New Hope for Sustainable Healthcare:

Water Management at New Taipei City Hospital

Chen Chun-fang　/　photos Jimmy Lin　/　tr. by Phil Newell

May 2026

中文

New Taipei City Hospital has constructed a system that takes reclaimed water from dialysis department reverse osmosis systems and heats it using heat pumps to supply hot water to wards. This not only saves water, but also reduces energy costs and carbon emissions.

As the world faces the issues of water bank-ruptcy and intensifying climate change, the need for action on sustainability is more urgent than ever. New Taipei City Hospital (NTCH) has in recent years implemented a program to reuse greywater reclaimed from its dialysis center’s water purification system, which won gold at the Taiwan Sustainability Action Awards.

Building sustainable hospitals

NTCH vice superintendent Hsieh Chih-cheng says that the starting point of the institution’s commitment to sustainability was in fact the practical need to survive. As a public hospital responsible for its own bottom line, developing new revenue streams has never been easy, so reducing expenditures was the logical first step. From energy-saving renovations to the air conditioning and elevators, to replacing old lighting with motion-sensitive smart lighting systems, they have been making improvements little by little.

Since saving energy has become an accepted consensus within the hospital, sustainability has transcended mere cost considerations and engendered a whole new way of thinking. The hospital founded a sustainability development committee with cross-domain participation by medical, nursing, and administrative departments. Hsieh explains: “This isn’t just for show, but is aimed at making sustainability part of our DNA.”

NTCH Vice Superintendent Hsieh Chih-cheng says that sustainability cannot be just for show, but must be integrated into daily routine. NTCH is striving to implement the UN Sustainable Development Goals through energy-saving measures, carbon inventories, a better workplace environment, and greater social engagement.

Recycling RO greywater

To ensure patient safety, the water used for dialysis in hospital hemodialysis centers must undergo purification by reverse osmosis (RO). This process removes impurities, but leaves behind mineral-rich greywater. NTCH’s main branch in New Taipei’s Sanchong District produces some 30 cubic meters of such greywater per day, which was formerly discharged as wastewater.

NTCH director of engineering Tseng Chang-wei states that while a majority of hospitals reclaim such water, most use it only for watering plants, with a great deal still going to waste. The NTCH team was not satisfied with merely symbolic recycling, but wanted to figure out how to make optimum use of this water.

They built a 40-m3 storage system and transitioned the hot water supply in wards from municipal water heated by natural-gas boilers to reclaimed water heated by electric heat pumps. “In itself, reducing water use has limited impact in terms of reducing carbon emissions, but if you also switch away from natural gas, with its high carbon emissions, the effect is entirely different,” says Tseng. According to his calculations, the use of such an RO water recycling system can save NTCH 9,700 m3 of municipal water per year, cutting costs by over NT$600,000 (US$19,000) while also reducing carbon emissions by over 39 metric tons.

In addition, the hospital works with the Sanchong District Office of the New Taipei City Government to provide the district with free reclaimed water for watering roadside plants and for street cleaning. NTCH has become one of the few hospitals that fully recycles its dialysis greywater, and this has been recognized with multiple awards.

Water for hemodialysis must be purified by reverse osmosis, producing a great deal of waste greywater. Many hospitals are looking for ways to reclaim and reuse this water.