Formosa Petrochemical Corp planned to start an expansion project of its naphtha cracker in Yunlin County’s Mailiao Township after winning an administrative appeal against the Environmental Protection Administration (EPA), as per Taipei times.com. The Executive Yuan overruled the strict environmental conditions the EPA had set on the project, a joint venture with the US-based Kraton Performance Polymers to produce hydrogenated styrenic block copolymer (HSBC), a high value-added rubber product.
“Once we receive the official document on the ruling, we will contact Kraton to continue the project in Yunlin,” Formosa Petrochemical chairman Chen Bao-lang said, without elaborating on when the company would begin the project. Formosa Petrochemical and Kraton would share the cost equally, with each holding 50% in the venture, which was previously set to become operational by H2-2013. The project won the Fair Trade Commission’s approval in October last year and was expected to cost more than US$200 million. However, the EPA’s Environmental Impact Assessment Committee made a policy change earlier this year, stipulating that volatile organic compound (VOC) emissions generated from flares, water cooling tanks, and while painting, cleaning and performing annual maintenance on water storage tanks, should also be viewed as sources of pollutants and thus subject to the regulatory VOC limit. The committee rejected both of Formosa Petrochemical’s appeals in August and September. The company then lodged an administrative appeal with the Cabinet. The Cabinet overruled the EPA’s decision that total VOC emissions should include not only VOCs produced in the production process, but also those produced from the five other sources.
10-Dec-12 
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