A Hydrogen Fuel Cell Power Plant
Hanhwa Energy has begun construction of the world’s first by-product hydrogen fuel cell electric power station that emits no fine dust.
Hanhwa Energy said on August 16 that Daesan Green Energy broke ground on a hydrogen fuel cell electric power station with the maximum output of 50MW in the Daesan industrial complex, South Chungchung Province.
The new power station will cost 25 billion won and will be built on a site of 20,000 square meters. For this project, Hanhwa Energy has established a special purpose company called Daesan Green Energy with Korea East-west Power Company (35% shares), Doosan, Co., Ltd. (10%), and SK Securities (6%).
The by-product hydrogen fuel cell electric power station will be producing 40,000 MWh of electricity per year, starting in June 2020. According to the related industry, the production of electricity using by-product hydrogen in advanced countries remains at a 1MW level. With the maximum output of 50MW, this project has been catching attention from Europe, Japan, and China.
With this, Hanhwa Energy, which has been operating group energy businesses and solar power generation businesses, has now expanded its business to hydrogen fuel cell production. The hydrogen fuel cell power generation produces electrical energy by extracting the by-product hydrogen from chemical process in petrochemistry industrial complex and making an electrochemical reaction with oxygen.
The hydrogen used by Daesan Green Energy is the by-product hydrogen that is produced during the processing of aromatic in Hanhwa Total Daesan factory. The fuel cell produces water (H20) as a by-product in the process of electricity generation, and about 40,000 tons of water (H20) is recycled by Hanhwa Total. Moreover, Korea East-west Power Company, who is the main stockholder, will buy renewable energy certificate of 800,000 MW per year. The current law requires a power business with the power equipment that exceeds 500MW to generate renewable energy and receive the government certificate.
The biggest characteristic of an electric power station that uses by-product hydrogen is that it does not emit (0) any air pollutant (fine dust). Nitrogen oxides (NOx), sulfur oxides (SOx), and dust, which are the main component of the fine dust, as well as micro-fine dust are filtered through fine filter. The fine dust emission standard that has become stricter has been preemptively applied. In fact, the fine dust emission standard, which was 180ppm for SOx, 20㎎/S㎡ for dust, and 120rmp for NOx in 2001, has changed to 70ppm, 10㎎/S㎡, and 70ppm accordingly.