SK to co-invest $50 mn in US-based Fulcrum BioEnergy

South Korea's SK Inc. on Thursday said it would co-invest $50 million in the US-based Fulcrum BioEnergy with a domestic private equity fund, in a bid to advance into the biofuel market.

Fulcrum, founded in 2007, commercialized the world's first municipal solid waste-based biofuels refinery in Nevada in July of this year. The refinery will produce 40,000 tons of synthetic crude oil annually from next year.

The investment is aimed for SK to enter the biofuel market in cooperation with Fulcrum, which has long-term supply contracts with major waste treatment companies in the US. SK did not identify the PE firm, the co-investment partner.

The bioenergy company has obtained patents in relation to the waste-to-fuel process to produce high-purity synthetic crude oil and aviation fuel from waste.

Biofuels are expected to help sharply reduce greenhouse gas emissions and solve the problem of the shortage of landfill space, said Kim Moohwan, executive vice president of SK Inc. and head of its Green Investment Center. 

"While exploring a business opportunity in the domestic waste-based biofuel market together with SK Ecoplant, we will expand our share in the global waste recycling and bioenergy markets," Kim said in a statement.

SK Ecoplant is a construction arm of the SK Group, and SK Inc. is the group's holding company.

The world's biofuel market was estimated at 144 billion liters last year, worth around $135 billion, according to the International Energy Agency. The US accounts for 45% of the global biofuel production.

Write to Jeong-min Nam at peux@hankyung.com
Yeonhee Kim edited this article.