POSCO forms partnerships for green hydrogen
POSCO Hydrogen Business Office Head Cho Ju-ik, center, poses with Korea Institute of Science and Technology Director-General Han Jong-hee, left and Research Institute of Industrial Science & Technology Environmental Energy Research Center chief Hwang Gye-soon, during a signing ceremony for their hydrogen business partnership at POSCO Center in Seoul, Thursday. Courtesy of POSCO
By Nam Hyun-woo
POSCO signed a number of partnerships with research institutes and an energy company to improve its business capabilities for green hydrogen, which refers to hydrogen produced without fossil resources.
The steelmaker said Thursday that it signed a trilateral partnership with Korea Institute of Science and Technology (KIST) and Research Institute of Industrial Science & Technology (RIST) on strengthened cooperation in hydrogen research projects.
“Through the partnership, we seek to commercialize the technology of extracting hydrogen from ammonia, thus helping the expansion of green hydrogen in Korea,” POSCO Hydrogen Business Office Head Cho Ju-ik said during the signing ceremony.
Currently, hydrogen liquefaction, ammonia synthesis and a number of other technologies are being researched to transport hydrogen. Of them, ammonia synthesis is considered the most efficient method because of the low loss rate. Also, it can be transported using the existing logistics network, thus lowering the overall cost.
The technology to synthesize hydrogen into ammonia is already in commercial use, but the reversal technology is still in its infant stage.
Through the partnership, POSCO, KIST and RIST will jointly work on developing technologies to mass produce hydrogen from ammonia.
Last year, KIST developed a technology to extract high purity hydrogen from ammonia, and the institute seeks to develop catalysts to improve extraction efficiency through the partnership. RIST will be focusing on scaling up the hydrogen extraction process to commercial level, POSCO said.
Through this research, POSCO seeks to establish a green hydrogen business model. When electricity is generated from renewable energy sources, it will be used for water electrolysis to produce hydrogen. The hydrogen will be synthesized into ammonia for transport and then extracted as hydrogen for power fuel cell systems.
As part of this initiative, POSCO signed an agreement with Australian power firm Origin Energy earlier this month.
Currently, Origin Energy is working on a project to generate 70,000 tons of green hydrogen annually from a 500 megawatt hydropower plant in Tasmania. POSCO and Origin Energy will run a feasibility test of this project until the end of this year. Through the agreement, POSCO seeks to import green hydrogen produced in Australia.