CPC’s Kaohsiung Oil Refinery (KOR) was built in Kaohsiung city in 1965 and was one of the key factors in Taiwan’s economic miracle. It was shut down in 2015 and left the land on which it sits on polluted and contaminated.
It was initially estimated to take 20 years to fully remediate the contamination at KOR. The city government was determined to accelerate remediation and have it be completed within the next 2.5 years. AECOM Taiwan was selected to execute this challenging mega remediation project, starting in October 2021, with the project set to be successfully completed before October 2022. The project required the excavation of 300,000 cubic meters of soil and the treatment of 170,000 cubic meters of contaminated soil. We approached this work adopting environmental, social and governance (ESG) concepts and an innovative engineering model, including the use of clean fuel to minimize carbon emissions. Low level contaminated soil was treated through bioremediation, while highly contaminated soil was treated through a thermal desorption facility. The groundwater was treated by in-situ application to reduce carbon footprint. With over 50,000 records, our innovative engineering model assisted in controlling progress and analyzing trend of treatment progress. The data was also being uploaded to the cloud simultaneously, ensuring data transparency and accuracy.
AECOM successfully completed the remediation in 13 months and passed the city government’s verification with formal notification. Our successful remediation service is critical to this brownfield revitalization for the future development of high-tech science parks.
