SK Eco Plant, which has completed its transformation into a new and renewable energy and environmental company, will use new technology to reduce even a small amount of carbon generated while producing electricity with fuel cells.

SK Ecoplant collects and liquefies carbon from a 300-kW solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) in the fuel cell power plant in Yeongwol, Gangwon-do, Yeongwol Bitdream Headquarters of Korea Southern Power, and then uses carbon capture and utilization (CCU) and carbon capture and liquefaction (CCL) demonstration projects.

This demonstration is the first project in Korea to collect CO₂ from the flue gas emitted during the fuel cell power generation process, cool it, liquefy it, and then use it at the customer. It will run for about two years, until May 2025.

For the first time in Korea, large and small companies, public corporations, and academia joined hands to demonstrate fuel cell exhaust carbon capture technology. SK Eco Plant promotes and oversees demonstration projects and is dedicated to facility investment and R&D such as transportation and utilization through CCL. Start-up Carbon Value will oversee development of core technologies related to demonstration and licensing.

Carbon Value is a company that won an award in an open technology contest held by SK Eco Plant in 2021. Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology Carbon Neutralization Research Center plays an engineering role at the original design level together with Carbon Value. Sunbo Unitec, a shipbuilding and marine specialized company, installs and maintains CCL facilities. Southern Power supports various resources necessary for the project, such as utilities and fuel cell exhaust gas, as well as idle land in the fuel cell power plant of Yeongwol Bitdream Headquarters.

SK Eco Plant and other participating organizations plan to conduct this demonstration with the goal of capturing more than 85% of CO₂ with a purity of 99.9%. It is known that the concentration of carbon dioxide contained in fuel cell exhaust gas is low at a level of 3% to 4%, and the collection difficulty is high.

The carbon capture technology applied to the demonstration project is the pressure swing adsorption (PSA) method. Compared to other methods, it has the advantage of simple devices and operation and excellent energy efficiency. It is evaluated as suitable for capturing carbon generated in the process of fuel cell power generation because it can be modularized in small capacity.

Fuel cell power generation has already met the standards of K-Taxonomy (Korean Green Classification System). If the demonstration is successful, it is expected to contribute to responding to global environmental regulations such as the EU Taxonomy, which has stricter standards. SK Ecoplant expects to achieve EU taxonomy standards by installing CCU and CCL facilities in about 20% of the capacity of fuel cell power plants.

The carbon capture and liquefaction facility is built in the size of a container to enable a compact system configuration even within a narrow fuel cell power plant site. The captured carbon is reborn as liquefied carbonic acid through the liquefaction process. Liquefied carbonic acid is used as a high value-added raw material in various industries such as welding gas, refrigerant, methanol, urea, and food and beverage. The liquefied carbonic acid from this demonstration will be used as a welding rod gas refrigerant required for the shipbuilding and marine equipment production process of Sunsun Unitec.

Oh Seung-hwan, executive in charge of SK Eco Plant's distributed energy business, said, "SK Eco Plant plans to expand energy solutions that link fuel cells and CCU/CCL." It is expected that it will contribute to the achievement of the Korean government's goal of fuel cell export industrialization.”