The Korea Institute of Energy Research (Yi, Chang-keun, President of KIER) and POSCO Technical Research Laboratories (Choo, Sedon, Head of Technical Research Laboratories) held a MOU signing ceremony on Sept. 19, 2023 at POSCO Technical Research Laboratories (POSLAB) in Pohang, Republic of Korea, for R&D collaboration on carbon neutrality.

  The KIER, a green energy technology R&D institute, and POSLAB, the R&D pillar of POSCO, joined together for R&D collaboration in the areas of biomass value chain scale-up, biomass use in steel production process, and GHGs reduction technology and information exchanges.

  GHGs emission of steel industries including POSCO comes from coal use in steelmaking process. Therefore, biocarbon, an alternative fuel for coal, can be an imminent gateway to carbon neutrality. Furthermore, POSCO promotes R&D on HyREX and CCUS to meet the demands of 2050 carbon neutrality. To achieve the carbon-neutral goal, biocarbon must be in need as a decarbonizing fuel.

  KIER developed a very effective COMB (Counter Flow Multi Baffle) kiln for biomass drying and pyrolysis, which is assessed as a carbon neutral technology. The COMB kiln, compared to existing kilns, creates reduced heat flow maximizing the contact with biomass resulting in production efficacy of biocarbon. The KIER currently operates a demonstration plant with a capacity of 5 tons per day. Based on this technology the KIER is working together with POSLAB to scale up the technology to produce an alternative bio fuel for coal of the steel industry.

  Yi, Chang-keun, President of KIER, emphasized that Korea’s steel export is ranked as the fourth biggest in the world. However, we are facing the carbon tax to be levied on steel import to Europe in 2026, a stumbling block to the industry, demanding express response on our side. In addition, the Korean government’s GHGs reduction plans in the steel industry released this year include biomass as an alternative fuel for coal. So we are here to closely cooperate to reduce GHGs emission in the steel industry to reach the goal of 2050 carbon neutrality.