Taiwan, located in the Far East (Asia), is a small island country
with limited natural resources. Its land area is only about
36,000 km2, but a population of over 23 millions. In the past
decades, the rapid industrialization and economic development
have caused heavy environmental loading, posing many environ-
mental problems. Among them, industrial waste with great
complexity was probably the most important issue because of its
serious hazard to the living environment, illegal disposal and
insufficient capacity of treatment/disposal facilities in the 1990s
(Tsai and Chou, 2004). Consequently, the Environmental Protection
Administration (EPA), the primary central government-level
agency responsible for environmental issues, has begun to track the
industrial waste flow according to the “Industrial Waste Control
Plan” program since 2001. With source management, the EPA
assisted in the establishment of industrial waste management
facilities to reduce and recycle industrial wastes.
On the other hand, Taiwan confronts the energy issues in recent
years, summarized below (BOE, 2009):

High dependence on energy import: the dependence on
imported energy is on the increasing trend from 95.84% in 1990
to 99.34% in 2008. Meanwhile, the energy supply totaled 142.5
* Tel.: þ886 8 7703202; fax: þ886 8 7740134.
E-mail address: wttsai@mail.npust.edu.tw
58.7 KLOE in 1990. As listed in Table 1, a considerable portion
(over 50%) of the energy consumption was used in the indus-
trial sector for the purpose of heating and manufacturing.

Increase in the total of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions: The CO2
emission in 2008 was 2.57  108 t (1 t ¼ 1000 kg) in compar-
ison with 1.11 108 t in 1990. On average, annual growth rate
was 4.80% from 1990 to 2008, which could be separated into
two significant stages: 6.85% from 1990 to 2001, and 2.30%
from 2001 to 2008.
To be in accordance with the concept of “Sustainable Develop-
ment” revealed by the World Commission on Environment and
Development (WCSD) in 1987, and to be in response to the mandate
taken by the United Nations Commission on Sustainable Develop-
ment (UNCSD) and to Chapter 40 of Agenda 21, the Executive Yuan
of Taiwan established the National Council for Sustainable Devel-
opment (NCSD) has taken great efforts to set up an effective means
of recognizing the social, economic and environmental situations of
Taiwan and measuring progress on sustainable development at the
national level. Based on the feasibility and stability of statistic data
collection, the significance of correlation with public policy, the
possibility of international collaboration, and other considerations,
the NCSD finally selected a set of 40 meaningful and representative
indicators for assessing sustainable development and creating the
system of sustainable development indicators (SDIs) for Taiwan in
2003. Basically, the system was developed with reference to the

0959-6526/$ e see front matter Ó 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.jclepro.2010.05.004
 W.-T. Tsai / Journal of Cleaner Production 18 (2010) 1440e1445 1441

Table 1
Taiwan energy consumption (by sector) since 2002.a

Sector 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008

Industrial 49,663 (48.78%) b 50,976 (48.33%) 54,775 (49.78%) 54,920 (48.77%) 57,091 (49.47%) 63,003 (51.98%) 61,878 (52.58%)
Transportation 14,989 (14.72%) 14,964 (14.19%) 15,748 (14.31%) 16,185 (14.37%) 16,023 (14.04%) 15,780 (13.02%) 15,053 (12.79%)
Agricultural 1487 (1.46%) 1634 (1.55%) 1713 (1.56%) 1585 (1.41%) 1266 (1.10%) 1068 (0.88%) 1170 (0.99%)
Commercial (Services) 11,564 (11.36%) 12,808 (12.14%) 12,586 (11.44%) 13,253 (11.77%) 13,761 (11.92%) 13,684 (11.29%) 13,782 (11.71%)
Residential 12,098 (11.88%) 12,477 (11.83%) 12,629 (11.48%) 13,436 (11.93%) 13,468 (11.67%) 13,603 (11.22%) 13,569 (11.53%)
Non-energy use 2617 (2.57%) 2945 (2.79%) 2603 (2.37%) 2856 (2.54%) 2913 (2.52%) 3514 (2.92%) 2697 (2.29%)
Energy sector own use 9384 (9.22%) 9681 (9.18%) 9975 (9.07%) 10,380 (9.22%) 10,697 (9.27%) 10,534 (8.69%) 9537 (8.10%)
Total 101,802 (100.00%) 105,484 (100.00%) 110,028 (100.00%) 112,614 (100.00%) 115,399 (100.00%) 121,212 (100.00%) 117,686 (100.00%)
a
Data source (BOE, 2009); unit: 103 KLOE.
b
Number in parentheses denotes the percentage ratio of energy consumption by that sector to total energy consumption.

UN’s Pressure-State-Response (PSR) framework as well as Taiwan’s
current development status. Regarding the energy and environ-
mental analysis (NCSD, 2009), the composite index scores for
environmental quality (or environmental pollution) took
a sustainable turn since 2004, exhibiting a positive change in
overall environmental quality from the year 2004e2007. Looking at
trends of each indicator, continual promotion of national garbage
resource recycling has resulted in steadily improving the values for
the waste resource recycling rate indicator since 1998. On the other
hand, the CO2 emissions indicator has steadily declined during the
period. However, the score of this indicator in 2008 will be larger
than that in 2007.
The energy utilization from municipal solid waste (MSW) and
various other types of agricultural and industrial waste, also called
waste-to-energy (WTE), has received much attention during the
1990s mainly due to the advances in WTE technologies, energy
crisis and global warming issues (Stehlik, 2009; Psomopoulos et al.,
2009). The energy from domestic waste resources is especially
noted in that it not only enhances fuel diversification, but also
advantages the environmental benefits in terms of greenhouse gas
(GHG) emissions, land use and cost savings as compared with land-
filling (Stehlik, 2009). For these reasons, there is an increasing
interest in co-firing non-hazardous industrial waste with MSW in
large-scale mass-burn MSW incineration plants, which have been
designed with the best available control technology for hazardous
or toxic air pollutants emitted from flue stack (Tsai and Chou,
2006).
Based on the national statistics surveyed by the Taiwan’s EPA
(EPA, 2009), the reported quantity of industrial waste approxi-
mated 1.7  107 t in 2008. These industrial waste and residues
generated from the manufacturing processes were usually treated
by using end-of-pipe methods, or directed considered for final
disposal of, if no apparent values could be found for these
resources. To resolve the problem of industrial waste treatment
caused by lack of appropriate incineration/landfill facilities in
Taiwan, the EPA, in cooperation with the Ministry of Economic
Affairs (MOEA), has newly mandated the regulatory system and
promotion programs for industrial waste reuse since 2002 (Tsai and
Chou, 2004). According to the regulatory definition in Taiwan, the
industrial waste reuse refers to utilize it for auxiliary fuels (alter-
native energy), raw materials, engineering fillers, soil modifiers, or
for other approved purposes.
It is well known that industrial waste may contain high contents
of lignocelluloses or combustible elements (i.e., carbon and
hydrogen), posing high heating value on a dry weight basis
(Tchobanoglous et al., 1993). Therefore, there have been a number
of studies on MSW as a fuel in a properly designed incinerator
based on multiple benefits of energy recovery, waste management
and GHG reduction (NCSD, 2009; Stehlik, 2009; Murphy and
McKeogh, 2004; Lo Mastro and Mistretta, 2004; Consonni et al.,
2005; Morselli et al., 2005; Murphy and McKeogh, 2006; Cheng
et al., 2007; Kuo et al., 2008; Luoranen and Horttanainen, 2008;
Ragossnig et al., 2008; Horio et al., 2009; Papageorgiou et al.,
2009). However, there was less literature on the waste-to-energy
using industrial waste. In the previous paper (Tsai and Chou, 2004),
it only presented a comprehensive description about the regulatory
system and implementation promotion on industrial waste reuse
and pollution prevention in Taiwan. The objectives of this paper
were to give the current status of industrial waste generation and
its management, and the updated information about governmental
regulations and policies for promoting industrial waste as energy
source. Environmental regulations on the emissions of hazardous
air pollutants as well as benefit analysis from industrial waste-to-
energy (IWTE) in Taiwan were further discussed.
2. Industrial waste generation and management in Taiwan
2.1. Industrial waste generation in Taiwan
According to the waste management regulation in Taiwan (Tsai
and Chou, 2004), the waste is classified into general waste
(municipal waste) and industrial waste. Further, the industrial
waste includes the following types

Hazardous industrial waste
Industrial enterprises generate hazardous industrial waste,
which contains toxic or dangerous substances in a sufficient
concentration or quantity to endanger human beings or pollute the
environment. In brief, an industrial waste can be considered
hazardous if its extract concentration exceeds maximum concen-
tration of contaminants according to the Toxicity Characteristic
Leaching Procedure (TCLP).

General industrial waste
Industrial enterprises generate general industrial waste, which
includes waste other than hazardous industrial waste. The main
examples of this type of waste include food processing waste, scrap
plastics, waste rubber (including tire), construction/building debris,
waste paper, organic/inorganic sludges, steel furnace slag, coal ash,
incinerator bottom ash, scrap wood, sugar milling waste, and so on.
In 2000, the Taiwan’s EPA formulated the “National Industrial
Waste Disposal and Management Program” and established the
“Industrial Waste Control Center” as well as an online reporting
system that tracks the complete life cycle of industrial waste from
generation to disposal. Industrial waste is generated from a variety
of industries. Using the reported data from a variety of designated
industries, about 1.7  107 t of industrial waste were generated in
2008 in contrast to about 1.1 107 t in 2002, shown in Table 2 (EPA,
2009). Based on the data of Table 2, several observations can be
made.
1442 W.-T. Tsai / Journal of Cleaner Production 18 (2010) 1440e1445

Table 2
Reported quantities of industrial waste generated since 2002.a

Waste type 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008

General industrial wasteb 10,456,345 11,499,188 12,179,343 13,203,693 14,048,468 15,586,840 15,771,438
Hazardous industrial waste 694,220 1,013,039 1,209,843 1,303,173 1,229,578 1,237,724 1,173,009

Sum 11,150,565 12,512,227 13,389,186 14,506,866 15,278,046 16,824,564 16,944,447

a
Data source (EPA, 2009); unit: metric ton.
b
Including the non-recycled and recycled portions.

On average, annual growth rate of industrial waste generation
was 7.2% from 2002 to 2008. It should be noted that the
reported volume slightly increased from 1.68  107 t in 2007 to
1.69  107 t in 2008. The abrupt change was mainly caused by
the financial crisis which resulted in the stagnant increase in
the industrial waste generation.

The percentage ratio of hazardous industrial waste to industrial
waste ranges from 6% to 9%. Of the hazardous industrial waste,
the major types are hazardous liquids (e.g., corrosive liquids
and spent organic solvents) followed by hazardous sludge (e.g.,
sludges from metal finishing and chemical manufacturing
industries).
2.2. Industrial waste management in Taiwan
The rapid economic development in recent years has resulted in
greater complexity in handling industrial waste management.
Before the year 2000, the industrial businesses either had to
manage their waste and residues on their own or commission
government departments. At that time, industrial waste was often
abandoned illegally because of incompetent government admin-
istration, insufficient capacity of waste management facilities (i.e.,
incinerator and landfill), and high cost of waste management. From
the beginning of 2001, the Taiwan’s EPA formed the legal frame-
work for industrial waste management (e.g., online waste control
system), developed waste management methods (i.e., intermediate
treatment, final disposal and reuse), and established regulatory
frameworks for issuing penalties.
According to the regulatory definition, industrial waste
management methods include the intermediate treatment (e.g.,
incineration and solidification), final disposal (e.g., sanitary landfill
and secure landfill) and reuse. In Taiwan, the reported volume of
industrial waste managed by generators during the years of
2002e2008 was listed in Table 3 (EPA, 2009). On average, the
percentage ratio of industrial waste management by reuse
approach is about 75%, showing that the industrial generators have
adopted waste reuse and pollution prevention as a strategy of top
priority for their industrial waste management because this
method can not only reduce the industrial waste generation, but
can also cost down waste management expenditure. As a result, the
reported volume of industrial waste reuse exhibited an increasing
trend, from 8.1 106 t in 2002 to 13.0  106 t in 2008. It should be
noted that the exported volume of industrial waste management
maintained a stable situation at about 7.0  104 t during the years of
2003e2007 (EPA, 2009).
3. Governmental regulations and policies for promoting
industrial wastes as energy source
In Taiwan, the law governing the reuse/recycling of industrial
waste is the Waste Management Act (or called Waste Disposal
Act), which was originally promulgated and became effective in
July 1974 and was thereafter revised many times. Under the
authorization of the Article 39 of the Act, the Responsible Agency
at the central government level (i.e., Ministry of Economics Affairs)
after consultation with the EPA has promulgated the “Regulations
Governing the Permitting of Industrial Waste Reuse” relating to
industrial waste reuse in Jan. 2002. At present, 57 items of
industrial waste were legally designated to be reused as materials,
stuffs, auxiliary fuels, or other approved purposes. This directive
also encourages the generator to reuse its industrial waste that is
not the previous announced subject for reuse. The generator may
submit a reuse plan to the EPA for reviewing and approval. There
were 765 reuse applications approved during the years of
2003e2008.
To resolve the problem of industrial waste treatment caused by
lack of appropriate incineration facilities in Taiwan, some types of
general industrial waste with high combustible portion, including
pulp sludge, scrap wood, scrap plastics, textile sludge and sugar-
cane bagasse, have been announced to be encouragingly reused as
auxiliary fuels in the industrial utilities such as boiler, heater and
cement kiln. Obviously, it was anticipated that the reuse of
hazardous industrial waste would be very scarce owing to the
regulatory and technological requirements. Starting from 2001,
these types of general industrial waste have been co-combusted
together with coal or heavy oil with permits from local county and
city environmental protection bureaus. Table 4 listed the reported
amounts of general industrial waste can be reused as auxiliary fuels
in the utilities (Taiwan Environmental Protection Administration,
2010a). It showed that they increased from 2.33  105 t in 2002 to
6.36  105 t in 2007. As described above, the reported reuse amount
of general industrial waste decreased from 6.36  105 t in 2007 to
4.53  105 t in 2008, which was mainly caused by the financial crisis
at this period.

Table 3
Reported quantities of industrial waste managed since 2002.a

Management type 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008

Treatment 2,935,685 2,943,944 3,023,367 3,336,734 3,767,345 3,804,607 3,492,374
Commissioned or joint 1,599,300 1,808,783 2,100,264 2,148,505 2,562,364 2,591,542 2,450,042
Self 1,274,550 1,060,973 851,786 1,122,148 1,131,284 1,143,200 994,119
Exported 61,835 74,188 71,317 66,081 73,697 69,865 48,213
Reuse 8,102,932 9,457,712 10,266,188 10,840,634 11,709,150 12,737,730 13,048,964

Sum 11,038,617 12,401,656 13,289,556 14,177,368 15,476,495 16,542,337 16,541,338

a
Data source (EPA, 2009); unit: metric ton.
 W.-T. Tsai / Journal of Cleaner Production 18 (2010) 1440e1445 1443

Table 4
Reported quantities of major general industrial waste probably reused as auxiliary fuel in the industrial utilities since 2002.a

Waste type 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008

Pulp sludge 102,164 184,521 293,694 352,075 417,529 432,432 311,529
Scrap wood 9167 15,586 22,785 23,198 36,756 106,527 45,796
Sugarcane bagasse 70,836 107,053 54,487 23,815 20,443 36,183 37,705
Textile sludge 36,957 33,617 38,581 46,141 41,189 35,957 34,970
Scrap plastics 14,158 14,264 15,000 b 18,437 17,732 25,299 22,595

Sum 233,282 355,041 424,547 463,666 533,649 636,398 452,595

a
Data source (Taiwan Environmental Protection Administration, 2010b); unit: metric ton.
b
Estimated.

4. Environmental regulations on the emissions of hazardous 4.1. Air pollutants emission standards for stationary pollution
air pollutants from IWTE sources

It was well understood that all high temperature utilities or
processes, including industrial heater, boiler, power generator,
incinerator, kiln and furnace, were the major sources of air
pollutants emissions to the atmosphere. In particular, those were
the major sources of hazardous air pollutants (HAPs), such as acidic
gases (including HCl, Cl2, HF, NOx, and SOx), heavy metals (including
Pb, Cd, and Hg), polycyclic organic compounds (including poly-
chlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins, polychlorinated dibenzo-p-furans,
and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons; also abbreviated to PCDDs,
PCDFs, and PAHs, respectively), other incomplete combustion
products (including CO, vinyl chloride). To minimize the impacts of
HAPs on the environmental quality and the public health, the
concept of the maximum available control technology (MACT) was
adopted in the air pollution control systems for WTE facilities and
other allied processes under the regulatory authorization
(Psomopoulos et al., 2009). Generally, MACT includes cyclone, dry
scrubber, fabric filter baghouse, activated carbon injection, selective
non-catalytic reduction of NOx, and other operational measures.
In Taiwan, the basic law governing and promoting air pollution
control and prevention is the Air Pollution Control Act (APCA),
which was initially passed in May 1975, recently amended in May
2006. The goal of this act is set to prevent and control air pollution,
safeguard public health and the living environment. Under the
authorization of the APCA, there are four relevant regulations
concerning emission standards for IWTE facilities, which are briefly
described as follows.
There are many industrial processes closely related to stationary
pollution sources, especially of heating, combustion, baking,
calcining, drying, and firing processes. Inevitably, these high
temperature processes have the potential of emitting a diverse type
of hazardous or toxic substances to the environment. These
potential emissions may arise from compounds present in the
waste stream, are formed as a part of the normal combustion
process, or are derived from incomplete combustion. Under the
Article 20 of the APCA, the Taiwan EPA implemented the Air
Pollutants Emission Standards for Stationary Pollution Sources,
which was first promulgated in April 1992 and newly revised in
October 2007. In the Provision 9 of the regulation, the exhaust vent
gas from the designated stationary pollution sources shall comply
with the standards for particulate, sulfur oxides (SOx), nitrogen
oxides (NOx), and other hazardous/toxic air pollutants, which were
listed in Table 5.
4.2. Air pollutants emission standards for power utilities
According to the Article 20 of the APCA, the Taiwan EPA in
consultation with the relevant agencies shall promulgate the more
stringent individual emissions standards for specially designated
industry categories, facilities, or pollutant items. Under the autho-
rization of the Act, there is a related regulation (“Air Pollutants
Emission Standards for Power Utilities”) concerning emission
standards of air pollutants from the cogeneration (combined heat &

Table 5
Stack emission standards of air pollutants for industrial utilities in Taiwan.a
b
Air pollutant Standard Comment
Particulate matter Standard by effluent rate is nearly calculated as follows:
C ¼ 1860.3 Q0.386
C: effluent limit (mg/Nm3)
Q: effluent rate (Nm3/min)

Sulfur oxides (as sulfur dioxide) Solid fuel: 300 ppm

Nitrogen oxides (as nitrogen dioxide) Solid fuel: 350 ppm
Solid fuel: 250 ppm Cogeneration facility (Q > 2500 Nm3/min).
Solid fuel: 280 ppm Cogeneration facility (Q 500e2500 Nm3/min).
Solid fuel: 300 ppm Cogeneration facility (Q < 500 Nm3/min).
Carbon monoxide 2000 ppm
Fluorides 10 mg/Nm3 Hazardous air pollutant c

Hydrogen chloride 80 ppm or 1.8 kg/h Hazardous air pollutant

Chlorine 30 ppm Hazardous air pollutant
Lead and its compounds 10 mg/Nm3 Hazardous air pollutant
Cadmium and its compounds 1 mg/Nm3 Hazardous air pollutant
Vinyl chloride 10 ppm Hazardous air pollutant
PCDDs/PCDFs 0.5 ng-TEQ/Nm3 (new facility set up after Jan. 2, 2006) Hazardous air pollutant
1.0 ng-TEQ/Nm3 (existing facility set up before Jan. 1, 2006)
a
Utilities include boiler, heater, kiln, and various types of industrial processes.
b
Concentration calculation of air pollutant in the stack gas must be based on 273 K, 1 atm and dry volume of undiluted effluent. Also, 6% O2 (oxygen content) is referred as
correction baseline.
c
The Clean Air Act amendments of 1990 list of hazardous air pollutants.
1444 W.-T. Tsai / Journal of Cleaner Production 18 (2010) 1440e1445

power, or called CHP) system, which was first promulgated in May
1994 and newly revised in April 2003. It should be noted that the
power system from the waste incinerators was excluded from the
Standards. The standards of the exhaust vent gas from the boiler of
cogeneration system were also listed in Table 5. In view of the
standards in Table 5, the emission standards of nitrogen oxides
(NOx) for using solid-type fuel in the cogeneration facilities will be
more stringent than those of stationary pollution sources from the
former levels of 250e300 ppm to the latter levels of 350 ppm.
Clearly, the regulation aims at pursuing clean fuels and efficient
combustion as a way to improve ambient air quality.
4.3. Air pollutants emission standards for waste incinerators
Waste incineration with heat recovery is one of the most
important energy utilizations in Taiwan, especially for MSW
incineration plants (Tsai and Chou, 2006). Using the air pollution
control devices in the operation of waste incinerators, the purified
flue gas exhausted to the atmosphere through a stack. However, the
sampling and analysis of particulate matters, CO, O2, SOx, NOx, HCl,
Hg, Cd, and Pb, in the flue gas at inlet of the stack were carried out
regularly to be in compliance with the “Air Pollutants Emission
Standards for Waste Incinerators” promulgated by the Taiwan EPA
under the authorization of the APCA. Table 6 summarizes the
emission standards of the incineration system for general waste
(MSW) and industrial waste.
4.4. Dioxin emission standards
The incineration and combustion processes could be the major
sources of polychlorinated organics like dioxins, which may be
formed as a result of incomplete combustion and have been found
in the stack gas of MSW and industrial waste incinerators (Jones
et al., 1993; Chen, 2004). These compounds are of concern mainly
due to their high toxicity in the laboratory animals, and endocrine-
disrupting in the wildlife and humans (Chen, 2004). Therefore, the
Taiwan EPA first promulgated the “Dioxin Emission Standards for
Waste Incinerator” for MSW incinerators in August 1997. Basically,
the emission standards stipulate that the “toxicity equivalency
quantity” (TEQ) dioxin level of specified-scale incinerator stack
must comply with the standard limit of 0.1 ng-TEQ/Nm3 (as shown
in Table 6), which may be the most stringent regulation on dioxin
control in the world. According to the monitoring data surveyed by
the government, all of the dioxin emission levels are below the
standard limit of 0.1 ng-TEQ/Nm3, because these state-owned MSW
incineration facilities have adopted the best available control
technologies such as operation modification and activated carbon
adsorption (Taiwan Environmental Protection Administration,
2010b). In comparison, the major sources of dioxin emissions
should include non-incinerator stationary sources, such as coal-
fired power generators, burner, and boiler, as reported by other
countries like USA (Psomopoulos et al., 2009). Thereafter, the
Taiwan EPA further promulgated the “Dioxin Emission Standards
for Stationary Pollution Sources” effective from the year of 2006, as
shown in Table 5.
5. Preliminary benefit analysis of IWTE
According to the Taiwanese regulations, the five of the
combustible designated waste in the industry (i.e., pulp sludge,
scrap wood, sugarcane bagasse, textile sludge and scrap plastics)
can be also reused as raw material, material, fuel, engineering filler,
soil modification or for other approved purposes. For example, pulp
sludge has been designated as the following reuse approaches: soil
modification, raw material for organic fertilizer, fuel for boiler, raw
material for artificial aggregate, or auxiliary fuel for cement kiln. On
the other hand, all sugarcane bagasse generated from sugar refin-
eries in Taiwan was reused to generate steam and electricity using
in-plant cogeneration system. It should be noted that the main
advantage of reusing industrial waste as alternative energy not only
diversifies fuel but also mitigates the environmental pollution and
global warming. Besides, the combined heat and power (CHP)

Table 6
Stack emission standards of air pollutants for waste incinerators in Taiwan.

Air pollutant Standarda

General waste (MSW) Industrial waste

Particulate matter 220 mg/Nm3 (design capacity: <2 metric ton/h) 180 mg/Nm3 (design capacity: <400 kg/h)
C ¼ 1364.2 Q0.386 80 mg/Nm3 (design capacity: >400 kg/h)
C: effluent limit (mg/Nm3)
Q: effluent rate (Nm3/min)
(Design capacity: >2 metric ton/h)
Sulfur oxides (sulfur dioxide) 300 ppm (design capacity: <2 metric ton/h) 180 ppm (design capacity less than 400 kg/h)
220 ppm (design capacity: 2e10 metric ton/h) 150 ppm (design capacity: >400 kg/h)
80 ppm (design capacity: >10 metric ton/h)
Nitrogen oxides 250 ppm (design capacity: <2 metric ton/h) 180 ppm
(nitrogen dioxide) 220 ppm (design capacity: 2e10 metric ton/h)
180 ppm (design capacity: >10 metric ton/h)
Carbon monoxide 350 ppm (design capacity: <10 metric ton/h) 220 ppm (design capacity: < 10 metric ton/h)
120 ppm (design capacity: >10 metric ton/h) 120 ppm (design capacity: >10 metric ton/h)
b
Hydrogen chloride 60 ppm (design capacity: <10 metric ton/h) 60 ppm (design capacity: <10 metric ton/h)
40 ppm (design capacity: >10 metric ton/h) 40 ppm (design capacity: >10 metric ton/h)
b
Lead and its compounds 0.5 mg/Nm3 (design capacity: <4 metric ton/h)
0.2 mg/Nm3 (design capacity: >4 metric ton/h)
b
Cadmium and its compounds 0.04 mg/Nm3 (design capacity: <4 metric ton/h)
0.02 mg/Nm3 (design capacity: >4 metric ton/h)
b
Mercury and its compounds 0.04 mg/Nm3 (set up before Jan. 1, 2007; design capacity:
<4 metric ton/h)
0.05 mg/Nm3 (other waste incinerators)
PCDDs/PCDFsb 0.5 ng-TEQ/Nm3 (design capacity: <4 metric ton/h)
0.1 ng-TEQ/Nm3 (other waste incinerators)
a
Concentration calculation of air pollutant in the stack gas must be based on 273 K, 1 atm and dry volume of undiluted effluent. Also, 11% O2 (oxygen content) is referred as
correction baseline.
b
The Clean Air Act amendments of 1990 list of hazardous air pollutants.
 W.-T. Tsai / Journal of Cleaner Production 18 (2010) 1440e1445
system has been successfully applied to the generation of steam
and electricity from the industrial boilers using most of these
combustibles as auxiliary fuels by the generators themselves or
sold at the market (as valuable fuels) or to the nearby plants
(considering the transportation cost). To meet with opposition
because of fears of dioxins and emissions of toxic heavy metals, the
concept of the maximum available control technology (MACT) must
be adopted in the air pollution control systems for waste-to-energy
(WTE) facilities and other allied processes under the regulatory
authorization.
From the reported quantities of major general industrial waste
probably reused as auxiliary fuel in the industrial utilities
(Table 4), the two-year (2007e2008) averages for the pulp
sludge, scrap wood, sugarcane bagasse, textile sludge and scrap
plastics amounted to about 372, 76, 37, 36, and 24  103 t,
respectively. In this work, their corresponding heating values
have been measured are estimated to be about 5.2, 16.0, 18.6, 3.5,
and 32.8 MJ/kg, respectively (IDB, 1996; Tsai et al., 2006). The
energy potential was thus estimated to be the product of the
average reported volume for that industrial waste and its heating
value. Therefore, the total energy potential of reusing those types
of industrial waste as energy source in Taiwan was calculated to
be about 4752 TJ per year, which is closely equal to
8.0  105 barrels oil equivalent.
Concerning the benefits of mitigating GHG emissions to the
environment, a simple method (Tier 1 method) adopted by the
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) was used to
estimate equivalent CO2 emissions mitigation from the combus-
tible industrial waste as energy source for electricity generation
(assumed in the present work) (IPCC, 2006). The IPCC methodology
is based on the consumed quantities of waste fuels and average
default emission factor. Therefore, the anthropogenic CO2 emis-
sions from the combustion of waste for electricity generation were
calculated by multiplying levels of activity (power generation in
kWh) with default emission factor (DEF in kg CO2/kWh). Based on
the statistical calculation by the state-owned company in Taiwan
(Taipower Co.), the default value in terms of the equivalent amount
of CO2 produced per kWh, which ranges from 0.5 kg CO2/kWh for
combined cycle gas turbine to 1.1 kg CO2/kWh for modern coal
plant (Larkin et al., 2004), is about 0.64 kg CO2/kWh. Further, the
power generation efficiency was assumed to be 0.3 (Horio et al.,
2009). The equivalent mitigation of CO2 (Gg) from the reuse of
industrial waste as fuel was thus calculated as given below:
Equivalent mitigation of CO2 ðGgÞ ¼ 0:3  4752 TJ
 0:64 kg=kWh  2:78  107 kWh=J  106 Gg=kg ¼ 254 Gg
6. Conclusions and prospects
In response to the insufficient capacity of industrial waste
management in Taiwan, the waste reuse system has been estab-
lished through a regulatory framework under the “joint-venture” of
the ministry-level departments (i.e., MOEA and EPA) in the past
decade. Taking into account the alternative energy utilized and
GHG emissions avoided, the types of designated waste in the
industry were encouraged to be reused as auxiliary fuels. According
to the reported quantities of major general industrial waste (i.e.,
pulp sludge, scrap wood, sugarcane bagasse, textile sludge and
scrap plastics) collected by the Taiwan EPA, the total energy
potential and the environmental benefit of mitigating CO2 emis-
sions were preliminarily calculated to be around 4752 TJ/year and
254 Gg/year, respectively. However, the emissions of toxic and
1445
hazardous pollutants like dioxins and mercury should be in
compliance with the regulatory limits thus protecting public
health. Furthermore, the Taiwan’s Cabinet (Executive Yuan)
approved the Renewable Energy Development Act in June 2009,
suggesting that the Act will further co-fire combustible waste with
fossil fuels in the industrial utilities.
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