DL Group Drives Eco-Friendly New Business... From Domestic to Overseas

DL Group has embarked on securing growth engines through eco-friendly new businesses. Since the corporate split in 2021, each affiliate has been promoting eco-friendly new businesses while focusing on Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) management.

DL Energy Pakistan Metro Wind Farm View / Photo by DL Group

After declaring its entry into the Small Modular Reactor (SMR) business in 2022, DL E&C decided in January last year to make a strategic investment in the US SMR developer X-Energy. It acquired convertible bonds issued by X-Energy worth 20 million USD (approximately 25 billion KRW).

X-Energy is recognized as a leader in the generation IV SMR sector using non-water coolants. It is especially notable in the High-Temperature Gas-cooled Reactor (HTGR) field. The flagship model under development by X-Energy, the 'Xe-100,' consists of four modules each with a single capacity of 80 MWe (total generation capacity of 320 MWe). This model is characterized by using high-temperature helium gas as the coolant. It uses tennis ball-sized nuclear fuel with triple coating that remains stable without melting even at 1800℃. Additionally, the high heat of about 600℃ produced during operation can be used as a heat source for industrial plants, providing advantages in securing diverse demand beyond power supply. The commercialization target is set for 2029. After its listing, X-Energy's corporate value is estimated to exceed 2 billion USD (approximately 2.5 trillion KRW).

DL E&C is also actively promoting Carbon Capture, Utilization, and Storage (CCUS) facilities. CCUS is considered a core technology for carbon neutrality and has recently attracted attention. DL E&C is expanding its business by leveraging its basic design experience and differentiated competitiveness in CCUS facilities with an annual capacity of 1 million tons. In 2022, it established CARBONCO, a company specializing in CCUS and eco-friendly hydrogen businesses, and is conducting CCUS projects with the South Australian government, Uljin County, and GE Gas Power.

DL Chemical acquired the US chemical company Kraton in March 2022 to expand its high value-added eco-friendly product portfolio. Kraton is the world’s first developer of styrene block copolymers (SBC), a multipurpose synthetic rubber, and holds the number one market share in the US and European SBC markets. It is also the world’s largest biochemical company producing high value-added chemical products from by-products generated during the papermaking process. DL Chemical plans to accelerate the expansion of high value-added specialized products through synergy with Kraton.

Another subsidiary of DL Chemical, Cariflex, also produces high value-added eco-friendly products. Cariflex is a producer of Isoprene Rubber Latex (IRL) and holds the number one position in the synthetic rubber raw material market for surgical gloves worldwide. Cariflex products, made using world-class anionic polymerization technology, are not only harmless to the human body but also superior to competitors in purity and transparency. In 2022, DL Chemical began construction of the world’s largest IRL plant in Singapore to expand Cariflex’s business, with production scheduled to start in the second half of this year.

DL Energy, the intermediate holding company of DL Group, has developed and invested in a total of 13 power generation projects in Korea, the US, Australia, Pakistan, Jordan, Chile, and other countries, emerging as a global developer. Recently, it has been strengthening eco-friendly renewable energy power generation projects such as wind, solar, and biomass in response to the global decarbonization trend and related policies. In July last year, it signed a memorandum of understanding with Lotte Chemical for joint business development to introduce domestic renewable energy.

A DL Group official explained, "We are promoting differentiated eco-friendly businesses by mobilizing the group’s capabilities in construction, petrochemicals, and energy," adding, "Our strategy is to discover eco-friendly businesses and secure future growth engines in line with the global trend of carbon neutrality and strengthening ESG management."

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