SK Innovation and SKIET have invested in Airrane, a gas separator technology company, to enhance their carbon reduction competitiveness in the CCUS (Carbon Capture, Utilization, and Storage) field.
Airrane specializes in gas separator technology, providing separator module/system design and production, and technical services.
The company has built up its technological capabilities through joint development and OEM production in partnership with advanced foreign companies, such as Air Products and Chemicals, Inc., Asahi Glass Company (AGC) Engineering CO., and Mitsubishi Gas Chemical Company, Inc. Currently, Airrane possesses globally competitive commercial technologies in gas separator production and is working on expanding its business to supply CO2 separator technology for clean hydrogen production.
SK Innovation and SKIET plan to combine their Lithium-ion Battery Separator (LiBS) manufacturing technology with Airrane's gas separator technology to pioneer the separator capture market.
The two companies aim to develop new high-performance separators with high efficiency to preempt the market and cooperate in advancing the separator technology that Airrane currently possesses.
Additionally, they plan to secure competitive separator technology required for carbon capture and seek ways to make entry into overseas markets, such as the North American and European markets.
Carbon capture utilizing separator is an alternative to overcome the limitations of existing wet and dry methods. The widely used wet method uses liquid absorbents to separate CO2, but it faces challenges, such as requiring a large plot of land, significant energy to regenerate the absorbents, and producing harmful environmental substances.
On the other hand, the dry method captures CO2 using solid absorbents, but it has not been commercialized due to the absorbents' susceptibility to wear and agglomeration. The separator method, which captures CO2 by selectively allowing it to pass through the separator, does not generate any waste or wastewater without using any chemical substances or water other than the separator. It is an optimal method for factories having complex equipment and pipes, as it can be installed in a small area in the form of separator module form.
As the importance of CCUS for carbon neutrality is emphasized, the carbon capture market is expected to grow. The Japanese Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry anticipates a cumulative market size of JPY 45 trillion for the CCUS-related equipment market by 2050, with an annual economic ripple effect of JPY 10 trillion due to the global investment expansion in CCUS. In the global CCUS industry, about 60% of the economic effects are expected to be generated in the capture sector alone.
Head of SK Innovation Portfolio Divisional Group Kang Dong-soo said, “We expect that our collaboration with Airrane will further strengthen our competitiveness in the CCUS area, which is essential for our ‘Carbon to Green’ strategy.” He added, “We will strive to bolster our competitiveness in the global CCUS market based on not only the separator capture technology jointly invested by SK Innovation and SK IE Technology, but also the capabilities of SK Innovation subsidiaries, such as SK Energy’s utilization technology and SK Earthon’s storage technology.”
