SK Innovation to capture, sell 300,000 tons of carbon starting 2022

SK Innovation said Tuesday it will capture 300,000 metric tons of carbon emitted at its petrochemical plant in Ulsan and sell it as industrial gas starting next year.

According to the South Korean battery-to-petrochemical giant, it is already capturing carbon generated at factory No. 1 inside its Ulsan facility and making a profit by selling it. After the carbon is collected, it is purified and then used as industrial gas for the etching process of semiconductors, welding, dry ice and plant cultivation.

SK Innovation aims to expand its carbon capture and utilization business to factory No. 2 starting next year, which would increase the total scale of the project to 300,000 tons.

The firm is also working on a separate project to store the captured carbon inside gas fields in the East Sea with the Korea National Oil Corp.

Meanwhile, SK Innovation is conducting preliminary tests on a new technology optimized for capturing carbon emitted during hydrogen production. The firm’s goal is to develop a business model by 2023 and verify its feasibility by 2025.

By Kim Byung-wook (kbw@heraldcorp.com)