FPG to select equipment suppliers for desalination project in Taiwan

Formosa Plastics Group (FPG) is set to choose equipment suppliers from among multiple international firms for developing Taiwan’s first large-scale desalination plant in Mailiao, Yunlin County.

Environmental Protection Administration’s environmental impact assessment committee had fixed a deadline of 31 August 2016 for FPG to complete and test the alternative water source project for its sixth naphtha cracker facility to be set up in the rural township.

The proposed desalination project is expected to recycle 100,000t of water from Sinhuwei river for supporting the facility.

This project has been planned to keep the naphtha cracker facility operational during potential droughts in the country.

The daily capacity of the proposed facility to deliver 100,000t of fresh water exceeds the cumulative capacity of almost 22 ocean desalination plants in Taiwan that produce 30,000t of treated water a day, reports The China Post.

Taiwan’s EPA intends to form a special team for evaluating the project, after FPG files its project proposal, with representatives from the Water Resources Agency (WRA), Council of Agriculture (COA) Department of Water Quality Protection of the EPA among others.

The firm expects to complete works for the project within three years after it receives approval in 2016.

The project is being opposed by the residents of Yunlin County’s Taisi Township over concerns that it will deprive them of the required irrigational water for farmland along both sides of the Sinhuwei river, reported Taipei Times.

The EPA has questioned FPG’s claims that it will use only the tail water left after irrigation. The agency has pointed out that the water-diversion channels are located upstream which means that the water will be diverted even before it reaches the farmlands.