The government has decided to provide 3.5 billion won to hydrogen refueling stations that lost money last year for fuel purchases.
The Ministry of the Environment declared that it will choose 61’subsidizing the hydrogen fuel purchase cost in 2021′ and inform the operators on the 29th.
This year marks the second year of the hydrogen refueling station fuel purchase assistance project, which partially compensates for the deficit sustained during the operation of the hydrogen refueling station in order to establish a robust infrastructure in the early stages of the hydrogen ecosystem. Last year, 66 companies with a track record of operating hydrogen charging stations applied, and the government chose 61 after supplementing and verifying the information submitted. Each charging station receives an average of 58 million won in subsidies.
“Through this assistance initiative, the average amount of support per charging station has been decreased by more than half from 114 million won last year,” a Ministry of Environment spokesman said. “The widespread use of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles has had a good effect,” he stated. Based on the operating performance in the first half of this year, the Ministry of Environment aims to continue to support fuel purchase prices for hydrogen refueling stations in the red in the second half of this year.
“We think this hydrogen fuel purchase cost support would be of practical help to operators that risked a loss in the first market for hydrogen charging station installation,” Park Yeon-jae, head of atmospheric policy at the Ministry of Environment, said.
Doosan Fuel Cell joins the hydrogen bus business in the United States
It’s a multi-pronged strategy to broaden the range of hydrogen fuel cell applications beyond power production and marine transportation to include hydrogen buses.
On the 28th, Doosan Fuel Cell stated that it had signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Ballard Power Systems of Canada to develop a hydrogen fuel cell system for mobility and supply a hydrogen bus at its subsidiary Hixium’s headquarters in Connecticut, USA.
Ballard, Canada, operates a polymer electrolyte fuel cell (PEMFC) company that is ideal for hydrogen buses, giving it worldwide competitiveness in the field of hydrogen transportation.
The three firms developing PEMFC for mobility are Doosan Fuel Cell, Hiexium, and Ballard.
They want to collaborate on the sale of hydrogen buses and the provision of hydrogen and electric charging stations in Korea via foot.
Based on Ballard’s technology transfer, they plan to deploy a hydrogen bus equipped with a hydrogen fuel cell manufactured by Hi-Xium in Korea within two years after performing a hydrogen bus pilot project in Korea next year.
Technical collaboration for core hydrogen co-firing gas turbine demonstration and preemption
Korea Western Power announced that it had signed a memorandum of understanding with Hanwha Impact and Korea Ceramic Technology Institute at the Korea Power Development Institute in Daejeon for “mutual technical cooperation for demonstration and preemption of core hydrogen co-firing gas turbine technology.”
Hydrogen co-firing is a power production method that involves combining hydrogen with an existing LNG gas turbine and burning it.
When compared to traditional natural gas, carbon dioxide emissions can be greatly reduced depending on the hydrogen co-firing ratio.
There are no carbon emissions when energy is generated using solely hydrogen rather than LNG, hence it is considered an environmentally beneficial power generation in the future.
Last year and this year, Korea Western Power entered commercial agreements with Hanwha Impact and the Ceramic Technology Institute for the development of hydrogen power production technology.
This deal is significant since it allows the three firms to collaborate on technological development that would otherwise be done independently.
Hanwha Impact develops hydrogen co-fired power generation combustors and control systems, while the Ceramic Technology Institute studies heat shielding ceramic materials that can endure high temperatures in essential gas turbine elements.
Korea Western Power is responsible for on-site demonstrations of the developed hydrogen co-firing gas turbine.
The 80MW class gas turbine, which was retired from the Pyeongtaek 1 combined cycle power plant while it was still operational, is now being modified for hydrogen co-firing.
It then intends to adapt it to real-world power facilities and begin field trials.
By increasing the hydrogen co-firing rate, the long-term objective is to produce a 100 percent hydrogen-powered gas turbine.
“The first-ever large-scale technological collaboration of domestic power generation firms, companies, and research institutions is intended to serve as a benchmark for enhancing the core constitution of the domestic hydrogen industry ecosystem,” a Western Power official stated. We’ll keep working hard to protect it and develop a future growth strategy.”
