The Ministry of Science and ICT said on the 12th that, through support for research and development (R&D) of carbon capture and utilization (CCU), it achieved results in the full-scale production of CCU products such as fuels, chemical feedstocks, and materials. CCU technology converts carbon dioxide into high value-added products such as aviation fuel and methanol.
Korea has designated CCU as one of the 11 institutional sectors in the 2035 national greenhouse gas reduction target and is responding with technology development and industrial expansion centered on the Ministry of Science and ICT.
The Ministry of Science and ICT has secured CCU technology that uses carbon dioxide to produce chemical fuels and feedstocks such as formic acid, lactic acid, methanol, and aviation fuel, as well as functional materials such as biodegradable polymers and bioplastics, and transferred it to industry.
In the case of formic acid, a basic chemical fuel widely used across industries such as leather tanning and dyeing agents, as well as in beekeeping and livestock, production costs were high and most supply depended on imports. However, through a technology transfer by a research team at the Korea Institute of Science and Technology (KIST), the production cost was reduced from $790 per ton to $490, and carbon dioxide emissions were cut by 42% compared with the previous level.
Biodegradable polymers, widely used in fields related to packaging, agriculture, and pharmaceuticals, also had the drawback of high production costs at $4–$7 per kilogram. A rapid commercialization that lowers the cost to under $4 per kilogram is expected through a technology transfer by a research team at the Korea Institute of Energy Research (KIER).
The Ministry of Science and ICT is going further by expanding CCU support to technologies that produce high value-added compounds such as glutamic acid, formaldehyde, and methyl formate using carbon dioxide. It said that, in particular, through this technology development, it plans to demonstrate by 2030 a technology that produces 900 kilograms of crude oil per day using carbon dioxide and hydrogen.
Oh Dae-hyun, director general for future strategic technology policy at the Ministry of Science and ICT, said, "CCU technology is not just a carbon-neutral technology that reduces greenhouse gases; it is an innovative technology that can create new industries by producing resources that could not previously be produced," adding, "We will go beyond securing lab-scale technologies to advance them to a level that can be directly used in industrial settings and actively support the fostering of the CCU industry."