Now it’s time to take a close look at a small but competitive business making a difference for the Korean economy. This week’s spotlight is on KoRyo Incinerator Co., better known as KRICO internationally.
President Park Geun-hye’s visit to East Africa has boosted Korean people’s interest in Africa, the land of opportunities. In the 21st century Africa has steadily enjoyed an annual average growth in the 5% range and is called the world’s last growth engine. During the president’s one-week tour of Ethiopia, Uganda, and Kenya, she was accompanied by an economic delegation comprised of representatives from 166 businesses. Unlike these businesses that are looking to enter the African market, one Korean company has already won recognition in Africa with its exceptional environmental technology. That company is Koryo Incinerator Co. or KRICO to foreign customers. Here’s its CEO Kim Hyang-won to tell us more about Korea’s top incinerator manufacturer.

KRICO was founded in 1985 and has been making incinerators that safely process waste. Our signature products are medical waste incinerators, which have been installed in several local hospitals and exported to many countries around the world. We met Myungsung Christian Medical Center’s President Kim Chul-soo in 2011 through a KOTRA officer in Ethiopia. At the time the doctor was in a dilemma, because he realized the serious dangers of medical waste and wanted to burn hospital waste like in Korea, but the cost of installing an incinerator was just too much. So we started developing hospital incinerators suitable for developing nations. That’s how we came to export to Ethiopia, Tanzania, and other African countries.




Among Korea’s first generation of environmental companies, KRICO entered the Ethiopian market in 2011. After being commissioned by a charity hospital operating out of the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa, KRICO CEO Kim Hyang-won started researching Ethiopia’s medical market. At the time, hospitals in Ethiopia burned infectious and toxic waste outdoors, causing serious environmental pollution. So KRICO set out to develop incinerators which would minimize the emission of air pollutants and which financially strapped hospitals in Ethiopia could afford. At last KRICO came up with a small pyrolysis incinerator for medical waste.

An incinerator appropriate for Africa means that it should be easy to use in Africa. It should be simple in structure, easy to operate, and low in installation and maintenance costs. It should also be environment-friendly, smokeless and odor-free. We were able to develop an incinerator that fit these requirements. Although it was small, it contained our long accumulated technology. It was operated on a batch-input basis and equipped with a pyrolysis system for high-efficiency incineration. This incinerator was installed at Myungsung Christian Medical Center in Ethiopia and applauded for its easy operation and maintenance.



As of 2014, KRICO has installed some 1,600 small and medium incinerators, about 100 incineration heat recovery boilers, and roughly 300 medical waste incinerators at hospitals nationwide, including Inha University Hospital and Yonsei University’s Severance Hospital. Having a wide range of experiences and technologies, KRICO was able to make medical waste incinerators that are simple in structure, yet produce no smoke or odor, and are easily affordable. After the easy-to-operate and highly efficient incinerator was set up, Myungsung Christian Medical Center, which looks after more than 500 outpatients and 100 inpatients daily, no longer worries about hygiene. As a matter of fact, KRICO received an environmental award from the Ethiopian government for the eco-friendly incinerator. Armed with exceptional technology, KRICO exports to Ethiopia, Tanzania and other African nations as well as to Indonesia, Iraq, and Papua New Guinea. But KRICO’s success wasn’t achieved overnight. All of its accomplishments were built from the ground up.

Although incineration is not a cutting-edge technology, it requires the integration of many different technologies. Burning oil for combustion calls for advance technologies. So imagine the level of technology required for burning all sorts of materials. Also, burning waste generates all sorts of air pollutants. We had to develop ways to minimize air pollutant emission and remove pollutants that were already emitted. At the time there was no incineration technology available in Korea and all the technologies had to be imported from overseas. A small company like KRICO could not afford to pay the huge royalty for the imported technology. So we started developing our own technology together with a local research center and were finally able to produce high quality products.


Kim Hyang-won established KRICO in 1985 with firm belief that waste can generate energy. Since then he has not strayed from pursuing the single goal of incinerator development. He studied day and night and worked in collaboration with the Korea Institute of Machinery & Materials and the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology to come up with an incinerator. As a result, KRICO was able to roll out a product that broadened the horizon for the local environmental industry.

Unlike general incinerators using upward air flow, an incinerator using downward air flow is better for burning solid waste with high calorific value. We also have the semi-dry scrubber. Incineration tends to generate acidic gas, which pollutes the air. Most incinerators use wet scrubbers to clean the air, but this method produces waste water, which requires a separate waste water processing plant. But our semi-dry scrubber sprays calcium hydroxide powder to remove gas substances in the air and prevents the discharge of waste water, thus eliminating the need to build a waste water treatment facility and making incinerator construction much easier.



KRICO has accumulated enough technology to develop 20 different kinds of incinerators and emerged as Korea’s top incinerator manufacturer. Now the company is looking to share its products and ideas with Africa, a country in dire need of environmental improvement. KRICO is improving the environment in Africa and showing how an environmentally conscious company that pursues mutually beneficial economic endeavors should run its business.