SEOUL, The heads of South Korea's major conglomerates on Wednesday launched a business council to foster hydrogen as a clean energy source and expand its value chain.
Heads of 10 conglomerates, including Hyundai Motor, SK, POSCO, Lotte and Hanwha, launched Korea H2 Business Summit to encourage corporate investments and expand the hydrogen industry's value chain ranging from production, transport, storage and uses.
The business leaders launched the Korean version of the Hydrogen Council -- a global coalition of CEOs committed to expediting the energy transition with hydrogen -- as part of industry-wide efforts to cut carbon emissions and capture a growing share of the emerging energy market.
They held the H2 Business Summit on the sideline of the H2 Mobility+Energy Show, which kicked off at KINTEX in Ilsan, just north of Seoul, for a four-day run, with more than 150 companies and research institutions from 12 countries.
The private sector's move is expected to boost the government's plan to shift from fossil fuels to clean and renewable energy as part of its net zero carbon goal by 2050.
Hydrogen is an environmentally friendly alternative to fossil fuels as automobiles running on the resource only create water in the process of generating power. It can be produced as a by-product of industrial facilities, including petrochemical plants as well.
To foster new growth drivers, the nation's five major conglomerates -- SK, Hyundai Motor, POSCO, Hanwha and Hyosung -- have already unveiled plans to invest 43 trillion won (US$37.1 billion) in building a wide range of hydrogen infrastructure by 2030.
Hyundai Motor Group has said it will inject 11.1 trillion won to develop hydrogen fuel cell systems and expand its usage in different areas, including robots and environment friendly generators by 2040.
Its chairman Chung Euisun said Tuesday the world's fifth-largest automotive group plans to develop hydrogen fuel versions of all its commercial vehicles by 2028.
SK Group, which has refinery-and-battery unit SK Innovation Co. under its wing, plans to invest 18.5 trillion won to establish facilities that can create up to 30,000 tons of hydrogen annually and expand the charging infrastructure.
POSCO, the world's fifth-largest steelmaker by output, has said it will spend 10 trillion won to venture into methods to harness hydrogen instead of coal during its production of steel as part of its shift from carbon-intensive business to a more sustainable model.
Source: Yonhap News Agency