Opening of second factory with annual production capacity of 20,000 tons
“We will build overseas factories and take on the challenge of e-fuel business.”

▲Tape cutting is underway at the completion ceremony of BioFriends DME Plant 2 held on August 31.(Photo = BioFriends)

BioFriends, a hydrogen company, held the completion ceremony of Boeun DME's second plant on August 31.

DME (Di-Methyl Ether) can be obtained through the dehydration reaction of methanol, and is an eco-friendly fuel with low CO2 emissions, with a global warming potential of only 0.3.

The completion ceremony was attended by Wonjun Cho, CEO of Biofriends (Chairman of Korea DME Association), Boeun County Governor Jaehyung Choi, People Power Party National Assembly member Deokheum Park, North Chungcheong Provincial Council Industrial and Economic Committee Chairman Gyeongsook Park, Chungbuk Science and Technology Innovation Institute Director Sanggyu Kim, and Korea Automotive Research Institute Director Seungsik Na.

Biofriends is known to have invested approximately 15 billion won in establishing the second factory. The 11,000㎡ factory site is equipped with facilities such as a methanol storage tank, DME reaction plant, and DME storage tank.

The production scale of the second plant is 10,000 tons per year, which is twice as large as the first DME plant, which has been in operation since August 2020, is 5,000 tons per year.

DME has the advantage of being easy to blend because it has similar properties to LPG, and can be used without changing facilities when blending within 20%. The completion of the second plant is expected to secure stability in the domestic DME market, enter the LPG+DME blended fuel market in the future, and promote various projects such as carbon-neutral eco-friendly fuel supply to rural areas.

Wonjun Cho, CEO of Biofriends, said in a progress report on the day, “We are expanding various businesses to enter the DME export market in Asia such as Japan, Indonesia, and India. We will not end with the second plant, but will build a third plant capable of producing 30,000 tons per year in the future. “Furthermore, we plan to expand our business into the DME and E-Fuel markets through the construction of overseas factories.”

Meanwhile, Biofriends collects carbon dioxide emitted from the kiln furnace of Sungshin Cement, a cement plant in Danyang, North Chungcheong Province, converts it into methanol, and transports it to the second DME plant to make DME, a high value-added, carbon-neutral clean fuel, worth 39 billion won. is carrying out national projects.

Biofriends also plans to challenge the clean synthetic fuel production business, which reacts captured carbon dioxide with ‘clean hydrogen’ produced using renewable energy such as solar or wind power to create e-methanol and convert it into eDME.

Source: Monthly Hydrogen Economy https://www.h2news.kr