Committed to Creating Hydrogen Industry
South Korean companies are making proactive investments with hydrogen expected to account for 18 percent of the global energy demand in 2050.
For example, Hyundai Motor Group is planning to invest a total of 7.6 trillion won in the hydrogen industry to create 51,000 jobs there and produce 500,000 hydrogen electric vehicles a year by 2030. In July this year, it established the world’s first mass production system for hydrogen electric trucks and began to export its hydrogen electric trucks to Switzerland.
Hyundai Rotem recently added hydrogen charging facility supply to its business portfolio. Its hydrogen reformer plant in Uiwang, Gyeonggi Province is scheduled to be put into operation within this year. Hyundai Mobis built a new fuel cell system plant in Chungju, North Chungcheong Province in 2018 and is planning to increase its annual capacity to at least 40,000 units by 2022.
Hanwha Group is working on green hydrogen, that is, hydrogen production from renewable energy sources such as the sun instead of petroleum and natural gas. To this end, the chemical business unit of Hanwha Solutions has invested approximately 30 billion won in water electrolysis for green hydrogen production. In the joint project of the company and the German government that is scheduled to start in 2023, the Q Cells unit of the company will supply solar power, the chemical business unit will produce green hydrogen by water electrolysis, and then the hydrogen will be stored in tanks developed by its advanced materials unit. Hanwha Energy, in the meantime, built a byproduct hydrogen-based fuel cell power plant in July by investing 255 billion won. The 50 MW power plant is expected to generate 400,000 MWh of power a year.
Hyosung is going to build the world’s largest liquefied hydrogen plant in Ulsan City by 2022 by investing 300 billion won in cooperation with The Linde Group. Liquefied hydrogen to be produced there will be used for vehicles, drones, ships, forklifts, and the like. Also, it is going to build 120 hydrogen charging stations nationwide for liquefied hydrogen charging infrastructure expansion.
In Doosan Group, Doosan Fuel cell and Doosan Mobility Innovation are in charge of fuel cell supply for power generation and hydrogen drone development, respectively. The former built a fuel cell power plant in Seosan in July and the plant uses byproduct hydrogen supplied from Hanwha Total. Equipped with 114 fuel cells, it is the world’s first and largest fuel cell power plant.
Kolon Industries is distinguishing itself in the development of moisture control systems for hydrogen fuel cells. It came up with the world’s first commercial hydrogen fuel cell moisture control system in 2013 and is working with global partners to increase its global market share to 50 percent.