S Korea unveils biogas strategy, eyes 1mn t/yr GHG cut

South Korea has released a national biogas strategy that aims to produce up to 500mn Nm³/yr of biogas by 2026, which will cut greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 1mn t/yr.

The plan aims to treat 5.57mn t/yr of organic waste resources and substitute fossil fuels such as LNG that are worth 230bn won/yr ($166mn/yr), the environment ministry (ME) said last week. South Korea relies almost entirely on imports to meet its oil and gas needs, with the US' EIA estimating its fossil fuel import dependence at almost 98pc. South Korea's most expensive LNG imports in April were $14.69/mn Btu from Qatar, with the cheapest supplies from Indonesia at $7.31/mn Btu.

The strategy comes as the amount of organic waste produced climbed by 12pc in the past decade, with 80pc of this going into making feed and compost, while only 6pc is used for biogas. About 370mn Nm³ of gas is produced across 110 facilities nationwide as of 2022 and is used for city gas and power generation, although about 15pc of capacity remains unused.

South Korea aims to promote its biogas production targets, in line with its legislation. This comes after the Act on the Promotion of the Production and Use of Biogas Using Organic Waste Resources was implemented in December last year. The biogas act legislates that mandatory public-sector producers must convert 50pc of collected waste resources into biogas by 2034 and 80pc by 2050. Mandatory private-sector producers only need to hit 10pc by 2034 and 80pc in 2050. These targets will be expanded in stages in the future, with fines imposed should producers fail to achieve them.

The law applies to large-scale producers of waste and includes farms with over 25,000 pigs, livestock waste treatment facilities that process over 200m³/d or more and facilities that produce over 1,000 t/yr of food waste, according to ME in December 2023. There are 235 local governments nationwide responsible for processing organic waste and 52 large-scale private waste producers as of 2022, ME said last week.

South Korea also plans to expand its integrated biogasification production base from a total of three locations in 2022 and seven locations in 2023 to 15 locations this year. ME in March announced the selection of eight additional local governments for the installation of biogasification facilities — Incheon, Gwangju, Gwacheon, Chuncheon, Hoengseong, Buyeo, Mokpo and Suncheon. If these eight projects are completed by 2030 they can produce about 90,000 Nm³/d of biogas from 1,660 t/d of organic waste.

The country is also pursuing a demonstration project to produce biogas from unused organic waste, such as animal and vegetable residues. South Korea will also offer more support to projects that simultaneously use two or more types of organic waste to raise biogas production efficiency.

South Korea will additionally revise its Urban Gas Business Act so that the biogas producers can directly supply more to consumers, from 10,000 Nm³/month previously to 300,000 Nm³/month.

Hydrogen pursuit

South Korea also plans to continue installing hydrogen production facilities that use biogas, with two additional facilities installed this year, which will total four such facilities. Domestic firm Hyundai E&C earlier this month announced it is pursuing opportunities in producing high-purity hydrogen from biogas sourced from organic waste.

The country also hopes to use biogas to produce clean methanol, which can be used as bunker fuel and for which demand has been rising given stricter regulations on vessel carbon emissions.

By Tng Yong Li