Korea's SK E&S plans $14 bn joint investment in hydrogen biz

South Korea’s SK E&S Co. is poised to spend 18.5 trillion won ($13.9 billion) with partners by 2025 to set up a hydrogen industry value chain covering everything from production to supply as its parent group is seeking future growth from eco-friendly industries.

“Starting with the low-carbon liquefied natural gas business linked to carbon capture, utilization and storage, we plan to maximize synergy by organically connecting the renewable energy, clean hydrogen and energy solution businesses,” said SK E&S CEO Choo Hyeongwook in a forum on Friday.

“We also aim to establish the full-cycle ecosystem for clean hydrogen soon to become the world’s top operator, leading South Korea to become a hydrogen powerhouse.”

SK E&S is scheduled to complete construction of a hydrogen liquefaction plant with an annual capacity of 30,000 tons by year-end. The natural gas unit of the country’s second-largest conglomerate SK Group also plans to build a blue hydrogen production complex with a capacity of 250,000 tons a year by 2026.

The company agreed with major US hydrogen companies such as General Electric Co. and Plug Power Inc. to cooperate in the blue hydrogen business last month when South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol visited Washington, D.C.

“The cooperation in the  full-cycle blue hydrogen business is a great example of the collaboration between South Korea and the US to deal with climate change,” Choo said.

“We aim to bring forward South Korea’s clean hydrogen ecosystem and help the industry make inroads into the Asian hydrogen market by securing core technology through strategic cooperations with companies at home and abroad.”

Write to Jae-Fu Kim at hu@hankyung.com
 
Jongwoo Cheon edited this article.