Following the Release of Government's Basic Plan
The government’s Hydrogen Economy Committee, chaired by the prime minister, announced its first basic plan for a transition to the hydrogen economy on Nov. 26, charting a new direction for the domestic hydrogen industry. Now, Korean companies are expected to start investing in hydrogen in earnest. They are planning to invest 50 trillion won by 2030
SK Group is expected to make the largest investment among major domestic business groups. The hydrogen value chain is divided into three major stages -- production, storage and distribution, and utilization. The group plans to invest a total of 18.5 trillion won in these three phases.
In the production sector, SK plans to mass-produce by-product hydrogen and modified hydrogen and invest in companies that produce turquoise hydrogen. It will make 30,000 tons of liquefied hydrogen by 2023 and 280,000 tons of clean hydrogen by 2025. SK E&S, SK’s gas and energy subsidiary, also announced on Nov. 22 that it will build the world’s largest blue hydrogen plant with an annual capacity of 250,000 tons in Boryeong, South Chungcheong Province by 2025.
In the storage and distribution stage, SK Group plans to supply liquefied hydrogen to more than 100 hydrogen charging stations nationwide through liquefied tank lorries. The hydrogen will be used for hydrogen buses and hydrogen cars. It also plans to supply 200,000 tons of hydrogen annually to power stations based on polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells (PEMFC) through dedicated pipelines. SK Ecoplant completed the construction of a large fuel cell power plant in the Jeolla region with Korea East-West Power on Nov. 3 and began its regular operation in earnest.
Hyundai Motor Group has mapped out a plan to invest 11.1 trillion won in hydrogen production (capturing by-product hydrogen from Hyundai Steel plants, hydrogen production through solar power generation in Saemangeum), storage and distribution (transportation using tube trailers), and utilization. Hyundai Motor recently appointed a president-level official as the head of its hydrogen business and carried out an organizational change to speed up development of hydrogen fuel cells and strengthen its business capabilities.
POSCO drew up a plan to invest about 10 trillion won in the hydrogen sector. The steelmaker is determined to produce 70,000 tons of hydrogen per year by 2025, and 500,000 tons of blue hydrogen per year by 2030. It will use liquefied hydrogen storage tanks made of special steel sheets, which were developed in-house, and reduce carbon dioxide emissions through a hydrogen reduction steelmaking method. It is also gearing up to generate hydrogen turbines and run by-product hydrogen charging stations.
Hanwha Group has begun to invest 1.3 trillion won in the hydrogen business and is also planning to invest about 30 billion won to secure water electrolysis technology. Hanwha Total has completed the world’s largest 5MW fuel cell power plant using byproduct hydrogen.
Hyosung Group has set the goal of producing 13,000 tons of by-product hydrogen a year by investing 1.2 trillion won. It aims to become the nation’s No. 1 hydrogen charging station construction company.
Hydrogen is classified into by-product hydrogen, reformed hydrogen, and water electrolysis hydrogen depending on production systems. Depending on greenhouse gas emissions, it is divided into brown hydrogen, gray hydrogen, blue hydrogen and green hydrogen according to color, and carbon dioxide generation decreases from brown to green but extraction costs increase.