South Korea is building a direct air capture (DAC) industrialization hub in Pohang, backed by 32 billion won (about $24 million) in national R&D funding over five years. The project aims to lower DAC costs from roughly $60 per ton today to $30 per ton by 2030, and eventually $20 per ton by 2050. The research team plans to demonstrate a system capturing 200 kg of CO2 per day and produce front-end engineering design data for a 1,000-ton-per-year plant. Gyeongbuk Technopark will run on-site operations at the Hodong landfill site, including demonstration infrastructure and regulatory coordination. The project also includes a DAC-to-methanol conversion facility led by the Korea Institute of Science and Technology. Local steel and energy demand for carbon reduction, plus proximity to research institutes like POSTECH, make Pohang a logical site for this work. The cost targets are ambitious given current DAC economics, but the funding and institutional backing are substantial. Worth watching whether the solid sorbent and continuous system improvements actually deliver the promised cost reductions at scale.
