Green transition in plant projects: an Interivew with Sung Doo-sik

In today's industrialized world, countless factories operate to keep up with the growing demands of manufacturing. While carbon emissions from factories' operations are one of the largest contributors to rising emissions, minimizing carbon footprint in the construction of factories itself is yet another goal. In this interview, Sung Doo-sik, a project engineer at Hanwha Engineering & Construction discussed his insights of environmental regulations and the need for better policies that support the introduction of green hydrogen and other eco-friendly energy sources.

Could you introduce your job and responsibilities as a plant engineer?

A plant engineer is literally an engineer who builds factories. They design, construct, and even operate and commission factories that produce something—whether it's a chemical plant, refinery, power plant, or any industrial facility.

When Hanwha E&C undertakes plant projects, is there a trend toward environmental regulations or pursuing net-zero goals?

Domestic regulations require the installation of eco-friendly equipment related to net-zero. When building a power plant or a chemical factory, it's mandatory to ensure a certain amount of electricity consumption can be produced using eco-friendly equipment. So, for instance, solar power is the primary source, and green hydrogen is also used to enable the application of such power for part of the electricity consumption.

How much do you think ESG standards or environmental regulations actually influence the design process?

Honestly, Korea's legal regulations aren't particularly stringent yet, so they don't significantly impact the overall project execution. It's at a level where meeting the bare minimum requirements is sufficient, so the influence isn't major.

How would you compare Korea's regulations to other parts of the world?

I haven't worked on U.S. projects properly yet, so I'm not sure about that. Still, compared to advanced countries like Europe, Korea might lag a bit. But from my experience working on projects in the Middle East and such, when you work on projects in lower-income countries less developed than Korea, they don't have such regulations at all. At least the Korean government is starting to implement some standards now. Meanwhile, in Europe, countries like Germany have regulations that I understand they have stricter regulations.

You mentioned plant projects like building power plants. Where does carbon mainly get emitted in the process?

Carbon comes from fuel sources like gas fuel—or rather, coal, coal raw materials—when those raw materials are extracted. It suddenly occurs to me that it's also generated through the combustion process. Also, in refineries, when breaking down petroleum or similar substances composed of carbon-based organic compounds to produce refined petroleum products, carbon is released as a byproduct.

You mentioned green hydrogen for building eco-friendly plants, like power plants. Are there any newer technologies being introduced alongside green hydrogen?

What our company, or rather our group, is currently pursuing is a hydrogen co-firing power generation project. It involves using hydrogen as fuel in generators that previously ran on natural gas. While it hasn't been commercialized yet, the pilot project was successful. So now, the group is developing it internally to achieve commercialization.

What do you see as the main reasons it hasn't been commercialized?

It's still a matter of insufficient technological capability. While the idea of using hydrogen as fuel has been around for a long time, the technology hasn't yet reached a level where it can be practically used as fuel. Also, the unit cost of hydrogen is currently higher than that of natural gas extracted directly from the ground or similar sources. This is because hydrogen requires a certain degree of processing, making production costs expensive. Consequently, the cost of hydrogen fuel is significantly higher than other fuels, which increases the unit cost of electricity production. Despite being eco-friendly, the high electricity production cost makes its adoption challenging.

What policy support or changes do you think are needed for the introduction of green hydrogen and other eco-friendly energy sources?

Currently, looking at Korea's power grid, there are many electricity producers. Among them, renewable energy sources like solar and wind power are prioritized. KEPCO purchases them first, even though they are expensive, and supplies them to users through such policies. Coal-fired power plants, on the other hand, are now positioned very low in the generation priority sequence. They are only used for electricity production as a last resort, occupying a very low-priority position. Similarly, I believe electricity generated from green hydrogen-related sources should be prioritized for consumption. If the government provides more subsidies, it could help activate this sector.

As a plant engineer, do you ever feel burdened by environmental goals like carbon reduction? Or do you see it as a new opportunity in plant business?

Integrating eco-friendliness into building traditional chemical plants or refineries is incredibly challenging and requires a lot of difficult technologies. Additionally, incorporating these features increases construction costs, which can be burdensome for profit-driven companies. Conversely, as someone building plants, I see it as a positive because the opportunity to construct facilities producing eco-friendly energy opens new markets and presents fresh opportunities.

Do you think the role of plant engineers, or the nature of their role, will change as more eco-friendly or low-carbon plants emerge in the future?

Well, scientists develop the technology, while people like me take that developed technology, integrate it, build factories with money, and commercialize it. So, while it's true that opportunities will increase in various new fields, as mentioned earlier, I don't think my role will change significantly. But with legal regulations and such, I think there's an element we inevitably have to embrace, which is the need to move toward eco-friendliness and low-carbon solutions.