The Company’s environmental cost accounting in 2008 can be summarized as follows : Due to the rising volume and cost of almost all raw materials, the material costs of product outputs in 2008 overwhelmingly exceeded that of 2007, and hence the higher revenue from product sales. Meanwhile, the Company witnessed a rise in the material costs of non-product outputs, where the materials become wastes instead of products. This was due to the cost of the annual maintenance, and preparation of oil tanks for the Product Improvement Project, which increased the amount of slop oil, sludge, and wastewater from cleaning the equipment in the repairing process, compared to the previous year. On the contrary, the excess chemicals from the neutralization of ponds have dropped threefold due to the use of reverse osmosis technology and hence the decrease in chemical use, which also results in further decrease in chemical use in the demineralization unit.

On environmental control expenses spent on production wastes treatment and the maintenance of equipment relating to environmental controls such as the sulfur remover, waste water treatment process, heat exchanger, etc, found that, the waste water treatment expenses and waste disposal expenses were relatively higher than those of the previous year due to the rise in chemical use in the wastewater treatment system, and cleaning the water storage tanks, which increased the amount of sludge needed to be disposed of externally. There was also the overall maintenance and cleaning of various production units to prepare for the PQI, increasing the overall expenses relative to previous years. On environmental protection items, most expenses were spent on monitoring and maintaining environmental laboratory equipments, and taking care of the waste collecting areas. The expenses rose as the Company rearranged the waste collecting areas.

On revenues, in addition to product sales, the Company’s environment-related revenues gained from liquid sulfur-a by-product from treating units, scraps and recycled paper. This year, the volume of liquid sulfur equaled that of the previous year. Meanwhile, there was a rise in the revenue from selling glycerin, which is a by-product of biodiesel production, corresponding to the increased sale volume of biodiesel. The revenues from selling metal scraps and waste paper was higher due to the refurbishment of the refinery unit and the Efficiency Enhancement of Utility projects.

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