Community

Community

community

뉴스

페이지 정보

Pay attention to wasted energy for Carbon Reduction in Construction

작성일 2023.11.14

본문

[Interview] Taerang Jung ‘CEO of READi Robust Machine’
Reduction carbon emissions by 30% by increasing fuel efficiency of construction equipment
3 billion won worth of investment is attracted in just one year since its establishment
"The automotive industry is rapidly turning from internal combustion engines to electric motors. To reduce carbon emissions from fuel use. However, excavators, bulldozers, and forklifts, which are classified as construction machines, are a little different. In the case of excavators that use diesel like automobiles, there is almost no energy conversion movement despite low fuel efficiency and heavy energy waste. If you catch the energy that's thrown away, you'll have a big reduction in carbon emissions. What we've noticed is energy efficiency."

Taerang Jung (36), CEO of READi Robust Machine, said, "Energy efficiency of construction equipment is essential to achieve carbon neutrality in the construction industry." READi Robust Machine has fuel-saving technology that can reduce fuel consumption by up to 30% in construction equipment such as excavators. It is a technology that stores hydraulic and potential energy that is discarded whenever the excavator moves and uses it again as an energy source.

The construction industry is a carbon-producing industry. According to the UNEP's Global Status Report in 2020, the annual carbon emissions in the construction and construction sector are 9.95 GtCO2e, which is about 38% of the total emissions. CEO Taerang Jung met at the headquarters in Gimhae, Gyeongsangnam-do, on the 20th to apply new energy efficiency solutions in the construction and civil fields that are conservative to change. CEO Jung, who founded READi Robust Machine in 2021, said, "The carbon reduction efforts in the construction and civil engineering sectors, which have the largest carbon emissions among all industries, will have a greater effect."

“We need to pay attention to wasted energy to reduce carbon emissions”
- Q. How much carbon does the construction machine emit?
A. “A 30-ton excavator uses 200 to 300 liters of diesel a day. In terms of annual carbon emissions, it is 196 tons, which is equivalent to the carbon emissions emitted by 100 cars traveling 15,000 kilometers."

- Q. Carbon reduction is a global trend, but isn't the construction industry working hard?

A. “Of course, the construction industry is also making steady efforts to reduce carbon emissions. Working in Volvo for 10 years, I have been doing research in the field of energy efficiency. However, all efforts are focused only on the new equipment. Although there are about 1.2 million newly built construction machines every year, there are about five times more construction machines in the used market than new ones. This is why we need a solution that can reduce carbon emissions even for used construction equipment."

-Q. There are many unfamiliar concepts such as hydraulic and potential energy.

A. “Energy is the key to reducing carbon in construction equipment. The reason why construction equipment can generate great power lies in hydraulic pressure and potential energy. Hydraulic pressure is a principle that applies pressure to oil to operate cylinders and pistons to allow the machine to move. It is easy to think that the pressure applied to the oil is turned into a moving force by the construction machine. Potential energy is the energy generated when a moving arm is floating on the ground to dig up the soil of an excavator. Because of gravity, an object in the air falls down, and you can think of it as the energy that is generated at this time."

-Q. How do you increase energy efficiency?

A. All existing hydraulic and potential energy will be discarded. Construction equipment manufacturers are attempting to store it. However, the company that commercialized the technology that recovers potential energy by gravity is one in a hundred. This is because it is difficult to secure delicate operability while recovering the potential energy of extremely heavy machines in the construction industry, where safety is the top priority. In addition, it is inefficient at the company level that certain manufacturers develop solutions to other manufacturers' equipment or used equipment, and they are reluctant to develop them."

- Q. Are there any efforts to reduce carbon in construction equipment in Korea?

A. There is an emission reduction project implemented by the Ministry of Environment. It is a measure to reduce carbon emissions by attaching a diesel particle reduction filter (DPF) to construction equipment. However, in the actual field, they only attach it and turn off the function. This is because the machine efficiency drops rapidly. Turning on DPF increases the amount of diesel required to handle a set workload. There will be no owners who want to spend more of their own money working on."

-From energy recovery to diagnostics… build a smart construction site
-What technology does the READi Robust Machine possess?

A. "We can say it's a smart fuel reduction system. READi, its smart fuel reduction system, consists of an accumulator that stores potential and hydraulic energy generated when lowering the arm of the excavator, a "smart valve control technology" for delicate operation of construction equipment, and a mobile application that allows clients to easily check energy storage and turn it into data in the cloud. In particular, the READi can be attached to any new or used model. Any construction equipment brands are available."

Q. How much energy can you save?

A. “Numerous times of our fuel efficiency test data have reduced fuel costs by an average of 20-30%. What's interesting is that the older the construction machine, the more efficient it was. When the system was applied to a 30t excavator that uses an average of 200L of diesel, it saved 40 to 60L of diesel. If you convert this into money, you can save about 2 million won to 3 million won a month for gas."

- Q. Are there any companies that have applied READi technology?

A. “So far, we have received a total investment of 3.1 billion won to develop READi products and complete efficiency improvements. In December last year, it completed the contract to officially place an order after delivering samples to a dealer dealing with Dutch construction equipment. Korean market is waiting for contracts from individual customers to major companies as it is set to launch in earnest in the first half of this year."

Q. What's your future goal?

"It's about creating a smart construction site. In the future, machines will work automatically in all fields. Everything is also changing at construction sites that have adhered to traditional ways. READi means creating intelligent construction sites through robotics, energy conversion, automation, and diagnostics. The other thing is to create quality jobs in the region. Most young people these days live in Seoul. This is not because Seoul is the best city to live, but because all the places to work are concentrated in Seoul. We will continue to grow so that young people can work in Gyeongsangnam-do."

Gimhae = Reporter Hwang Won-gyu wonq@chosun.com

Link: https://www.futurechosun.com/archives/75211