Site Visits

Now classes are over and all exams are done and dealt with for this semester but as I quite like travelling and living in South East Asia I decided to stay for a little while longer. Still I want to tell you about two informative site visits which we attended during the last weeks of university.

The first one brought us to a recycling factory for chemical substances where the German owner set up a system to ensure cost effective and environmentally friendly solutions for industrial waste from the chemical industry (HDPE liner in ground to make sure that there is no leakage, pipes to control air pollution...). We got a nice view inside entrepreneurial self-sufficient engineering from an inspiring character who has been operating for 12 years in a country, which is just starting to regulate this kind of waste treatment and still allows for holes in the system. Unluckily we weren’t allowed to take any pictures.

high efficiency solar panel

self sustaining zero emissions bungalow

The second site visit we undertook to the Refinery of Thaioil in Chonburi. The Head of the Technology-Environment department and his team tried to convince us how environmental friendly Thaioil is operating but cancelled the promised tour around the actual site which could have given proof to their words.

5 IMRE and all Thaioil representatives in charge for our little group.

All what we saw of Thaioil  - the presentation room.

Some facts about Thaioil Public Company Limited: it is Thailand's major refiner, who also engages in pipeline operations, lube base refining, power projects, shipping, and carbon black production. The capacity is currently at a level of up to 275,000 barrels of oil per day, which are mainly imported from the Middle East, more than a fifth of Thailand's total capacity. Thaioil did set up a framework of its corporate governance policy (e.g.“commitment of our personnel to fair treatment”) and at least on paper they are quite big on CSR activities. Some examples we were told are:
-choosing types of natural resources with low toxicity,
-using appropriate high-efficiency technology to protect air quality,
-reuse and minimize waste and waste water
-the construction of Community Centers for Health and Learning.
It does seem like Thaioil is doing well in terms of investing in future technology, which contaminates less, saves energy and is economically beneficial to the company, but of further engagement nor a real understanding of sustainability we were left unsure. I guess their green strategy serves foremost marketing purposes but some good comes along with it keeping in mind that they deal with oil.

Afterwards we went for a nice lunch near some mussel farm.

The dog slept in this position at the uni cafeteria - hilarious