Korea Western Power will develop a system to recycle biogas from livestock waste and sewage into fuel cells.

The state-run power company signed a business agreement on Oct. 22 with KEPCO E&C and Doosan Fuel Cell to jointly promote a fuel cell development project using biogas.

The three companies plan to use biogas made from household sewage and livestock manure as materials for fuel cell power generation. They will actively respond to the government's Clean Hydrogen Portfolio Standards (CHPS).

Currently, liquefied natural gas (LNG) is used as the main fuel for fuel cell power generation. LNG has a methane concentration of 99 percent. However, a methane concentration of biogas from the process of treating household organic waste is around 50 to 60 percent. Some biogas is treated by expensive refining facilities to raise its methane gas concentration to that of LNG and supplied to homes, but most of them are discarded.

Accordingly, the three companies have started to develop technology to recycle such discarded biogas in fuel cells. The core of this project is pre-treatment technology for analyzing biogas components and removing harmful substances such as sulfur and fuel cell development and operation technology that directly uses biogas.

“The results of this project will boost the utilization of small-scale decentralized fuel cell power generation using biogas,” said Kim Sung-kyun, vice president of the Western Power Growth Business Headquarters. "We will promote this as a national project by jointly applying for the registration of related technology patents."