LG Chem. Senior Vice Pres. Cho Kap-ho has been presented with the coveted Order of Industrial Service, Silver Tower, in recognition of his roles for LG Chem to make facility investments and developing new technologies to conserve energy at the 35th Energy Conservation Promotion Convention at EL Tower in Yangjae-dong, Seoul, on Nov. 20.
It was in 2005 that Cho was assigned to a job overseeing the company’s energy/GHG sector. The first thing he did was to probe the situation from scratch. To his surprise, as a years-old field expert, the reality is that energy costs are equivalent to operating profits. Despite that fact, the portion of energy conserved was nearing a meager 1 percent, probably leaving ample room for improvement. The low score was owed to each business’ implementing energy saving activities on its own, a dearth of strategies to cope with international crude oil price fluctuations, and a lack of motivation to conserve energy.
Cho called for a new way of thinking to fix the problems. He opted for the operation of companywide energy committees to boost attention from CEOs and those in decision-making positions. Each unit’s CEO serves as the chairman of its energy committee and officials in charge of energy conservation participate as committee members.
In the beginning, some people criticized that energy conservation could a job field officials were supposed to do a good job under their own supervision. Things have begun to change about awareness toward energy conservation as the establishment of energy conservation goals, action plans, rewards, and the sharing of energy-saving practices have been pushed. They have begun to pay off: energy conserved surged from an annual average of 1 percent to 6 percent, a six-fold jump since 2008.
The most innovative case of energy saving is to improve the energy-gulping naphtha cracking center. The NCC at his company’s Yeosu plant consumed energy equivalent to 60 percent of its manufacturing costs, excluding raw material expenses. In reality, energy costs soared from 200 billion won in 2005 to about 300 billion won in 2007, making energy conservation a daunting key task his company had to address. Hard work and endless innovative activities have led to global top energy efficiency levels.
LG Chem badly needed to take supplementary actions to tide over a crisis in which its lead in energy efficiency with its runner-up rival had been narrowed. The company began to consider introducing new materials and new technologies by taking its cue from other industries and processes with a focus on enhancing the energy efficiency of hydrocrackers, the most energy-consuming part of the whole process. Introducing aerosol, then used in the aerospace industry field, coupled with the installation of a portioned wall inside the hydrocracker, had an effect of improving energy efficiency by 1.5 percent, and allowing the NCC plant to save a combined 21.4 billion won in energy costs. A survey of the global top 25 NCC firms found that the company’s energy efficiency improvement can translate into saving 130 billion won more than the average energy costs, earning the Yeosu NCC plant the title of world’s most efficient energy unit factory.
The successful practice at the Yeosu NCC plant was in place at the Daesan plant with a similar process, resulting in additional energy conservation. In particular, a project to reuse waste heat at the latter turned into a proprietary technology, patented in August 2012.
Cho, departing from the conventional method of establishing energy utilization plans according to its own demand and energy costs, has begun to draw up its energy portfolios in a big-picture perspective — in conformity with the government’s energy master plan and demand-supply plans.
