AT ENG Co., Ltd. (Seng-tae Park, CEO)

The hybrid dehumidifier, commercialized through this research task utilizing mechanical dehumidification and desiccant dehumidification, is green technology certified product that operates the 1st mechaical dehumidification using one or multiple compressors followed by 2nd desiccant dehumidification with waste heat from the compressor, and achieves more than double dehumidification performance and 40% energy saving. Especially it is 100% localized product made by domestic self technology only, thus no royalty is paid to suppliers abroad and 50% of import-substituting effect is expected. Moreover, compressor operation is hard in the middle seasons (spring•autumn) due to low outdoor temperature for hybrid air dehumidifier, but converting to hybrid condensation dehumidifier allows normal operation even in lower than 15℃ outdoor temperature, demonstrating good dehumidification performance, which is considered as laying the groundwork for all-year-round driving.

Secure national competitiveness with independent technical development

Because of global interest in low carbon emission and green technology invigoration according to the Climatic Change Convention and the tendency of the Korean Peninsula toward becoming subtropical, more damage from humidity is expected.
Accordingly, the hybrid dehumidifier developed through this research task is certified product by internationally recognized LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) in U.S. Green Building Council. This product received high praise for securing national competitiveness, because of self-developing hybrid dehumidifiers that used to be developed and sold in the USA, Japan, and Europe and more than 20% lower price than the
selling price overseas. AT ENG, established in July 2004, has grown a dehumidifier specialized company with new technical development rather than existing technology, and they are moving to the field of industrial clean room and dryer for new business.
For dehumidifier related industrial property rights, they registered total 20 rights including two foreign patents, and 11 domestic patents. In the dehumidifier field, that can be divided into heat recovery mechanical dehumidifier (energy saving 20% or higher, dew point temperature 12℃ or higher), hybrid dehumidifier (energy saving 40% or higher, dew point temperature 15~-5℃), desiccant purge dehumidifier (energy saving 30% or higher, dew point temperature -0~-25℃), and twin rotor dry room dehumidifier (energy saving 25% or higher, dew point temperature -20~-80℃), AT ENG’s hybrid dehumidifier and twin rotor dehumidifier have been selected by the Korea Energy Agency for Soft Loan for Energy Saving Facilities & Tax Incentives, and the only products in the country that were developed and sold without any introduction of foreign technology.

Outstanding technical power earns IR 52 Jangyoungsil award

The core technology of this research task ‘hybrid dehumidification air conditioning system technology that performs mechanical dehumidification and desiccant dehumidification with compressor waste heat simultaneously’ acquired green technology certificate (Dec. 2011 ~ Dec. 2015), and won IR 52 Jangyoungsil award (Nov. 7th, 2011) for 40% of energy saving. Product utilizing such technology includes hybrid dehumidifiers, hybrid condensation dehumidifiers, and hybrid HACCP dehumidifiers, and large products include hybrid out air dehumidifiers. For hybrid out air dehumidifiers used in the ship painting process, existing combination system (pre-cooler + desiccant dehumidification) shows 15,000CMH, while AT ENG’s product shows 22,000 and 30,000CMH; doubled performance with identical power. Therefore this product may improve productivity and offer 40% or more energy saving at the site, and will take center stage as a main product in shipping industry.
New Excellent Technology Authentication (NET) and green technology certification were requested through performance tests in Foundation of Agre, Tech, Commercialization & Transfer for desiccant cold air dryer (energy saving 30% or higher) and heat pump hot air dryer(energy saving 50% or higher), newly developed product in dryer field. Moreover, submission to Korea Invention Patent Exhibition 2015 and Superior Brand Contest were requested, and technical assessment for industrialization link patent was also requested for heat pump hot air dryer. Seng-tae Park, CEO of AT ENG who directed this research task said that “In September, ‘heat pump and desiccant hybrid dryer development for drying agricultural and marine products’ performed as a research task of Korea Institute of Energy Technology Evaluation and Planning will be completed, and fast industrialization by concentrating its commercialization is key task in 2016”, and “We
have joint research and development requests from universities or research institutes, but we plan to concentrate on industrialization for the time being in the consideration that commercialization of the developed dryer is more important.”

Market exploitation through customized production design

Currently, many companies are competing in the domestic in dehumidifier market, including Shinsung Engineering separated from Shinsung E&G at the head, AT ENG, Munters Korea, Flakt Wood Korea, CK Solution, Hiair Air-conditioning, Servan Engineering, and ACE R&A, a subsidiary of LG Electronics. Shinsung Engineering and CK Solution, top-rank companies in the dehumidifier industry, have considerable sales volume with dry room dehumidifier, but there has been no product improvement for 1-rotor dehumidification system since it was developed in 1990s. Whereas, Japanese dry room dehumidifiers are smartly responding to energy saving with 2-rotor or 3-rotor system. In this occasion, twin rotor dry room dehumidifier (item for Soft Loan for Energy Saving Facilities & Tax Incentives) developed by AT ENG secure more than 25% of energy saving compared to 1-rotor system, thus the product price can be collected within 5 years. But, its application is still poor because of structural issue that large companies are sensitive to the changing of existing supplier. Nevertheless, it is expected that AT ENG, achieving performance with more than 20 buyer including KIST, Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute, Korea Institute of Industrial Technology, SK Innovation, Solbrain, and Vina Tech, will bring changes in domestic dehumidifier market domination.
Especially, AT ENG breaks into the market through customized production design so that the developed product can be applied suitable to its purpose. Such customized production saves operation cost and helps to enhance productivity. In this context, CEO Park said, “Accumulative industrialization performance is 12.12 billion won for 171 units, and the highest performance was achieved in 2014 with 4.52 billion won for 58 units. For this year,
we achieved 1.68 billion won for 15 units so far. The sales of hybrid dehumidifiers are so stable that we will achieve 5-billion won sooner rather than later. Although it is hard to collect proper data because there is no organization that compiles statistics for hybrid dehumidifiers, we estimate that our market share would be more than 50%.”

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