In Korea, every year from July to August, the Boryeong Mud Festival is held in Boryeong, Chungcheongnam-do. As the vacation season begins, it is one of the festivals that people simply cannot miss. The sight of foreign visitors flocking to the festival to experience Korea’s tidal flat culture is so iconic that it is even mentioned in textbooks.
Tidal Flats? NO, NO — Now It’s Mud!
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| wipsglobal.com> SmartCloud patent analysis for utilizing mud |
In particular, as research has revealed that various components contained in tidal flat mud are highly beneficial to human health, its economic value has also continued to grow. Today, tidal flats can be regarded as natural resources that attract attention not only for their ecological importance but also for their industrial potential.
At one time in
Korea, clay beds gained significant popularity due to their perceived health
benefits. This trend was rooted in structures based on the principles of
traditional ondol
heating systems. Clay panels heated by electric coils would slowly release heat
as they cooled, much like ondol,
and during this process, far-infrared radiation stored in the clay was
gradually emitted and transmitted to the body, which was believed to promote
health.
Mud, in fact, has much finer particles than ordinary clay, allowing it to retain heat for longer periods and emit even higher levels of far-infrared radiation. This makes mud an excellent potential material for clay beds. However, since most mud is collected from tidal flats, it often contains salt and various impurities, making it difficult to obtain mud panels of sufficiently pure quality.
To address this challenge, Boryeong City—well known for its high-quality mud resources—and a research team from Chungwoon University focused on removing impurities from mud as thoroughly as possible to produce high-purity mud panels. After years of effort, they developed the following manufacturing method.
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| wipsglobal.com> View Details KR10-2013-0011454, Mud panel and it's manufacture method |
First, the mud is
washed several times with fresh water to remove as much salt as possible and
increase its purity. Next, crushers and sieves are used to physically filter
out various impurities, yielding refined mud. The refined mud is then placed in
a large container together with fresh water.
The reason for mixing the refined mud again with fresh water is to extract mud composed of only pure components. When the mud mixture is left to stand for an extended period, differences in density cause the fresh water and mud to separate naturally. At this stage, the denser mud settles at the bottom of the container through sedimentation. By extracting only this settled mud, impurities and coarse particles are effectively removed, allowing highly pure mud to be obtained. This step is considered the most critical part of the entire process.
The high-purity mud extracted through this process is then combined with natural materials, shaped together with jute fabric, and coated to form panels. These finished mud panels offer excellent thermal insulation and can be used as building finishing materials, but they are most commonly utilized as the base mattress for mud beds.
Mud Extract Cosmetics
Mud is rich in minerals
and other components that are beneficial to the skin, making it a material
capable of delivering various effects such as skin care, removal of impurities,
and moisture regulation. For these reasons, mineral-rich mud is now widely used
as a natural additive in many cosmetic products.
Building on this trend, Boryeong—known for its vast tidal flats and superior mud quality—has long pursued independent research and development, not only on extraction methods for Boryeong mud extract but also on technologies for producing whitening cosmetics using these extracts.
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| wipsglobal.com> View Details KR10-2010-0090533, Method of extracting for sea silt extract and whitening functional cosmetic composition containing the extract |
This patent covers a technology for manufacturing whitening functional cosmetics using mud extracts and is the result of joint research by Boryeong City and Chungwoon University. Notably, this patent consists solely of claim descriptions without separate drawings. According to the specification, the process requires repeating the mixing of mud with purified water at least five times, while strictly maintaining precise weight ratios at each stage, in order to obtain an extract of sufficient quality for cosmetic use. This level of detail helps explain why the technology is far from simple.
Healing Mud Powered by the Sea
Amid the growing
popularity of wellness, one emerging field attracting attention is marine healing. Marine
healing refers to activities that promote physical and mental health by
utilizing various marine natural resources, such as tidal flats, seawater,
seaweed, and marine climates. As a peninsula surrounded by the sea on three
sides, Korea is exceptionally well suited to marine healing.
Among the many marine resources used for marine healing, mud stands out as one of the most representative. Naturally rich in minerals and various active components, mud has gained attention as a material that supports both health and beauty, offering benefits such as skin soothing, detoxification, and moisturization. However, mud collected directly from nature may contain heavy metals or harmful microorganisms. Therefore, it must undergo purification and be processed into a clean, impurity-free form to ensure safe use.
In response to
this need, the Korea Institute of Ocean Science and Technology developed a
manufacturing process for producing high-quality mud suitable for marine
healing and filed it as a patent.
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| wipsglobal.com> Drawing KR10-2529986, Marine healing mud and manufacturing method thereof |
The core of this technology lies in a purification method using a sedimentation tank. This process makes it possible to efficiently separate and extract high-purity mud with ultra-fine particles smaller than 50 μm (micrometers)—something that was difficult to achieve with conventional methods. The purified mud can then be dried or reprocessed into powder form, making it suitable not only for marine healing applications but also as a raw material for functional cosmetics, demonstrating its versatility across multiple fields.
We have now explored various technologies related to mud, which has transformed from discarded soil into a valuable treasure of the sea. The Boryeong Mud Festival is truly an unmissable summer event in Korea. Why not experience it for yourself someday?
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| gettyimagesbank.com Mud festival |
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