▲ Kim Hyun-seung

Located in Daedeok Techno Valley, Daejeon, the advanced plasma technology specialist Pacep is attracting a great attention with its development of eco-friendly wood drying and sterilization machine called ‘MAMA’ which significantly improved efficiency of wood processing.

Felling often involves a huge waste of wood through incineration, crushing and fumigation alongside pine wilt disease. In terms of the latter, there is no cure yet but spraying drugs or cutting them down. The development of the Pacep’s eco-friendly wood drying and sterilization machine, in this respect, is but good news. 

The brains of this innovative machine are CEO Kim Hyun-seung, Park Su-hoon (PhD, Korea Environment Institute), and Park Chan-il (former researcher of Korea Institute of Machinery and Materials) who developed Korea’s first maglev train and received a presidential citation. 

CEO Kim says “I majored in physics and had a great interest in plasma. I happened to use wood chip for supplying of fuel at a plasma torch-based project and came to know the fact that pine wilt disease was the obstacle to secure quality wood chip. So I and my colleagues tried to develop a sterilization machine by using microwave and the result is MAMA.”

MAMA has many functions: it uses incineration or fumigation to prevent secondary contamination, enables eco-friendly physical sterilization, and kills the larva of pine sawyer or pine wilt factors. 

It is designed to adjust the percentage of water content by 18 to 25%. Also, the more than 100℃ inner temperature to sterilize saves our time and labor. In addition, MAMA reduced the crack and bending phenomenon of the wood which naturally increased utilization. Other advantages include self-assemble and reassemble function and the big buttons for easy control.

“I think science and technology are for the users of the device not the makers. In other words, the user convenience must always come first” says Kim.

MAMA was highly sought after at the 1.3 billion won Korean house, hotel and culture exhibition facilities project in Yeongwol County. It also took the center stage of attention at the 3rd Seoul Hanok Expo held at SETEC and was listed in the 2018 Intellectual Property Application Project.

“It is my wish to make contribution to development of the Koran wood industry while making profits on export. We are familiar with the slogan ‘Green and Greener’ but I would like to change it to ‘Useful and More Useful’.”

When asked about future plan, Kim said “We will develop more of plasma-based devices through innovative Pacep Research Center for the benefit of people on earth over Korea.”