— Biodiesel

Severe air pollution over the big cities in Korea also helps the introduction of biodiesel in the transport sector because biodiesel blended fuels may reduce the emissions of the air pollutants from vehicles. Demonstration supply of BD20 had been started in Seoul Metropolitan and Chonbuk Province from May 2002 and lasted by June 2006. During the period of the demonstration supply, several important works have been done to resolve the controversial issues like the feasibility of BD20 as a motor fuel, the preparation of the biodiesel fuel specification and the establishment of distribution infra for the biodiesel blended fuels. After a year work, the draft for the standards having 16 specification parameters was made. The figures taken in the standards are virtually same to those of the European standards, EN14214. Actual fleet tests also have been done with BD5 and BD20 prepared with the biodiesel which meets the Korean biodiesel standards for two years. Through the fleet tests, BD20 was found to be not suitable for the passenger cars. In the meanwhile, no troubles have been observed with the use of BD5. So KMOCIE prepared a new biodiesel distribution system and enforced it from July of 2006 (Figure 1). According to new plan, all Korean oil refineries should buy 100,000 kl biodiesel /year and mix them into their diesel products and supply the blended diesel to all gas stations. As a result, all diesel oils sold in Korea contain about 0.5% of biodiesel. BD20 is allowed to supply only to captive fleets which have their own gas pumps.

With the strong support of Korean Government on biodiesel implementation, the biodiesel business is getting active. The stable supply of raw material is going to be an important issue. Various activities are under way to secure the stable supply of feedstocks for biodiesel production. The activities include the demonstration cultivation of winter rapeseed to determine the feasibility of mass production of canola domestically and Jatropha plantation in some Southeast Asian countries..