To create a sustainable environment and to fulfill its corporate social responsibility, CHIMEI Corporation built at its Rende Site “EDR Water Resource Center”, the first reclaimed water system in Taiwan’s petrochemical industry and the largest EDR industrial waste water regeneration system in Taiwan. Today, the system operates smoothly and stably, capable of generating 3,000 tons of reclaimed water daily (equivalent to the daily water consumption of 15,000 people). Water reclaiming is used by CHIMEI to lower the impact of climate change and water shortage risks on its business operations; and maintain normal factory production and operations.

Since its inception, CHIMEI has continued to seek means to realize a circular economy. To reduce its tap water consumption, CHIMEI has actively devoted itself to the reclaiming of industrial wastewater and domestic sewage. Efforts to develop reclaimed water technology began in 2016, when CHIMEI collaborated with the Water Technology Research Division (of the Material and Chemical Research Laboratories, Industrial Technology Research Institute), and under support from the Department of Industrial Technology (of the Ministry of Economic Affairs), introduced an electrodialysis reversal (EDR) system with high dirt resistance (to combat dirty industrial wastewater) to reclaim internal wastewater discharged from factories. Despite the operation entailing considerably higher costs than using tap water, in 2017 CHIMEI initiated the EDR Industrial Wastewater Regeneration System Project in cooperation with the Industrial Technology Research Institute and CTCI to build the first reclaimed wastewater system in Taiwan’s petrochemical industry. In 2020, the main building of the EDR Water Resource Center was completed, along with related system optimization adjustments. Today, the EDR Water Resource Center is in full stable operation, wherein wastewater discharged from factories undergo three recycling processes—SMF (immersive membrane filtration), EDR, and reverse osmosis (RO) to be converted into 3,000 tons of reclaimed water that is transferred back into CHIMEI’s manufacturing processes, giving birth to Taiwan’s largest EDR industrial wastewater regeneration system.

Climate change has resulted in insufficient rainfall in southern Taiwan, leading to water scarcity for both the public and industrial sector. Faced with this challenge, CHIMEI has actively implemented environmental protection and water-saving measures and has complied with the government’s reclaimed water policies. In addition to the industrial wastewater regeneration system, CHIMEI will continue to promote and evaluate other reclaimed water projects so as to substantially lower CHIMEI’s tap water consumption and attain the goal of having 80% of its factories’ water usage be supported by reclaimed wastewater. Furthermore, CHIMEI will develop superior water-saving manufacturing processes, increase the utilization rate of rainwater stored in its factories, and improve its water management efficiency to better respond to the water shortage crisis, thereby fulfilling CHIMEI’s “Clean & Green” vision and achieving the goal of sustainable development.