South Korea has unveiled a new roadmap to make the country the “world’s No. 1 hydrogen industry” by the end of the decade, with increased support for H2 vehicles and filling stations, electrolysers and fuel cells, hydrogen turbines for power plants, and ships carrying liquid H2.

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New policies announced by conservative Prime Minister Han Duck-soo include subsidising hydrogen buses and trucks; boosting the number of H2-powered commercial vehicles from 211 today to 30,000 by 2030; building 70 liquid-hydrogen fuelling stations across the country; and producing 7.1% of its electricity from hydrogen by 2036 — up from zero today — through “hydrogen-enriched combustion combining hydrogen and ammonia”.

In order to do this, the government aims to “fully localise” water electrolysis technology and “gain” liquefaction and ammonia process technology, and lead the global hydrogen mobility market — raising the number of H2-focused companies in South Korea from 52 to 600 by 2030.

This will partly be achieved by removing “business-hampering regulations”.

South Korea has focused on the use of hydrogen for transport and power because it does not believe it will be able to produce enough green electricity itself to reach its target of net-zero emissions by 2050, largely due to a lack of available land in the densely populated country. Its geographic isolation also means it could struggle to import green electricity via cables from neighbouring countries.

It therefore believes it will have to import large quantities of clean hydrogen to reach net zero — even if that would significantly increase the cost of energy in the country.

One of the main aims of the new hydrogen roadmap is to establish H2 “supply channels” from Southeast Asia and the Middle East.

“We will further boost demand for hydrogen, particularly in production and mobility fields, and to take the lead in the establishment of global hydrogen supply chains,” said the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy in a press release.

“We will also set up major production facilities and related infrastructures not only at home but also in foreign nations.”

In addition, the roadmap promises to increase exports of hydrogen vehicles, fuel cells, electrolysers, liquid hydrogen cargo vessels and H2 fuelling technology.

Three growth strategies

The roadmap categorises its plans into three growth strategies, referred to as “Scale-Up”, “Build-Up” and “Level Up”.

“The Scale-Up strategy sets out to expand the clean hydrogen ecosystem by establishing a global supply chain and creating large-scale hydrogen demand in terms of power generation and transportation,” the press release explains.

“It aims to achieve hydrogen enriched combustion combining hydrogen and ammonia, and to enlarge the supply of high-mobility like hydrogen buses and trucks. Large-scale production bases will be built overseas.

“Build-Up intends to establish a legal framework for the distribution infrastructure for accelerating clean hydrogen utilisation. This includes building the world’s largest liquid hydrogen plant and fueling station, an ammonia and liquid hydrogen receiving terminal as well as installing a hydrogen pipeline. Plans also include opening a hydrogen bid market, hydrogen business laws legislation and introducing a clean hydrogen certification system.”

The press release continues: “Level Up is about technological innovation to become the world-leading hydrogen powerhouse. This entails securing core technologies for not just hydrogen utilisation, but also for all areas across the full hydrogen lifecycle from production to distribution.

“Seven major strategic areas (e.g., water electrolysis, hydrogen turbines) are to be nurtured, and companies with technical prowess will receive support. Business-hampering regulations will be removed and domestic production will be commercialized for exporting to overseas markets.”

How does it compare to the 2019 hydrogen roadmap?

In January 2019, then President Moon Jae-in unveiled ambitious plans for a hydrogen economy, with plans to build 6.2 million fuel-cell vehicles (FCVs), 1,200 hydrogen filling stations, 41,000 hydrogen buses and 15GW of fuel cells for industrial power generation by 2040.

He declared at the time that South Korea would increase the number of hydrogen cars to “81,000 by 2022, 1.8 million by 2030, swiftly raising it to millions thereafter”.

According to a recent study published in the journal Energies, South Korea had 19,404 FCVs on the road at the end of 2021 — far more than any other nation and 38% of the global total.

The Moon roadmap also included establishing an “overseas production base to stabilise hydrogen production, import, supply and demand”, but this has not yet happened.