Gyeonggi Province Supports Small and Medium Enterprises with Up to 33 Million Won for Clean Fuel Conversion

[Suwon Ilbo=Park No-hun Reporter] Gyeonggi Province announced on the 4th that it will implement the "2021 Clean Fuel Conversion Project for Small and Medium Enterprises" to reduce emissions of air pollutants such as fine dust.

The "Clean Fuel Conversion Project for Small and Medium Enterprises" is a project through which small and medium enterprises that emit large quantities of air pollutants convert their facilities to use clean fuels such as LNG, thereby fundamentally blocking and reducing the generation of air pollutants.

The province plans to implement the project by accepting applications twice this year from companies in 7 cities and counties in the province, including Yangju and Gimpo, that currently use fossil liquid fuels such as bunker C oil and solid fuels.

After conducting on-site evaluations and deliberations by a selection committee among applicant companies, the province plans to select 20 final supporting companies and provide support of up to 33 million won per company for the construction of related facilities (burners, storage tanks, piping, etc.).

The first round of supported facilities targets 10 business sites in 2 cities and counties: 7 sites in Yangju and 3 sites in Pocheon, areas where small-scale textile and dyeing businesses are concentrated.

Companies wishing to receive support can download the application form from the Gyeonggi Province Environmental Technology Support Center website (www.getc.or.kr) by the 14th, complete it, and submit it by mail or in person (Room 303, Test Production Building, Gyeonggi Daejin Technopark, 155 Jajak-ro, Pocheon-si, Gyeonggi Province Environmental Technology Support Center).

The second round of project applications is scheduled to be announced in May-June according to each city and county's schedule, with target cities and counties being Gimpo, Anseong, Yeoju, Yangpyeong, and Yeoncheon.

Additionally, business sites that have completed conversion to clean fuel can generate additional revenue by selling reduced greenhouse gas amounts according to the "Clean Fuel Conversion Public-Private Cooperation Business Agreement" signed last year by Gyeonggi Province and five institutions including Korea Mid-Central Power Generation Co., Ltd. upon conversion to clean fuel.

Choi Hye-min, Director of the Northern Environmental Management Division, stated, "This is a project that can fundamentally reduce fine dust emissions from small and medium enterprises and also create additional revenue for businesses through the sale of greenhouse gas emission allowances from clean fuel conversion, so we plan to continue promoting this going forward," and added, "We ask for active participation and cooperation from small and medium enterprises using fossil liquid fuels."

Meanwhile, the province has provided a total of 1.7 billion won in clean fuel conversion costs for 49 business sites from 2018 through last year.

As a result, dust was reduced by 84% from 22.7㎍/㎥ to 3.5㎍/㎥, SOx decreased from 58.1㎍/㎥ to 1.2㎍/㎥, and NOx decreased from 114.1㎍/㎥ to 32.8㎍/㎥, confirming that air pollutant emissions from each business site were reduced by approximately 85% and contributed to improving air quality in the Seoul metropolitan area.