SK Innovation Co.’s petrochemical complex in Ulsan, 414 kilometers southeast of Seoul, is seen in this photo provided by the company.
SEOUL, April 15 (Korea Bizwire) — SK Innovation Co. said Wednesday that it will replace the boiler fuel at its Ulsan refining complex, the nation’s first oil refinery, with eco-friendly liquefied natural gas (LNG) fuel starting from July.
Since 2019, the refinery-and-battery unit of SK Group has invested a total of 69 billion won (US$61.8 million) to replace the plant’s eight bunker C oil boilers with LNG boilers as part of its efforts to reduce the emission of air pollutants.
SK Innovation said that LNG-powered boilers can contribute to greatly reducing the emission of air pollutants and greenhouse gases compared to existing bunker C oil boilers.
The company noted that LNG-powered boilers can reduce emissions of carbon dioxide by 25 percent to 160,000 tons and nitrogen oxide by 72 percent to 858 tons per year.
In addition, they also can reduce emissions of sulfur oxide and ultra-fine dust by 100 percent.
“Under the goal of turning the petrochemical production workplace into ESG (environmental, social and corporate governance) sites, we decided to stop the operation of bunker C oil boilers that we have used over the past 50 years.” said Park Jae-hong, a high ranking official at SK Energy Co.
M. H. Lee (mhlee@koreabizwire.com)
