Pohang to build sewage sludge energy facility by 2029, city says
In short
Pohang city in North Gyeongsang Province has selected an HL Ecotech consortium to build a facility that turns sewage sludge into energy, at the public sewage treatment plant in Sangdo-dong, Nam-gu. The city says the 53.1 billion won project will run from the second half of next year to the second half of 2029. It expects recovery of digestion gas to replace fossil fuels such as LNG and petroleum and to save about 3.7 billion won a year.
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Pohang city in North Gyeongsang Province said it will build a facility that converts sludge produced in sewage treatment into energy, and that it has selected an HL Ecotech consortium as the qualified bidder for the project's detailed design, Yonhap reported. [ 3 ]
According to Yonhap, the consortium will build the facility inside the public sewage treatment plant in Sangdo-dong, Nam-gu, spending 53.1 billion won from the second half of next year through the second half of 2029. [ 3 ]
The facility is designed to recover digestion gas generated while treating sewage sludge and organic resources and to use it to produce its own energy, replacing fossil fuels such as LNG and petroleum, the report said. The city expects to reduce the volume of sludge it has to treat and cut energy use, lowering its budget by about 3.7 billion won a year — a figure Kukmin Ilbo and Newsis also carried in their headlines. [ 1 , 2 , 3 ]
Pohang mayor Park Yong-sun said: “Now that the qualified bidder for the detailed design has been selected, we will push the follow-up procedures forward swiftly and complete a clean, safe environmental infrastructure facility that raises citizens' quality of life without disruption.” [ 3 ]
Why it matters
The project is a municipal environmental infrastructure investment that the city says will cut both the volume of sludge it must treat and its energy spending. For readers outside the country, it is a local waste-to-energy project with limited wider impact.
Key facts
- Pohang city said it will build a facility that converts sludge from sewage treatment into energy. [ 1 , 2 , 3 ]
- The city selected an HL Ecotech consortium as the qualified bidder for the facility's detailed design. [ 3 ]
- The consortium will build the facility inside the public sewage treatment plant in Sangdo-dong, Nam-gu, Pohang, at a cost of 53.1 billion won. [ 3 ]
- Construction is to run from the second half of next year to the second half of 2029. [ 3 ]
- The facility recovers digestion gas from sewage sludge and organic resources to produce its own energy, replacing fossil fuels including LNG and petroleum. [ 3 ]
- The city expects to save about 3.7 billion won a year in its budget by reducing sludge volumes and energy use. [ 1 , 2 , 3 ]
Confirmed by several sources
- Pohang city is building a sewage sludge energy facility and expects annual budget savings of about 3.7 billion won. [ 1 , 2 , 3 ]
- The city selected an HL Ecotech consortium as the qualified bidder for the detailed design, with a 53.1 billion won facility planned at the Sangdo-dong public sewage treatment plant through the second half of 2029. [ 3 ]
Still unclear
- Which companies make up the HL Ecotech consortium The documents name only HL Ecotech as the consortium's lead and do not list other members.
- When the facility will start operating and how much fossil fuel it will displace The documents give a construction period ending in the second half of 2029 but no start-of-operation date or displaced fuel volumes.
- Whether Newsis reported any detail beyond its headline summary The article text attached to the Newsis document concerns an unrelated police investigation into financial-sector hacking, not the Pohang project.
What local media are saying
Timeline, local time
- Kukmin Ilbo reports Pohang will build a sewage sludge energy facility and expects to save 3.7 billion won a year. [ 1 ]
- Newsis reports the city will turn sewage sludge into eco-friendly energy, citing the same annual saving figure. [ 2 ]
- Yonhap reports the city announced the project and had selected an HL Ecotech consortium as the detailed-design qualified bidder. [ 3 ]