"The tanker trucks you see here transport liquefied carbon dioxide to various parts of the country. Some of this is even used as the carbonation in the carbonated beverages we drink."
On the 21st, at a corner of Kumho Petrochemical's plant in the Yeosu Industrial Complex in South Jeolla Province, two tanker trucks dedicated to liquefied carbon dioxide were each receiving liquefied CO2 transferred from 500-ton storage tanks. The storage tanks are divided into "industrial grade" at 99.9% purity and "food and beverage grade" at 99.99% purity. According to a plant official, industrial CO2 is sold for use in shipyard welding or semiconductor cleaning processes, while food-grade CO2 is sold as dry ice or as raw material for carbonated beverages.
The CO2 collected in the storage tanks is captured from Boiler No. 8 at Kumho Petrochemical's Yeosu plant. Kumho Petrochemical began construction of its Carbon Capture, Utilization and Storage (CCUS) facility in December 2023 and has been operating it in earnest since last summer. The facility, built at a total cost of 47.6 billion won, can capture approximately 220 tons of CO2 per day, or 76,000 tons annually. This is equivalent to the amount of carbon absorbed by about 27,600 trees in a year.
Carbon capture begins with cooling the exhaust gas from Boiler No. 8 to about 40-50°C in the cooler. The exhaust gas is then transferred to an absorber, where CO2 is separated. The method selectively adsorbs only CO2 using the amine-based Kosol-6 absorbent developed by the Korea Electric Power Research Institute.
The separated CO2 passes through a stripper and is refined into high-purity CO2. It then goes through a liquefaction process and is stored separately in industrial storage tanks and food/beverage storage tanks according to purity. A plant official explained, "To keep CO2 in a liquid state, the storage tanks and tanker trucks are always maintained at minus 23 degrees," adding, "The storage tanks typically hold about five days' worth of sales."
Kumho Petrochemical has a total of four cogeneration plant boilers, but the CCU facility is applied to only one — Boiler No. 8. Currently, CO2 is being captured from about 10% of the exhaust gas coming out of the stack.
Although captured CO2 is sold across the country, the industry view is that government policy support is necessary for CCUS facilities to achieve full economic viability. Kumho Petrochemical also built the facility with an eye on future market formation possibilities and social contribution rather than meaningful return on investment. A Kumho Petrochemical official emphasized, "Environmental investments like CCUS are still more about participating in the government's climate response policies than about making money," adding, "The current production scale is at a starting stage, and cooperation with the government is essential to expand it."
