The Ministry of Environment is to collaborate with the public sector and the National Pingtung University of Science and Technology in developing livestock biogas power generation techniques to improve river quality.
A research center and biogas power generation facilities would be set up on the university’s property near the Nioujiaowan River (牛角灣溪) in Pingtung County’s Neipu Township (內埔), the ministry said yesterday.
The ministry launched the program in accordance with the Act for Promotion of Private Participation in Infrastructure Projects (促進民間參與公共建設法), and invited private companies with biogas development expertise to apply by May 4.
Photo: Lin Jing-hua, Taipei Times
Water Quality Protection Department Director Wang Yue-bin (王嶽斌) said the program aims to use livestock excreta produced by the thousands of pigs, cattle and chickens at the university, as well as other livestock in surrounding farms.
Ministry data showed that the facilities could help process the biomass produced by at least 25,000 pigs at the university and surrounding pig farms.
The facilities are expected to generate 2 million kilowatt-hours of biogas electricity a year and reduce the pollutant load for the nearby Donggang River (東港溪) basin, Wang said.
The program is the first biogas power generation collaboration among the government, industry and academia, he said.
Meanwhile, the ministry also announced revisions to regulations related to the identification and calculation of illicit gains from contraventions of the Water Pollution Control Act (水污染防治法).
Many unscrupulous businesses discharge sewage via bypasses, fail to install well-functioning sewage facilities or fail to operate such facilities the right way, Wang said.
To prevent such circumventions, which aim to reduce sewage processing costs, the revisions include sewage treatment fees paid to businesses as part of illicit gains and use evidence-based estimation to calculate sewage volume, he said.
The revisions also changed the deadline for recovering illicit gains by specifying that all illicit gains generated during the period when illegal activities occurred could be recovered, Wang said.
That means the recovery of illicit gains would have no upper limit and would extend to a broader range of illegal activities, such as bypass discharge, thereby better deterring industry players from illegally disposing waste, he added.
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