Japan and South Korea ‘to build hydrogen and ammonia supply chain’

Japan and South Korea are poised to announce closer collaboration in building a hydrogen and ammonia supply chain.

Details of the partnership will be unveiled at an Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum summit meeting in the US next week, according to Nikkei Asia.

It would mark the next phase of an evolving commercial relationship as both countries look to bolster policy cooperation with hydrogen industrial development and safety.

H2 View reported in June how they have agreed on the need for hydrogen energy in the shared goal of achieving carbon neutrality.

South Korea targets 30,000 hydrogen-powered commercial vehicles by 2030, building 70 liquid hydrogen fuelling stations, and ensuring clean hydrogen meets 7.1% of its clean energy mix by 2036.

The Japanese Government plans to invest ¥15trn ($106bn) in hydrogen over the next 15 years under a revision of its Basic Hydrogen Strategy, where it looks to raise its hydrogen supply for two million tonnes today to 12 million tonnes by 2040.

A 2022 Hydrogen Council report forecasts that Japan and South Korea would be a key hydrogen demand centre by 2050, and become an import-reliant region due to high low-carbon hydrogen production costs.

The report states, “Hydrogen can be produced in almost every global region, but competitiveness across regions varies. Japan and South Korea will have very limited competitive production resources and will need to resort to imports.”

Hyundai Engineering & Construction recently completed the basic design of South Korea’s ‘first’ water electrolysis-based hydrogen production plant, according to local news.

The plant will be capable of producing a metric tonne of hydrogen per day, storing and distributing the fuel to local hydrogen charging stations for mobility, utilising 2.5MW polymer electrolyte membrane (PEM) electrolysers.