In November 2020, Doosan Enerbility signed a contract to build Korea’s first hydrogen liquefaction plant. Doosan will be handling the EPC work, as well as the operation & maintenance services for 20 years after the plant has been built. The plant, which is to be built on the grounds of Doosan Enerbility’s Changwon headquarters by 2022, will have the capacity to produce 5 tons of liquefied hydrogen daily. Commercial operation is slated to start in 2023 and the liquefied hydrogen will then be supplied to the hydrogen bus charging stations in Changwon. Application of the most optimal technology such as the CCUS (Carbon Capture, Utilization and Storage) and blue hydrogen production is being reviewed for the plant.

Doosan Enerbility is currently participating in several green hydrogen demonstration projects that include the solar powered project in the East Sea and the wind powered project in Jeju island. Green hydrogen, which is created through water electrolysis using renewable electricity, is noted as being a clean hydrogen that emits zero CO² throughout the entire hydrogen production process. In order to implement an eco-friendly hydrogen economy in the future, the use of green hydrogen will be essential and as such, Doosan plans to take the preemptive action of executing related demonstration projects as part of its efforts to secure green hydrogen production technology and build a solid track record in this field.

Owing to the need to respond to climate change and the goal of achieving carbon neutrality, it is forecast that there will be a large demand for clean hydrogen in the power generation sector going forward. However, due to the limited supply of renewable energy sources and constraints in finding CO² storage space in Korea, the clean hydrogen that can be produced locally will not be enough to meet the growing demand. Thus, by leveraging our green hydrogen production technology and capabilities as a power equipment supplier, we plan to contribute to the establishment of an economical and stable supply of clean hydrogen by using methods, such as importing hydrogen from overseas.

Doosan Enerbility is preparing for the hydrogen production business using nuclear energy, as reflected in the MoU it signed with Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power in May 2021 on strengthening cooperation for clean hydrogen production and convergence of energy technology. The nuclear energy-based hydrogen production method, which uses the combination of steam and electricity generated from nuclear power plants and water electrolyzers, is likely to play a pivotal role in the future as it offers the economic advantages of blue hydrogen and green hydrogen’s advantage of being CO²-free, while also being a good supplement to the intermittent renewable energy. We plan to apply the expertise we acquired over the past 40 years as a local and global supplier of nuclear power equipment & services in the development of nuclear energy-based hydrogen production, which we are hoping will ultimately help with achieving our goal of building a hydrogen economy.