Sulfur Byproducts Reborn as Agricultural Pesticide After Years of Discard

A landfill site in Incheon, west of Seoul. (Yonhap)

INCHEON, Aug. 21 (Korea Bizwire) — After being excluded from the refinement process of landfill gases at waste landfills over the past decade, sulfur byproducts are now acknowledged for their practical utility.

The Sudokwon Landfill Site Management Corp. (SLC) reports an average annual yield of 4,850 cubic meters of sulfur byproducts per landfill site in the greater Seoul area between 2013 and 2022.

Until now, no specific method has been established for treating the lump-shaped sulfur byproducts resulting from the landfill gas refinement process.

Consequently, 97.3 percent of these byproducts have been stored in various depots surrounding the greater Seoul area.

In light of this situation, the SLC has conducted drying experiments to transform the byproducts into powder, followed by dehydration trials in response to both local and international demand.

In the previous year, the SLC tested sulfur powder and successfully demonstrated its efficacy as a fungicide for mold eradication.

Having already secured agreements with five enterprises, the SLC is poised to sell sulfur powder amounting to 23.32 million won (US$17,370), enabling the processing of 1,950 cubic meters out of the intended 4,000 cubic meters for the current year.

It is estimated that these sales contracts have led to a reduction in the annual cost of processing sulfur byproducts, from 1.2 billion won to 800 million won.

M. H. Lee (mhlee@koreabizwire.com)