After spending nine years recycling and reusing chilled wastewater to grow tulips, PTT views the process as a potential business model for local communities.
Rayong’s tulip festival is irrigated by chilled wastewater from a PTT LNG facility. The event runs until April 21. (Photo by Yuthana Praiwan)
The idea to recycle and reuse waste is a foundation of the circular economy, a concept gaining popularity among enterprises worldwide.
The national oil and gas conglomerate uses chilled wastewater from the regasification process of liquefied natural gas (LNG). The process requires water to turn liquid to gas and releases wastewater after completion.
Chansin Treenuchagron, PTT's president and chief executive, said the group's executive board approved the use of chilled wastewater to add value to agricultural products.
"We are drafting a business plan with relevant agro-industrial companies and local administration units, including the Industrial Estate Authority of Thailand," Mr Chansin said.
The tentative model is set to be a form of sharing economy for local agricultural communities under the government's Eastern Fruit Corridor (EFC).
PTT plans to use the recycled water for agricultural products -- fruits, seafood, trees and flowers, Mr Chansin said.
But in terms of finished products, other companies will support know-how within communities. PTT will supply its expertise in the form of chilled wastewater infrastructure.
"The business plan will be concluded in the second half of 2019," Mr Chansin said.
Tulips and beyond
Nine years ago, PTT joined with the Netherlands embassy to grow tulips with the chilled wastewater.
PTT applied this water into cooling air and planted the tulips in 2011.
The first tulip was grown adjacent to PTT's LNG receiving terminal in Map Ta Phut, Rayong. PTT held a public showcase a year later.
After the tulips, tests were made with several kinds of temperate flowers and fruits such as geraniums, lilies, hydrangeas, begonias, sakura and strawberries.
According to Mr Chansin, the test of chilled wastewater was carried on to make dry ice, which is intended to support the Royal Rainmaker Project initiated by King Bhumibol Adulyadej.
Those trials were completed with a limited quantity of chilled wastewater, and there was plenty of water supply because the first phase of the LNG receiving terminal was designed to support a capacity of 11.5 million tonnes a year.
PTT started construction of another 7.5-million-tonne capacity LNG receiving terminal in Nong Fab, Rayong recently, scheduled to begin operating in 2022.
With these additions, there will be a huge volume of chilled wastewater to supply the circular economy concept.
PTT forecasts that the country's natural gas industry needs to import LNG at 24-33 million tonnes a year by 2036 in order to replace the nearly depleted gas resources in the Gulf of Thailand.
In 2019, PTT plans to import 5 million tonnes of LNG, equal to last year's level, Mr Chansin said.
Commercial purposes
With the greater supply of chilled wastewater, PTT is joining Bangkok Industrial Gas (BIG), Thailand's largest industrial gas maker, to develop an air separation unit (ASU) in the flagship Eastern Economic Corridor.
The ASU also reuses the chilled wastewater from the gasification process of LNG and carbon dioxide from PTT's gas separation plant to produce industrial gas.
The project has a development cost of 1.5 billion baht, with a capacity of 450,000 tonnes a year for the ASU, expected to begin operations in 2021.
The ASU will be on 10 rai at the Smart Park Industrial Estate in Ban Chang district, Rayong province, also an EFC project.
Both companies are targeting commercial purposes by producing the industrial gas to feed industrial operators and medical companies.
Mr Chansin said industrial gas demand is growing fast in both the industrial and medical service sectors, with new opportunities expected in the EEC and the EFC in the long run.
For the EFC project, the government expects to make the eastern region the country's fruit plantation centre and plans to add higher value to fruits with chilling technology, instead of selling fresh fruits.
For the medical service sector, the government is providing support to form an S-curve industry in the near future.
As a result of the ASU, industrial gas can trim operating costs, enhance the efficiency of energy consumption and cut carbon dioxide by 28,000 tonnes a year.
The chilled wastewater will be drained by PTT at 2,500 tonnes an hour.
In addition, the two companies set up Map Ta Phut Air Product Co (MAP) to take charge of the ASU project.
PTT holds a 51% stake, while BIG owns the remainder. BIG will bring in the parent firm, Air Products and Chemicals, to the new ASU facility.
BIG has been the gas supplier to PTT for several decades. It is studying the feasibility of liquefied nitrogen, which is more viable than LNG.
BIG has also teamed up with several sport clubs to conduct studies in bone and joint treatment with LNG, the so-called Pain Relief Nitrogen Therapy project.