Hyundai Oilbank Commercializes World's First Eco-Friendly Calcium Carbonate Manufacturing Technology

[Asia Economy Reporter Hwang Yoon-joo] Hyundai Oilbank announced on the 10th that it recently signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Taekyung BK at the Central Technology Research Institute in Yongin, Gyeonggi Province to commercialize calcium carbonate manufacturing technology.

The two companies plan to be the first in the world to commercialize an eco-friendly technology that produces calcium carbonate using greenhouse gases and by-products generated during crude oil refining. Calcium carbonate is a basic material widely used as a raw material for construction materials such as cement, as well as paper, plastic, and glass.

Taekyung BK is a leading domestic lime manufacturer that possesses technology to produce calcium carbonate using greenhouse gases. Hyundai Oilbank plans to complete pilot testing and process design within this year through technical cooperation with Taekyung BK, and invest 30 billion KRW by the second half of 2021 to complete a calcium carbonate production process with an annual capacity of 600,000 tons at its existing Daesan plant.

It is expected that operating profit will improve by 10 billion KRW annually through product sales and greenhouse gas reduction. Along with high economic feasibility, the fact that this is the first eco-friendly technology to commercialize greenhouse gases, which have been a headache for the refining industry, also draws attention.

Petroleum and petrochemical products are essential in our daily lives, but a large amount of greenhouse gases are emitted during their production process. Refiners have been striving to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from processes by introducing solar power or LNG power generation facilities. This business model is differentiated from existing methods in that it goes beyond reducing greenhouse gases and actively utilizes them as raw materials for high value-added products.

A Hyundai Oilbank official said, "Calcium carbonate is widely used in various industrial fields, so demand is stable," adding, "Compared to processing limestone mined from nature, it has excellent cost competitiveness, so it is expected that technology sales to overseas refiners will be possible in the long term."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.