The Korea District Heating Corp. said Wednesday that it will launch a circular economy project to turn plastic waste into hydrogen. According to the KDHC -- one of the world’s largest district heating companies that serves over 1.5 million customers here -- it has partnered up with the Korea Energy Agency, SK Ecoplant and GS Power to develop a city model of the circular economy where plastic waste is converted into oil, then finally into hydrogen. The project will heat plastic waste u

SoftBank Ventures Asia said Wednesday that it has injected $9 million into the series A funding of VoyagerX, a South Korean artificial intelligence software developer. SoftBank was joined by Altos Venture and Yellowdog in the round, which chipped in $9 million each making the total investment at $27 million. VoyagerX will use the funds to develop more advanced AI services and hire 100 more employees by next year. Founded in 2017, VoyagerX builds AI solutions and tools that leverage deep lear

Hanwha Defense on Tuesday displayed weapons that have localized key parts at the Korea Defense Component and Equipment Fair 2021 held in Changwon, South Gyeongsang Province, on Wednesday. At the event, the defense affiliate of Hanwha Group showcased Cheonma, South Korea’s first short-range surface-to-air missile system deployed since 1999. Since this year, Hanwha Defense localized parts that are no longer produced and some of imported parts such as power suppliers, providing business opp

Around 5 a.m. in Seoul, when most of the city is still asleep, it’s not difficult to see backpack-toting men in their 50s and 60s waiting in long lines outside staffing agencies, wondering if there are any day jobs available for them. For their female counterparts, or ajumma as Koreans would call them, the situation is slightly better but not very different. “Cleaners who were working in this industry before … like at 6 a.m., they go to the employee referral agencies, th

In every sport, there is a moment when you must score. Netmarble, whose operating margin fell to single digit -- 9.5 percent -- in the first quarter of this year amid the lackluster performance of its much-anticipated release Seven Knights 2, definitely needed a point to turn things around. Second Country: Cross Worlds, a mobile role-playing game with Studio Ghibli-style graphics, arrives against this backdrop and may just be the one that delivers the much-needed new momentum. Released on

Construction of South Korea’s first liquid hydrogen plant kicked off on Monday, textile and chemical conglomerate Hyosung Group said. The 300 billion-won ($264.6 million) Ulsan plant will be built by Linde Hydrogen, a joint venture formed in February by Hyosung Group’s machinery affiliate Hyosung Heavy Industries and German chemical firm Linde. Set for commercial operation in May 2023, the envisioned plant would be the world’s single largest liquid hydrogen facility with a

Hanwha Solutions said Friday that its wholly-owned subsidiary Hanwha Compound has signed an agreement with SPC Pack to co-develop a biodegradable plastic material and use it for packaging SPC’s products. SPC Group is a South Korean food and confectionery conglomerate owning some 40 brands including Paris Baguette, Shake Shack Korea, Baskin Robbins Korea, Dunkin’ Donuts Korea, among others. The new packaging material will be based on poly lactic acid, which is made from fermented

South Korea, which aims to go carbon neutral by 2050, will expand its smart water management by installing floating solar farms near dams and applying hydrothermal energy technologies to data centers. The Ministry of Environment said Friday that it will conduct six water management projects reflecting discussion results on carbon-neutral water management for climate resilience at the P4G Seoul Summit held last month. As part of the projects, the government will begin the construction of eigh

LG Electronics’ North American headquarters in New Jersey has been granted an eco-friendly certification from the US Green Building Council, according to the company’s newsroom Friday. At the USGBC Leadership Awards held this month, LG Electronics received a Platinum New Construction certification, the highest grade in USGBC’S Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design rating system, which measures how buildings promote employee well-being, are energy and water efficient,

GS Caltex said Thursday it has purchased 2 million barrels of crude oil certified as “carbon neutral” at the point of production, becoming the first South Korean firm to buy carbon neutral crude oil. According to the total energy company, the carbon neutral oil is extracted from Sweden-based Lundin Energy’s Johan Sverdrup oil field in Norway. The offshore field, certified as carbon neutral under product testing company Intertek’s CarbonZero standard, emits 0.45 kilogr

S-Oil won the excellence award from Saudi Arabian oil giant Aramco which honors high-achievers among the group’s refining and petrochemical affiliates at home and abroad. It was awarded the best performance award, the top prize in the operational excellence category at Saudi Aramco 2021 President’s Affiliates Excellence Awards, S-Oil said on Thursday. Saudi Aramco assesses the business results of its downstream affiliates every year and presents awards in four categories -- hea

LG Energy Solution said Thursday it has completed the supply of its new battery system TR1300 to the world’s largest energy storage systems project in California, which is able to power 225,000 households during peak hours. According to the South Korean battery manufacturer, the 1.2-gigawatt-hour ESS facility, developed by Texas-based power generation firm Vistra, is equipped with 4,500 TR1300 battery racks. Vistra connected the energy storage systems to the power grid and began oper

LG Energy Solution will host an international battery forum on June 22 to discuss next-generation batteries with renowned scholars including Nobel laureate Michael Stanley Whittingham. The “LG Energy Solution Innovation Forum 2021,” which will be held from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., is the first such event to be held by LGES after its split-off from LG Chem in December, the company said Wednesday. The forum will be held online due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and is open to the g

DataStreams said Wednesday it has signed an agreement with the Cyber University of Korea to cultivate artificial intelligence and big data talents and donated its big data platform TeraONE worth 500 million won ($447,270) to the university. The signing ceremony, which was held at the university’s studio, was attended by CUK President Kim Jin-sung, CUK Research and Business Foundation chief Han Woon-young, DataStreams CEO Lee Young-sang and DataStreams director Lee Sang-ok. The agreeme

South Korea aims to reduce carbon emissions 24.4 percent by 2030 compared to 2017, but the target appears to be “extremely” ambitious, according to energy consulting firm Wood Mackenzie on Tuesday. Prakash Sharma, Wood Mackenzie’s Asia Pacific head of markets and transitions, cited two reasons for the pessimism. “First, only 3 percent has been reduced in the last seven years. To reduce the remaining 20 percent over the next 10 years is extremely challenging,”

SK Telecom said Tuesday it has launched the world’s first keycard applied with both quantum technology and biometric identification technology. Together with Switzerland-based quantum safety solutions firm ID Quantique and a local biometric identification startup Octatco, SKT co-developed the “EzQuant” keycard equipped with a quantum random number generator. “EzQuant combines QRNG technology with FIDO-based fingerprint certification keycard,” a company officia

Hanwha Systems said Monday that it will develop autonomous underwater drone swarms for search and rescue missions by 2025. According to the defense business unit of Hanwha Group, it has formed a consortium with partners including the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology for the 25 billion-won project ($22.4 million) commissioned by the Korea Institute of Marine Science and Technology Promotion. “In bad weather conditions, human divers can’t be deployed due to poor

For 221 of the world’s major companies to source 100 percent of electricity from renewable sources by 2030, they’ll have to spend $98 billion. But make no mistake. These members of Renewable Energy 100 -- a global initiative to use electricity generated exclusively from renewable energy -- are not burning their cash just for the greater good of saving the Earth. They’re doing this for their own good, Sam Kimmins, head of the Climate Group’s RE100 campaign, said at th

Hyundai Motor Group is developing a hydrogen robot taxi with the aim of launching a commercial service within the next few years. According to the nation’s top automaker, the self-driving taxi will be based on the Nexo, the company’s hydrogen fuel cell-powered SUV. “The hydrogen robot taxi is currently in the design stage. The exterior currently has cameras and sensors protruding from it, so we’re working on it. The model will be ready for mass production in one to tw

Hanwha Systems is seeking partnership deals with ride-hailing apps, including the industry’s biggest Kakao T, to include flying taxis on the platforms, the company said Thursday. Hanwha Systems, a defense business unit of South Korea Hanwha Group, is racing to debut a flying car by 2024 and Kakao T is one of multiple ground mobility platforms being considered as a reservation service partner. Kakao T, operated by Kakao Mobility, is South Korea’s most popular taxi hailing platfor