Carbon Recycling
The South Korean government announced on December 12 that it would work on commercial carbon recycling technology by investing 47.5 billion won between next year and 2022. Carbon recycling is to produce chemical raw materials, products and the like from carbon sources such as carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide and methane.
The government’s roadmap released that day is divided into carbon conversion and carbon mineralization. Regarding the former, the government is to launch demonstration projects in which carbon monoxide with a purity of at least 95% is to be selectively separated from industrial waste gases to be used for the production of chemical raw materials and fuels through chemical catalytic conversion. To this end, plant facilities are to be run at the Gwangyang and Yeosu Industrial Complexes for the production of 3,000 tons of chemical raw materials and fuels per year. The government’s final goal is to increase the amount of annual production to one million tons based on three million tons of carbon monoxide.
Carbon mineralization can be defined as technology for turning low-concentration carbon dioxide and ash generated in power plants into complex carbonate and producing materials filling abandoned mines. Demonstration projects for the purpose are scheduled to be underway in regions where power plants, cement manufacturers and mine companies are located. These projects are expected to result in the production of at least 300,000 tons of such fillers from the treatment of 60,000 tons of carbon dioxide per year.
The government is to select an agency to lead the development of the carbon recycling technology so that it can function as the linchpin of the projects. In addition, it is going to develop a greenhouse gas reduction amount calculation technique by collecting the greenhouse gas data derived from the demonstration projects. According to the government, the roadmap is expected to help reduce 25 million tons of greenhouse gas a year and create an economic value of 16.3 trillion won until 2030.