P&O Chemical’s Hydrogen Peroxide Production Plant Put into Operation

P&O Chemical, a joint venture of POSCO Chemical and OCI, opened a hydrogen peroxide production plant in Gwangyang on the nation's southern coast on Oct. 20. The annual production capacity of the 41,530 square meter plant is 50,000 tons and 145.9 billion won was invested to build it.

The plant is scheduled to supply both high-purity hydrogen peroxide essential for semiconductor wafer and substrate cleaning and etching and industrial hydrogen peroxide for bleaching and disinfection purposes.

It is the first plant in South Korea that produces hydrogen peroxide from coke oven gas (COG), which is a steel by-product gas. This COG-based production is economically more efficient than existing LNG-based production in that the raw material can be recycled. In addition, the former’s carbon emissions are approximately 71 percent of the latter’s.

The plant is linked to POSCO’ plant in the same area and the latter’s COG will be supplied to the former. Then, hydrogen extraction and refining will be conducted at the former and the COG will be sent back to the latter to be used as a heat source.