Seoul National University (SNU) has a world-class chemical process R&D center, named 'the Institute of Chemical Processes ("ICP")' composed of five research divisions- Process Development Div, Materials Research Div, Specialty Process Technology Div, Process Systems Engineering Div, and Energy & Environment Research Div.
The objective of ICP is to provide education and support R&D activities in the above mentioned five areas, and thereby facilitate cooperation between the academia and industry.
The ICP was established in 1996 when SNU and SK Corp signed a bilateral agreement to collaborate on R&D for building construction, and Prof. Hyun-ku Rhee took office as the founding director.
During the past decade, ICP has constantly expanded its focus on R&D and performed large scale projects together with the government and conglomerates.
ICP really took off in 2000 after Prof. En Sup Yoon inaugurated as its second director. Endless research activities bore fruit and made ICP to be regarded as the best research institute among Brain Korea 21 sponsored organizations and National Research Laboratories.
In addition, ICP earned an excellent reputation by having six venture companies under its umbrella. This is a level which other Korean R&D centers have never achieved or even dared to dream of. ICP is now sailing ahead of others into the uncharted ocean of science under the leadership of Prof. Hwayong Kim, the third director of ICP.
Daehan News had the opportunity to interview Prof. Hwayong Kim (Director of ICP) together with Prof. En Sup Yoon (Former Director), and asked questions about the future direction of energy & environment issues in Korea.
Q1) What is your opinion about the issues related to energy policy of Korea?
A1) I dare to say that Korea will face a disaster like 'Noah's Flood' unless we recognize the importance of energy issues and find ways to control them. First of all, the government has lacked consistency in its energy policy. So the government should take bold moves to make improvement without any further delay. Second, Korea needs to nurture energy specialists, who are talented enough to balance the point of view of a scientist and a CEO. They should have the expert knowledge in the energy industry as well as a CEO mind-set to deal with energy issues. Lastly, we should focus research on recycling energy.
Q2) Recently, China has done its best to secure oil land, and natural gas by fully leveraging omnidirectional diplomacy. Can you tell us how Korea can advance towards a brighter tomorrow, citing some examples on the importance of energy security ?
A2) For example, let's assume that Afghanistan becomes the core of global oil & gas pipeline network. Then perhaps the U.S, China or one of the so called 'Global power countries', would immediately exercise political & diplomatical influence over this core region to gain geo-political benefits. These globally powerful countries already understand the importance of energy security because they know that energy control is key to the survival game. So even though it might seem too late to start now, we should make efforts to secure oil & natural gas land as much as possible, sometimes through economical & diplomatical friendship, and sometimes through academic forums jointly organized by the government and energy & environment R&D teams.
Q3) As far as I know, many people still have a prejudice against having energy related facilities like waste incinerators or power plants in their residential area. Do you have any ideas to remove such prejudices and ease people's concerns?
A3) Korea has competitiveness in the field of recycling R&D as well as energy engineering for advanced environmental clean-up systems. The reason why the public has such prejudice and concerns might be because the fact that we have competitive technology and policy has not been efficiently communicated to them. So I think we should enable them to understand the importance of balanced energy ecosystem, carving the message in everybody's mind that there is only one Earth, not two.
취재 이명근 기자 / 김지민 사진기자
