GS Caltex Going for Waste-for-Energy Biz

By Kim Tae-gyu

Staff Reporter

Common sense dictates ``garbage in, garbage out,'' as abbreviated by GIGO, which is widely used in computer science and information technology. As far as the latest technologies are concerned, however, that may not be the case anymore.

GS Caltex, Korea's No. 2 refinery, said Monday that it would develop technologies to convert wastes into energies using cost-efficient and eco-friendly methods by taking advantage of plasma.

With this end in mind, GS Caltex recently acquired a local company in order to establish GS Platech, which will bring momentum to the promising energy-from-waste business.

``Using conventional incinerators, we tackled various environmental problems such as heavy metals, dioxins as well as incinerator bottom ashes. Using plasma, the amount of such toxic materials will be reduced to one-tenth,'' GS Caltex Senior Vice President, Ryu Ho-il said.

``Plus, we can procure synthesis gases in the process, which can be used to create electricity. When we deal with 100 tons of waste, we can generate electricity sufficient enough for 10,000 households a day.''

GS Caltex pointed out that the plasma technologies would not produce incinerator bottom ashes, which have accounted for about 15 percent of the total amount of the wastes incinerated.

Instead, it said that slag would be the byproduct, which can be used for paving roads or construction.

``Currently, the country is struggling to find landfill sites. Such difficulties will continue down the road on top of heavy metal debates related to the traditional incineration method,'' Ryu said.

``Accordingly, plasma-based technologies will become a viable option to replace existing technologies. Furthermore, our technology is more advanced than those available overseas.''

For example, the firm said that its versatile system finishes all the processes in the plasma arc compared to other technologies with which additional processes are needed afterwards.

GS Platech, formerly Ad Platech, has worked on building an all-in-one system of producing hydrogen and storing it in fuel cells as soon as wastes are dealt with in the plasma arcs. It aims to finish the tall task by 2011 for the first time in history.

On the back of such technological prowess, GS Caltex said that it is currently in talks with the Development Agency for the North East of England to install its hydrogen generation facilities there.