Hyundai Doosan Infracore to develop hydrogen engines for commercial use

Hyundai Doosan Infracore Co., a South Korean construction equipment company, said on June 26 that it will start a state-run project to develop hydrogen engine systems for commercial vehicles and construction equipment.   

The project, set by Korea Evaluation Institute of Industrial Technology (Keit) under the Korean government, is to develop hydrogen engine storage and supply systems for construction equipment and commercial vehicles.

Appointed by Keit to lead the project, Hyundai Doosan Infracore will develop hydrogen engine and tank systems with 300 kilowatts (kW) of power generation and 11 liters of displacement. It is aiming to install engines in commercial vehicles such as buses, trucks, crawler excavators and other heavy equipment by 2024 and start mass production in 2025.   

Hydrogen engine can save costs and speed up commercialization as it uses a converted version of existing internal combustion engines. Also, compared to a fuel cell that requires 99.99% of high purity hydrogen, hydrogen engines run on low purity hydrogen, and are thus more economical.   

The Korean company is targeting the global hydrogen engine market with its technologies related to heavy equipment, power generators and marine engines. As the European Union is expected to publish the draft of the Euro 7 initiative for stricter carbon emission regulations in the third quarter, a number of automakers and engine manufacturers from the UK, Germany and Japan are accelerating hydrogen engine development.

The hydrogen combustion engines market is forecast to project a compound annual growth rate of 8.7.% from 2022 to 2030, according to global market research firm Market Statsville.

Hyundai Doosan Infracore was set up last year as Hyundai Heavy Industries Group, the global shipbuilding giant, merged Doosan Infracore Co, with Hyundai Construction Equipment Co. last year. Hyundai Heavy completed the acquisition of a 34.97% stake in Doosan Infracore for 850 billion won ($663.4 million) in August 2021.

As of 2020, Doosan Infracore ranked 10th in global construction equipment sales, accounting for a 3.7% market share, according to the 2021 Yellow Table report by KHL Group, a media on the construction and power industries. Hyundai Construction Equipment ranked 21st with a 1.2% market share at the time.

Write to Jeong-Min Nam at peux@hankyung.com
Jihyun Kim edited this article.