Hydrogen, the most abundant element on Earth and, as a gas, a dream fuel that emits zero emissions. Almost everyone agrees that a transition to hydrogen economy is a worthy long-term goal -- dramatic reductions of urban air pollution and the buildup of greenhouse gases that aggravate the global climate crisis. But key questions remain unanswered: Who will pump in the billions of dollars of investment needed to mass produce hydrogen, and who will lay the pipelines needed to transport hydroge

Plucking batteries from electric vehicles and popping in fresh ones. This idea has existed since at least the late 2000s, but has apparently not been taken seriously by leading players in the sector. In the lens of pessimists, the whiz-bang tech is nothing more than a relic of the early era of electric cars, when it used to take hours to recharge. Now, rapid chargers can juice batteries in less than 30 minutes and evolving technologies will make those times only shorter. Critics dismiss ba

AfreecaTV’s operating profit in the second quarter surged 97 percent on-year to 21.5 billion won ($18.6 million), the company announced Monday. The revenue of South Korea’s biggest livestreaming platform jumped 44 percent to 65 billion won while net profit shot up 85 percent to 18.9 billion won buoyed by robust advertising sales. “AfreecaTV Ads Manager, the firm’s newly launched advertising platform, propelled the strong advertisement sales. The beginning of new sea

To make inroads into China’s fast growing alternative food market, SK said Monday it has joined Chinese food service company Joyvio Group to form a fund worth 100 billion won ($86.7 million). According to the holding firm of South Korea’s third largest conglomerate SK Group, the envisioned Sustainable Food & Consumption Fund will invest in promising food tech companies that specialize in plant-based meat, fermentation and vertical farming. SK will inject 18 billion won of t

South Korea has reactivated three nuclear reactors in the space of a week, as fears of a power supply shortage gripped the nation amid a smothering early-summer heat wave. At 1:10 a.m. on Friday, Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power restarted operations of the 700-megawatt Wolsong No.3 nuclear reactor, the third switched on since July 18. It followed Shin Wolsong No. 1 and Shin Kori No.4 which went back online earlier than scheduled amid tight power supplies. All three had been closed for mainte

South Korean aerospace and defense firm LIG Nex1 said Friday it had established a committee dedicated to overseeing the company’s operations and initiatives in environmental, social and governance fields. The committee will designate one of the outside directors as the chairman and hold regular semi-annual meetings and occasional meetings to set strategies and policies for the firm’s long-term ESG goals. Since 2009, LIG Nex1 has had a corporate social responsibility task force.

Posco chemical’s operating profit in the second quarter jumped a whopping 773.9 percent to 35.6 billion won ($30.9 million) on-year, the company announced Thursday. The refractory and secondary battery materials making unit of South Korean steel giant Posco not only logged record quarterly results in operating profit, but also in revenue, enjoying 480 billion won, a 41.1 percent surge in the same period. Posco Chemical is the country’s only firm that manufactures both cathodes

What battery manufacturers want is simple: to make their batteries more powerful. To this end, battery makers are taking various efforts to innovate their recipes, including putting more nickel inside cathodes or silicon in graphite anodes. They also form technological partnerships, and the latest example is the joint venture created by SK Materials and Group14 Technologies. On Monday, SK Materials, SK Group’s industrial gas manufacturing arm, announced its $52 million investment i

The next-generation lithium-metal batteries of Singapore-based battery developer SolidEnergy Systems show potential to replacing lithium-ion batteries, but major technological challenges remain for their commercialization, including slow charging time. During an online press conference on Wednesday, SES founder and CEO Dr. Qichao Hu shared the firm’s progress on lithium-metal batteries and compared them with those of its competitors QuantumScape and SolidPower, claiming that SES is 18

As the European Union aims to impose a new tax on aviation fuel and require all flights within its borders to use a certain amount of sustainable aviation fuels, or SAFs, major South Korean refineries are watching closely whether the initiatives will jump-start a new market for green jet fuels. According to a climate package announced by EU last week, free emitting permits for air carriers will disappear after 2026 and a tax on kerosene -- the most common jet fuel -- will be gradually introd

LG Chem said Tuesday it will create an environmental, social and governance business model that encompasses the entire life cycle of plastic -- from its production and use to retrieval and recycling. According to South Korea’s leading chemicals firm, it has joined together with zero-waste packaging startup Innerbottle to establish an eco-friendly platform where residents can simply put empty plastic containers of beauty products inside a bag outside their doors and let a worker pick th

Samsung Electronics on Monday announced the global launch of a commercial version of its Micro LED display “The Wall” where customers can customize the size of the display even larger than 1,000 inches. According to the South Korean tech giant, The Wall IWA, despite its vast size, supports high-definition images thanks to enhanced upscaling capabilities. “The latest model is mounted with artificial intelligence processor chips each comprised of 16 neural networks that can

SpaceX will send South Korea’s next-generation midsize satellite into orbit in 2023, Korea Aerospace Industries said Sunday. KAI, the nation’s sole aircraft manufacturer, which developed KF-21 fighters, plans to launch four midsize satellites by 2025 -- No. 2 in 2022, No. 3 and No. 4 in 2023 and No. 5 in 2025. SpaceX rocket will carry the No. 4 into orbit, which will monitor Korean agriculture. KAI selected SpaceX in an open bidding. Though the launch will take place in the US,

Amid the global transition to clean fuel, conventional oil and gas companies appear to have found a way to stay relevant: blue hydrogen. Hydrogen, typically produced by breaking methane inside liquefied natural gas into hydrogen and carbon, is labeled as blue, when all carbon emissions from this process are captured, stored, or reused. This decarbonized hydrogen offers the oil and gas companies a path toward clean fuels while drawing on their existing gas production, transportation and sto

LG Electronics said Sunday that it will shift to renewable energy for 100 percent of its needs by 2050, doubling down on its previous pledge to go carbon neutral by 2030. According to the South Korean tech giant, the transition will begin at its North American headquarters in Englewood, New Jersey, which will switch entirely to electricity generated by renewables by the end of this year. All its overseas production bases will follow suit by 2025. This will allow LG Electronics to source 50

SK Innovation will receive subsidies worth 90 million euros ($106.2 million) from the European Union for its second battery factory in Hungary, the firm said Sunday. According to the South Korean battery-to-petrochemical giant, the state aid will take up roughly 8 percent of the total investment worth 945 billion won ($827.1 million) required for the 10-gigwatt-hour battery factory under construction in the northwestern Hungarian city of Komarom. The facility is set for completion this year a

The European Union’s sweeping plans, announced Wednesday, to cut emissions are expected to hurt South Korea’s steel and other carbon-intensive industries, experts and industry officials said Thursday. The EU announced a comprehensive climate package that revolves around three key proposals: imposing tariffs on carbon-intensive imports starting 2026; banning the sales of cars running on fossil fuels starting 2035; and forcing clean fuel in the aviation and maritime sectors. What

LG Chem on Wednesday announced plans to invest 10 trillion won ($8.6 billion) over the next four years in battery materials, eco-friendly plastics and new drug development. “LG Chem is no longer a petrochemical company. More than 30 projects including mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures and strategic investments are currently under review to reshuffle the business portfolio,” Vice Chairman Shin Hak-cheol said during an online press conference. Nearly 6 trillion won of the

Samsung SDI and LG Energy Solution have finished developing samples of larger and more powerful “4680” battery cells, a type first presented by Tesla last year, in an apparent effort to win contracts from the global electric vehicle leader, a source said Tuesday. “Samsung SDI and LG Energy Solution have developed samples of cylindrical 4680 cells and are currently conducting various tests at their facilities to verify their structural integrity. Also, they have provided spe

삼성SDI와 LG에너지솔루션이 미국 전기차업체 테슬라의 모델Y용 차세대 4680 배터리 셀의 샘플 개발을 완료하면서 향후 수주 가능성에 관심이 쏠리고 있다. 13일 전기차 배터리 업계에 따르면 양 사는 4680 배터리 셀 샘플 개발을 마무리하고 현재 테슬라에 납품하기 위한 준비 중에 있다. 한 업계 고위 관계자는 코리아헤럴드와 만나 삼성SDI와 LG엔솔이 “4680 원통형 셀 샘플의 완성도를 검증하기 위해 다양한 테스트를 진행 중”이며 “이미 협력사들에게 제품 관련 스펙을 전달했다”고 말했다. 삼성SDI는 4680셀 개발 사실 자체를 여러 차례 부인해왔다. 전영현 삼성SDI 사장은 지난 3월 주주총회에서 4680 셀 개발 여부를 묻는 본지의 질문에 “기존 2170 셀 보다 큰 차세대 배터리를 개발하고 있으나, 꼭 4680 셀을 의미하는 것은 아니다”라며 구체적인 사양을 밝히지 않았다. 지난 5월