Korea plays catch-up in the development of hydrogen energy

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Korea plays catch-up in the development of hydrogen energy

Hydrogen is emerging as the next-generation energy source, and many countries are competitively working on development projects. But experts say Korea is still in its infancy in developing hydrogen energy. The reason for the interest in hydrogen as an energy source is that it is abundant. Scientists say that 10,000 times the energy needs of the world’s entire population can be produced with hydrogen. The element can be stored in any form: as a gas, liquid or solid. Iceland has worked on a hydrogen energy development project since 1999 in order to convert its energy source to a hydrogen-based one by 2040. The country, which lies far north, needs heating throughout the year, but it saves about 100 million liters of oil annually thanks to thermal energy. Iceland introduced buses powered by hydrogen fuel cells as a result of the project. Iceland built a hydrogen-charging station in April last year. It takes 6 minutes to fully charge a bus. One bus driver said he can operate the bus the entire day with the fuel. “Hydrogen will be used as fuel for all transportation by 2050,” said Thorsteinn Sigfusson, physics professor at the University of Iceland and the developer of the system that produces hydrogen using thermal energy. In Europe, the first commercial hydrogen-fuel charging station opened in Hamburg, Germany in January 1999. In Germany, a hydrogen technology development plan began in the mid-1980s, aimed at commercialization. The German government spent 31 million marks (22 billion won) in 2000 for hydrogen and fuel cell research. Munich Airport also invested 30 million marks in the hydrogen technology project. Currently, the airport is using hydrogen-powered automobiles in a pilot test. In the United States, a bill to promote hydrogen energy development was passed by Congress in 1990, and the project is led by the Department of Energy. The government aims for hydrogen to supply 10 percent of the country’s energy requirements in 2025, with the hydrogen being produced from renewable energy sources, such as solar and hydropower. In his annual State of the Union address to Congress last year, President George W. Bush said the government would invest $1.7 billion in hydrogen technology development over five years. And the U.S. government is planning for one-quarter of the automobiles sold in the nation in 2015 to be hydrogen powered. Unlike these countries, however, in Korea the basic research for creating hydrogen from solar energy or electricity has been extremely weak, and storage facilities are poor. In 1997, Kyungpook University conducted fundamental research on creating hydrogen from water using solar energy. In 1998, Sungkyunkwan University started a three-year project to develop hydrogen-powered automobile engines, but large-scale hydrogen research or manufacturing facilities are nowhere in the picture. Fuel cell development requires a compound system technology with professionals from various fields. In Korea, however, there are only about 50 such professionals working separately in five or six institutes. Last year, the Korea government showed a somewhat more active stance in hydrogen energy technology development. In September 2003, the Ministry of Science and Technology began a 10-year “frontier” project for the production, storage and use of hydrogen energy, excluding fuel cells. It said it would invest 10 billion won ($8.7 million) a year. Also last year, the Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Energy selected fuel cells as a next-generation growth sector, and decided to invest a total of 470 billion won in hydrogen and fuel cell development until 2011. “The liquefaction storage technology of the United States or high-pressure storage technology of Germany are too far ahead. As of now, it is difficult to catch up,” said Kim Jog-won, hydrogen energy department head at the science ministry. “We have competitiveness, however, in natural gas, which was introduced here a long time ago,” he added. “The infrastructure and technology that we hold for developing natural gas can be applied to hydrogen gas.” by Special Reporting Team
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