Government and Cement Industry Collaborate on Carbon Neutrality... Full-Scale R&D Launch

[Sejong=Asia Economy Reporter Haeyoung Kwon] The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy held the '2nd Cement Green New Deal Committee' with the Cement Association on the 22nd.

The Cement Green New Deal Committee is an industry-academia-research-government consultative body established in February to discuss carbon neutrality of the cement industry by 2050.

At the meeting, they shared ▲2050 carbon neutrality scenarios for the cement industry ▲R&D roadmap for carbon neutrality in the cement industry ▲institutional improvement tasks for implementing carbon neutrality, and gathered opinions from the industry and experts.

Researcher Lee Go-eun from the Korea Institute for Industrial Economics and Trade presented the '2050 Cement Industry Carbon Neutrality Scenario.' ▲Raw material sector (limestone substitution, low-temperature calcination raw materials, blended cement development, etc.) ▲Fuel sector (increased waste synthetic resin, application of new heat sources such as hydrogen and biomass) ▲Energy sector (waste heat power generation, equipment efficiency) ▲Carbon capture, utilization, and storage technology (CCUS) reduction measures were introduced. The necessity of efforts to ensure stable supply of green energy and recycled raw materials and to expand the use of alternative raw materials for implementing carbon neutrality was also emphasized.

Lee Seong-min, branch director of the Korea Ceramic Technology Institute, presented the progress of the 'Cement Industry Carbon Neutrality R&D Roadmap.' The R&D roadmap to achieve the carbon neutrality scenario is being revised and supplemented, and through prioritization, ▲raw material (limestone) substitution ▲CO2 reactive hardening cement ▲expansion of waste synthetic resin fuel projects are planned to be promoted from 2022. Among the total 16 strategic projects based on the R&D roadmap, ▲new heat source technology using hydrogen fuel ▲synthetic gas production technology utilizing exhaust gas ▲demonstration technology for CO2 synthetic gas conversion process will be promoted as cross-ministerial projects.

Jung Hae-bung, executive director of the Korea Cement Association, proposed as 'institutional improvement tasks for carbon neutrality in the cement industry' ▲revision of KS standards for Type 1 ordinary cement ▲establishment of KS standards for blended cement such as limestone cement. He also presented improvement measures to derive reasonable chlorine regulations to replace bituminous coal with combustible recycled resources (waste synthetic resin, etc.).

The cement industry signed an agreement to support 1 trillion KRW as an industry-finance cooperation program for realizing carbon neutrality with the Korea Development Bank after the first meeting.

An official from the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy said, "We are actively supporting the carbon neutrality transition of the cement industry in various ways, including consulting with related ministries to include CO2 reduction cement production technology as a new growth technology eligible for investment tax credits," and added, "We will continue these efforts and ask the industry to pursue technological innovation and bold investment to realize carbon neutrality."

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