Hyundai Steel-Dangjin City Sign Mutual Cooperation Agreement for Greenhouse Gas Reduction and Environmental Improvement at Steelworks
[Asia Economy Reporter Hwang Yoon-joo] Hyundai Steel will invest an additional 490 billion KRW over five years starting next year to reduce greenhouse gases and improve the environment at its steelworks. Including the 510 billion KRW invested in the environment from 2016 to this year, the total environmental investment over ten years amounts to 1 trillion KRW.
Hyundai Steel announced that CEO Andong-il and Kim Hong-jang, Mayor of Dangjin City, signed an agreement on the 29th at Dangjin City Hall to pledge mutual cooperation for reducing greenhouse gases and improving the environment at the steelworks.
The agreement includes ▲ recovery of waste heat, fuel savings, and energy efficiency improvements to reduce greenhouse gases ▲ installation of pollution treatment facilities and improvement of prevention facilities for environmental improvement ▲ reduction of environmental burden through recycling of by-products within the jurisdiction and expansion of self-processing.
Hyundai Steel plans to implement the agreement by investing approximately 490 billion KRW over five years from 2021 to 2025 to promote environmental improvements at the steelworks.
First, by installing the Coke Dry Quenching (CDQ)(1) system by 2025, waste heat generated during coke cooling will be recovered and regenerated into steam and electricity, contributing to greenhouse gas reduction. This is expected to reduce greenhouse gases by more than 500,000 tons annually.
In addition, comprehensive environmental improvements will be carried out, including the installation and improvement of additional prevention facilities to reduce air pollutant emissions and the installation of an onshore power supply system (AMP)(2) for ships docked at the port.
Hyundai Steel has already completed the improvement work of the No. 3 sintering plant ahead of schedule in June this year, completing the upgrade of clean facilities for all sintering plants. As a result, the expected air pollutant emissions this year are 8,000 tons. This is about a 46% reduction compared to 14,978 tons in 2014, just before the clean facilities were abnormally operated. In particular, it is expected to be about 66% lower than the 23,477 tons emitted in 2016, the voluntary agreement standard.
Mayor Kim Hong-jang said, "Dangjin City will spare no administrative or institutional support for the implementation of the steelworks environmental improvement agreement," adding, "We will continue to create a foundation for Dangjin City to take the lead in reducing greenhouse gases, responding to the climate crisis, and implementing energy transition through public-private-academic cooperation."
CEO Andong-il said, "The era when companies only played a role in economic development is over," and added, "We will strive to proactively respond by moving beyond mere compliance with environmental regulations to establishing and improving more advanced environmental systems."
Hyundai Steel will continue to operate the existing 'Hyundai Steel Environmental Improvement Council' for transparent disclosure of environmental improvement matters and will install an environmental electronic display board showing air quality information at the steelworks to enhance local residents' access to environmental information.
Furthermore, as demands for transparency regarding the environmental performance of products, including greenhouse gas emissions, increase, Hyundai Steel plans to expand certification of Environmental Product Declarations (EPD)(3), which calculate greenhouse gases generated during production and the utilization effects of by-products during processes, focusing on producing environmentally friendly products.
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