Reporter Yoon Dae-won Written: March 24, 2021 (Wed) 13:53 Posted: March 24, 2021 (Wed) 13:56
On the 24th, Korea Western Power (President Kim Byeong-sook) announced that it will develop technologies in four areas, including combustion, capture, storage, and utilization related to greenhouse gas reduction in order to realize the ‘2050 carbon neutral’ government policy.
The first field in which R&D is underway is technology related to greenhouse gas combustion and capture.
Western Power established a 0.5MW-class CO2 capture demonstration plant at Taean Power Plant Unit 5 last year, and developed the world’s best CO2 wet trapping and absorbent (MAB) demonstration technology.
Based on these achievements, this year, the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy will initiate the’Large-scale CCUS demonstration and commercialization infrastructure construction project’. The project period is from March this year to December 2023, with a total of 6.2 billion won.
The basic idea is to evaluate the performance of domestic wet capture technology using the existing wet 0.5MW CO2 capture demonstration plant, and design a commercial 150MW CO2 capture plant beyond the demonstration stage. The CO2 collection targets are power plants located in the west coast, and the collection source is planned to be selected through demonstration.
Western Power plans to produce 10 tons of liquefied CO2 per day through research projects. The produced liquefied CO2 is supplied free of charge so that it can be sold for industrial use or used by local farms for growing crops.
In addition, Western Power will develop the world’s first ‘3MW-class medium circulation combustion demonstration technology’ with industry, academia, and research institutes in preparation for the era of gas power generation. The investment cost alone reaches 23.8 billion won, and it is developing technology with the goal of completion by 2025.
Unlike the combustion method in which fossil fuels are in direct contact with air, the medium circulation combustion technology is a next-generation eco-friendly power generation technology in which fuel is burned by circulating oxygen transfer particles, which are nickel-based metals, in two reactors. It has the advantage of virtually zeroing the emission of nitrogen oxides (NOx), which are substances that cause fine dust, and enabling easy separation of CO2 without a separate collection device.
Through this project, the world’s first 3MW medium-circulation combustion technology will be commercialized, and it will be applied to small scale LNG power generation for 40-50MW distributed power generation in the future.
An official from Western Power said, “We plan to actively invest in technology development to reduce greenhouse gas emissions,” and said, “It is expected to greatly contribute to the policies for carbon neutrality and energy conversion promoted by the government and the policy to expand distributed power.”
Meanwhile, Western Power has conducted energy support projects for the vulnerable to climate change, including the construction of a climate security village in Chungnam-style Green New Deal for the first time in Korea and a carbon offset forest in Goseong-gun, Gangwon-do. Center Network) is taking the lead in realizing carbon neutrality and green New Deal policies, such as being designated as an agreement organization.