Seoul to use sewage gas to generate electricity

By Kim Joo-heon Posted : May 23, 2023, 17:58 Updated : May 23, 2023, 21:59

[Courtesy of Seoul City]

SEOUL -- Seoul will establish a 20-megawatt-hour fuel cell facility at a sewage treatment center to use biogas generated during the sewage treatment process for fuel cells' energy. The city will work with private companies to produce electricity capable of powering about 420,000 households every year.
 
The facility will be installed at Jungnang Sewage Treatment Center in eastern Seoul by 2024, the capital city said, adding that the city has partnered with three companies -- Korea East-West Power Company (EWP), a power generation company, oil company SK energy, and Yesco, a natural gas distributor. "The facility will be built by 2024 but I think the actual operation will start in 2025," Seoul official Choi Sung-min told Aju Business Daily on May 23.
 
"According to EWP, about 120 billion won ($91 million) would be injected into the project," Choi said. EWP will be in charge of the installation and operation of the facility while Yesco and SK energy will collect and store carbon generated during the operation.
 
By 2035, the capital city aims to establish four additional fuel cell facilities at sewage treatment centers capable of producing 175-megawatt hours. According to Seoul, the project also has the effect of air purification as the facility can generate clean air for about 240,000 people.
 
"I hope the sewage treatment center, normally avoided by the public, will be transformed into a clean energy production base without particulate matter, and reborn as an environmentally-friendly place," Seoul's junior deputy mayor of administration Yoo Chang-soo said in a statement. 
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