Taiwan Cement Corp. (TCC) announced on becoming a member of Climate Group’s EP100 initiative. TCC is the first large-size manufacturing company in Taiwan and the fourth cement company in the world to pass the verification to become a member of EP100. TCC’s commitment includes adopting ISO 50001 Energy Management system and set the target to increase energy efficiency by 50% in 2040 compared to the base year of 2016. “The 21st century is the energy century and industries should explore ways to increase energy efficiency comparable to the international level if the energy efficiency is not enough. Facing increasing carbon emissions and energy transitions, enhancing energy efficiency is crucial to industries,” said Nelson Chang, TCC Chairperson. Currently, there are 122 enterprises around the world that are committed to EP100 including international cement companies such as Dalmia Cement, UltraTech Cement and Yanbu Cement Company.
EP100, RE100 and EV100 are the three major sustainability initiatives in the world. EP100, stands for energy productivity, is an initiative launched by UK’s Climate Group in support for smarter and more efficient energy usage to improve energy productivity. The initiative requires committed members to provide annual energy saving reports for the goal of reducing green house gas emissions and moving toward a cleaner economy.
In the past few years, TCC’s cement plants in Taiwan and in Mainland China have all obtained ISO 50001 certifications and set energy saving strategies. All cement plants have installed waste heat recovery systems with flash distillation systems to improve heat recovery. In 2022-2023, TCC plans to add more equipment revamp projects to increase energy efficiency including an investment of NT$900 million in SuAo Plant for renew the waste heat recovery system. This project is estimated to increase power generation per ton of clinker from 13 kWh to 29 kWh, an improvement exceeding 100%. Other energy efficiency projects include equipment enhancements of clinker coolers in SuAo Plant (investment of NT$134 million) and Hoping Plant (investment of NT$382 million). These two projects are estimated to reduce coal consumption by 1.2kg per ton of clinker. This is equivalent to reducing externally procured electricity by 31.39 million kWh per year and coal consumption by 9,760 tons per year. This is also equivalent to an annual reduction of 37,200 tons carbon dioxide emissions, in other words, approximately the carbon emissions that can be absorbed by 3.1 million trees in a year. Facing the negative environmental effects of using fossil fuel, TCC has also been aggressively implementing the usage of alternative fuel such as wood chips, waste woods and waste agricultural materials as biomass and solid recovered fuels (SRFs).
TCC is committed to energy transitions with the Company’s three core businesses: low-carbon cement, resource recycling, and green energy. TCC follows the UN SDI and collaborates with partners through our Earth Helper sustainability initiative to promote energy saving, carbon reduction and slow living as the basic lifestyle attitudes on this shared planet to move toward our goal of delivering carbon neutral concrete products by 2050. In 2022, TCC also enhances our overall ESG disclosures with our 2021 CSR Report and ESG Report published on a dedicated one-page website with detailed quantified information and qualified analysis to strengthen interactions and communications with our stakeholders.
