Taekyung in full swing for green material production using CCU

Taekyung Group"s Danyang CCU Plant

Taekyung Group, an inorganic chemical material developer, has successfully diversified its business portfolio by developing more environment-friendly materials by using carbon capture and utilization (CCU) technology.

In 2020, Taekyung Group produced 64,939 tons of calcium carbonate per year by injecting carbon dioxide into slaked lime from its Danyang Plant 2, a limestone production facility. During the purifying process, the company captured 29,000 tons of carbon dioxide, which is equivalent to the amount o carbon dioxide absorbed by 6 million 60-year-old pine trees in a year.

Taekyung Group is expected to further expedite its greener advanced basic materials development under its new year’s goal to change the world greener with materials. Carbon dioxide recycling lies at the core of the company’s goal, said Kim Hae-ryun, chairman of Taekyung Group.

Taekyung Group Chairman Kim Hae-ryun

The company sets a goal to develop 33 new materials under its C2V (Carbon-to-Value) project that goes beyond manufacturing calcium carbonate through a simple carbon dioxide capture and synthesis process to convert it into a new polymer material, Kim said. For now, it is limited to paper materials, but the company hopes to use it “to pioneer new eco-friendly composite materials to replace plastics.”

Taekyung Group has completed developing a new technology to produce calcium carbonate by extracting quicklime from ash from industrial boilers and capturing and synthesizing carbon dioxide from boiler chimneys. The solvent input in this process is circulated through the recycling process, which maximizes the eco-friendly effect, the company explained. Taekyung and Hyundai Oilbank jointly applied for a patent for the technology. The process can reduce carbon dioxide emissions by making calcium carbonate with industrial by-products left from the boiler.

Calcium carbonate, made from natural minerals, is still in limited demand at 150,000 tons per year for papermaking in Korea. However, as Taekyung extracts a polymer composite containing up to 40-60% of calcium carbonate from waste, the demand is expected to grow. The company plans to develop eco-friendly materials that can replace plastics in the future.

Taekyung also works to produce sodium bicarbonate with its own technology, hoping to prevent another urea solution shortage crisis that recently hit the Korean transportation and shipping sectors. Sodium bicarbonate is an essential material in air purification in power plants, and global demand is growing by 5 percent annually, and Korea’s imports surge by 15 percent per year.

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