Doosan Heavy Industries & Construction (DHIC) announced on May 6 that it has signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Libotec, which has a continuous pyrolysis technology for waste plastics, to develop hydrogen production technology using waste plastics.
Libotec will produce gas from waste plastic through continuous pyrolysis, while Doosan Heavy Industries will be in charge of developing equipment to reform the pyrolyzed gas into hydrogen and building the plant. Doosan Heavy Industries has developed a hydrogen reformer capable of producing about 300 kilograms of hydrogen per day, which will be installed and operated at Libotec’s plant. The company plans to conduct demonstrations and commercialize a technology that can produce more than three tons of hydrogen per day from waste plastic.
The vice president of Doosan Heavy Industries said, “The amount of waste plastic generated in Korea every year reaches about 8 million tons. It is possible to develop a technology that is equivalent to about 4 million tons of that waste, which is landfilled, incinerated, or turned into solid fuel (SRF). The conversion of waste plastic into hydrogen will contribute to resource recycling and carbon neutrality, and the hydrogen produced can be used in fuel cells and hydrogen gas turbines.”
Doosan Heavy Industries, which is strengthening its eco-energy business, is also expanding its hydrogen business: it is building a hydrogen liquefaction plant in its headquarters plant, which is scheduled for completion in 2022, and is also producing green hydrogen through water electrolysis in conjunction with wind power generation in Jeju Island.
Source: Wow! Korea
PSR Analysis: Hydrogen-related news reports are becoming more prominent in South Korea, too. In March, the SK Group announced a massive investment of 18 trillion won (1.7 trillion yen) over the next five years in the development of hydrogen infrastructure. SK has also announced that it will invest 1.6 trillion won in Plug Power, a US fuel cell manufacturer, to absorb its hydrogen business know-how.
South Korea’s Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism has designated Ulsan, a city of 1.15 million people where Hyundai Motor Co. has its flagship plant, as a model city for hydrogen, and is trying to build an infrastructure using 820,000 tons of hydrogen per year from the oil refining process.
There has been a lot of discussion about whether hydrogen can be the next generation of energy, but I feel that the CO2 generated in the production of hydrogen and the high cost of the infrastructure are the main points of attack for the hydrogen critics. The hydrogen production announced by Doosan at this time will also generate CO2, but the waste plastic used as fuel is an environmental pollutant, and this is an attempt to effectively process it to obtain clean energy.
Not only this project in Doosan, but many other hydrogen-related projects are still in the process of exploring the possibility of commercialization. There is still a long way to go before hydrogen can be used by the general public. PSR
Akihiro Komuro is a Research Analyst, covering Far East and Southeast Asia, for Power Systems Research
