On January 31st, Doosan Enerbility announced that it had attended the ceremony held at its Changwon headquarters to celebrate the construction completion of the “Changwon Hydrogen Liquefaction Plant.” Among the attendees were Chan Ki Park, Director General for Hydrogen Economy Policy under the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy(MOTIE); Nam-pyo Hong, Mayor of Changwon City; Myeong-hyun Ryu, Director General of Gyeongnam Province Industry Bureau and Hyeonho Lee, CEO of Doosan Enerbility’s Plant EPC Business Group.
Doosan Enerbility, as the EPC contractor, has been carrying out the commissioning process since completion of the plant construction last August. The company will also be handling operation & maintenance of the plant for the next 30 years. The plant was built to have the capacity to produce 5 tons of liquid hydrogen per day and approximately 1,800 tons of hydrogen per year. To produce the liquid hydrogen, natural gas reforming will be initially carried out to generate high-purity hydrogen gas, after which the crucial process of liquefying the hydrogen is carried out by using a cold box. The liquefied hydrogen that is produced in the extremely low temperature of minus 253℃ is comparatively much easier to store and transport, given that liquid hydrogen takes up only 1/800 of the volume usually taken up by hydrogen gas.
A number of business agreements were also signed on the day of the ceremony to promote the operation of liquid hydrogen fueling stations and supply of hydrogen buses. The Gyeongnam Province and Changwon City will be providing administrative support on setting up the hydrogen fueling stations, while local entities, transport companies and travel agencies in the area will be pursuing the transition of employee shuttle buses and public transportation buses to hydrogen buses. The liquid hydrogen supplier Hychangwon Co. had entered into numerous hydrogen purchase agreements with 20 clients that day.
“We would like to thank Changwon City for all its efforts and support on ensuring the successful construction of Korea’s first hydrogen liquefaction plant,” said Hyeonho Lee, head of Doosan Enerbility’s Plant EPC Business Group. “We plan to do our utmost to promote the development of technology for hydrogen, a key carbon-free energy source, and to expand our hydrogen production capacity.”
Doosan Enerbility is in the process of completing construction of the hydrogen value chain, encompassing the stages of hydrogen production to utilization. The company had taken part in the state-led project that involved building a green hydrogen production plant powered by wind energy in Jeju, with this culminating in the start of the plant’s commercial operation last year. Work is currently being carried out to complete the development of a 400MW ultra-large 100% hydrogen-fueled gas turbine by 2027.
