Doosan Heavy Industries & Construction will transform plastic waste into gases by heating it up, and extract hydrogen from those gases, the company said Thursday. Seeking to jointly develop the hydrogen extraction system, Doosan Heavy has partnered with RevoTech, a local plastic pyrolysis firm which possesses the technology involved in feeding plastic waste non-stop into heating equipment. The initial goal is to develop within the year a hydrogen reformer that can produce 0.3 metric ton

American Manganese, a Vancouver-based critical metals company, is seeking to tap into the South Korean battery market with its exclusive technology to extract key metals from defective batteries. In an interview with The Korea Herald, its chief executive officer Larry Reaugh and chief technology officer Zarko Meseldzija revealed that the firm is in talks with multiple companies for partnership in Korea, home to three of the world’s leading lithium-ion battery makers. “We are th

The 22nd Jeonju International Film Festival on Wednesday announced its award winners after reviewing a total 194 films from 48 countries.  In international competition, Natalia Garayalde won the grand prize with her 69-minute documentary “Splinters” and was awarded with a cash prize of 20 million won ($18,000). “Splinters” depicts Argentina’s biggest political scandal through the lens of a 12-year-old girl. “Landscapes of Resistance” by Marta

Hanwha Total has completed the expansion of its petrochemicals plant in Daesan, South Chungcheong Province, to ramp up the production of polypropylene and ethylene, the company said Wednesday. The 530 billion-won ($472 million) project, which took 28 months for completion, included the building of a new polypropylene factory with annual production capacity of 400,000 metric tons, raising the firm’s total polypropylene production capacity to 1.12 million tons, the biggest scale in South K

KT, one of South Korea’s big three telecom carriers, faces a potential class action from gigabit internet service subscribers over allegations that the firm signed onto the plans even those living in areas unequipped with the infrastructure to accommodate the high-speed internet services. Kim Jin-wook, an attorney at Seoul-based law firm Joowon, announced Wednesday that he is recruiting prospective plaintiffs through a class action platform Angry People. “According to media rep

Kakao Games, the gaming unit of the country’s leading messenger app operator, reported a 68 percent jump in net profit to 18.3 billion won ($16.3 million) in the first quarter on-year, the company announced Tuesday. Sales rose 35 percent to 130.1 billion won, while operating profit increased 23 percent to 15.6 billion won in the same period. By division, the firm’s online PC game segment reaped 51.1 billion won in sales, a 19 percent increase on-year, buoyed by the solid perfor

A blessing in disguise. No other idiom can better describe what the coronavirus outbreak has meant for Lime, the world’s leading operator of rented electric scooters and bikes. When the pandemic first broke out, communities shut down, and so did riders. Lime lost 95 percent of its ridership. But as the weather got nicer, “much of that revenue has come back,” says Lime CEO Wayne Ting. Lime recorded its first profitable quarter in the July-September period last year, as incre

Solus Advanced Materials will increase the capacity of its copper foil plant in Luxembourg to 15,000 metric tons from the current 12,000 tons by the end of this year to meet growing demand for 5G network equipment, the company said Monday. The Luxembourg plant manufactures two types of high-end copper foils. Low-loss copper foils, which minimize signal losses, are used for 5G data centers and satellite communications, while high-frequency copper foils, which offer greater signal speed, are u

BUSAN -- Beneath the clear, open sky, hundreds of drones were on display at Drone Show Korea 2021, held Thursday at Bexco in Busan, where companies big and small gathered to suggest their vision for the future drone industry. In the case of national flag carrier Korean Air, the message was clear -- drone business is all about control. “Korean Air’s main focus is the (drone) air traffic control system because we have more than five decades of experience as an aircraft operator,&rdqu

South Korea’s leading steelmaker Posco has set up a new entity in Europe and will launch another one in Korea to recycle LG Energy Solution’s electric vehicle batteries, according to industry officials. “The new entity has been established in Poland recently and we are in the process of forming another one in Gwangyang, South Jeolla Province, which is currently awaiting approval,” a Posco official said Friday. The new entity in Poland will collect defective batteries f

Mounting allegations of forced labor in the Chinese region of Xinjiang have posed a conundrum for the global solar industry, and some say they could also drag down South Korea’s ambitious solar plans. Located in China’s far northwest, the region rife with allegations of human rights abuses is home to four of the world’s top five producers of polysilicon, a key raw material for most solar panels. Together, those four plants account for 40 percent of the global supply. In Ja

The soon-to-launch LX Holdings is close to settling a name dispute with the Korea Land and Geospatial Informatix -- a public agency which has been operating under the name LX for years. The two have decided to share the name, an official at the state-run institute LX told The Korea Herald on Thursday. “Both parties have agreed to use ‘LX’ name together and discussions are underway over how LX Holdings will make compensations to LX,” said the official. Set for an off

As the world transitions to renewable energy, demand for cables are growing as well, and LS Group is at the center of the transition. LS Group is a South Korean conglomerate in the metal and cable business that was spun off from LG Group in 2003. In his New Year’s message, LS Group Chairman Koo Ja-yeol laid out top priorities the group should pursue in the post-pandemic era -- cash generation, greater foothold overseas, digital transition, acceleration of eco-friendly initiatives and

Lime said Wednesday it had been named as one of the world’s top 100 influential companies by Time magazine. According to the world’s leading e-scooter and e-bike operator, it has been categorized among the “disruptors,” along with 19 other companies including Tesla, Airbnb, Robinhood and Didi Chuxing. “Despite pandemic-related disruptions, the micro-mobility company announced its first profitable quarter last year and launched in dozens of new cities. In 2021,

Hyundai Oilbank said Tuesday that it has partnered with Honeywell UOP, one of the world’s leading technology licensing firms, to repurpose its oil refineries as renewable energy platforms where vital ingredients for solar panels and electric vehicle batteries will be produced. Under the agreement, Honeywell’s crude oil-to-chemical technology will allow Hyundai Oilbank facilities to convert crude oil into high-value chemical products instead of traditional transportation fuels. Th

The Korea Institute of Science and Technology on Tuesday claimed to have found a new way of curbing lithium-metal battery fires using semiconductor technology. According to its researchers led by Lee Joong-kee, lithium-metal batteries, which use metals for anodes, or the negative side, are more powerful than lithium-ion batteries that use graphite for anodes. However, there is a trade-off. Lithium-metal batteries are more susceptible to fires because of dendrite issues. Dendrites are tiny, r

After adopting a telecommuting system in February last year, Nexon has not only protected the safety of its staff but also witnessed an unprecedented growth despite a bruising pandemic year. According to the South Korean gaming giant, the company last year posted sales worth 3.13 trillion won ($2.81 billion), becoming the first Korean game firm to breach the 3 trillion-won mark. Nexon also saw its revenue in Korea surge 84 percent on-year. Behind its stellar performances stand Nexon’s

Mobile carrier KT teamed up with Samsung Electronics to launch the world’s first emergency telecommunications network that covers the whole nation, KT said Monday. The system, based on wireless LTE technology, integrates the networks of 335 state institutes, such as the police, railway defense and firefighting agencies, and is available anywhere in Korean territory -- land or sea -- allowing for a swifter, coordinated response against major natural disasters and accidents. “The

Hanwha Corp. said Friday that it will issue green bonds for the first time. According to the Hanwha Group holdings firm, it will file a securities declaration with the Financial Supervisory Service on Monday and conduct a book-building session Thursday, seeking to issue green bonds worth up to 150 billion won ($134 million) on May 7. Green bonds are specifically earmarked to raise money for climate and environmental projects. Hanwha Corp. last month launched an environmental, social and cor

ESG -- short for environmental, social and corporate governance -- is the buzzword in the corporate world now. At GS Engineering & Construction, EGS efforts had already begun long before industries began paying attention to the trends. GS E&C, which received an “A” rating for its ESG efforts from the Korea Corporate Governance Service last year, has been listed on the Dow Jones Sustainability Asia/Pacific Index for 10 consecutive years. In 2014, GS E&C joined the Korea