Korea's "Green Growth Strategy" includes DME in long-term plans

BLUEFUELENERGY.COM: As outlined in a series of articles in the Korea Herald, South Korea's leading English-language newspaper, the South Korean government has a "Green Growth Strategy" which includes what it calls, "second-generation technologies," that will take waste and transform it into value-added energy carriers such as hydrogen, natural gas, diesel, methanol, ethanol, and DME.

These second generation technologies would be used in various areas other than power plant and boiler fuel applications, which would be targeted for first-generation waste-to-energy technologies such as the direct use of solid, liquid, or gaseous fuels to generate electricity.

Although it is good news that the Korean government is including DME in its energy plans, the timetable as outlined in this article by Kim Seong-soo, principal researcher of the Wastes Energy Research Center at the Korea Institute of Energy Research, is less promising. According to Kim, second-generation technologies will not enter the energy market in Korea until sometime after 2020.

Kim suggests that one major reason for this slow pace is "the lack of corporate participation in R&D." As a solution to this problem, Kim suggests that Korean R&D should "aim to build demonstration or commercialization plants rather than develop basic technologies..." and "the Korean central and local governments should participate in R&D from the beginning...."

Chemrec appoints American CEO

BLUEFUELENERGY.COM: As reported recently on MSNBC, The Swedish BioDME project member, Chemrec AB, has shown its commitment to the American market for DME by appointing as its CEO, Richard J. LeBlanc.

Chemrec recently made the news by forming an American subsidiary and, at first glance, it seemed that Mr. LeBlanc's appointment was as head of this newly formed American branch. Instead, although Mr. LeBlanc will be based primarily in Deerfield, Illinois, north of Chicago, he will be responsible for Chemrec's worldwide operations with a focus on building the company's North American and Asia-Pacific markets.

Mr. LeBlanc is 57 and was most recently a senior executive with Siemens AG, USA. According to Marketwire and Chemrec's own press release, "Mr. LeBlanc brings to Chemrec USA extensive general management experience growing high-tech companies, commercialization of innovative technologies and building world-class management teams. During his career with Siemens, he directed product development, manufacturing and distribution for the company's broad range of building control products for the North American, Asian-Pacific and Latin American markets. He holds an MBA from Northwestern University and a bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Toronto. He is a Professional Engineer in both Canada and the U.S. and holds LEED AP certification from the U.S. Green Building Council."

Chemrec also announced that Jonas Rudberg, long-standing leader of Chemrec, has been appointed chief operating officer. In the new organization Mr. Rudberg will focus his attention on overseeing the execution of feasibility studies, pre-project and implementation projects. He will also continue developing relations with European customers and other stakeholders.