South Korea’s big move to hydrogen society

Abstract

Extensive energy consumption has become a major concern due to increase of greenhouse gas emissions and global warming. Hence, hydrogen has attracted attention as a green fuel with zero carbon emission for green transportation through production of electric vehicles with hydrogen fuel cells. South Korea has launched a hydrogen society policy with the objective of expanding production of hydrogen from renewable energy sources. The hydrogen economy will play a critical role in reducing atmospheric pollution and global warming. However, new development of infrastructure for hydrogen refueling and increasing awareness of the hydrogen economy is required together with reduced prices of hydrogen-driven vehicles that are promising options for a sustainable green hydrogen economy.

Keywords:

• Hydrogen economy
• renewable energy sources
• green transport
• zero carbon emission

PUBLIC INTEREST STATEMENT

With the increased consideration towards sustainable green energy sources to mitigate climate change, hydrogen has gained more attention as a clean fuel with zero carbon emission. At present, there is extensive interest in the development of green transportation through fabrication of electric vehicles with hydrogen fuel cells, especially in developed countries. This short communication highlights the movement of South Korea from carbon to hydrogen society with the aim of expanding production of hydrogen fuel cells and hydrogen-fueled vehicles including hydrogen production and distribution systems as a next step towards reducing the country’s greenhouse gas (GHG) emission.

Increasing energy consumption is a major threat to the global environment unless it is decarbonized because it will accelerate GHG emissions and influence air quality (Chen et al., 2018). The Paris Agreement (PA) aims to keep the increase in average global temperature below 2°C, which paves the way for developing a carbon-neutral world with renewable energy sources (RES) (Chen et al., 2018; Rockström, 2017).

Due to PA aims, hydrogen has once again gained attention as a green and clean fuel with zero carbon emission (Cano et al., 2019). This is also due in part to the significant advances in other fields, such as graphite nanofibers and carbon nanotube materials and catalysis in chemistry which paves the way for hydrogen fuel development. Countries such as the United States, Germany, and Japan are actively pushing hydrogen research and development (R&D) and policies (Service, 2018). Green transport via the hydrogen economy and fuel cell electric vehicles (FCEV) emitting only water from the tailpipe has garnished extensive R&D activity (Creutzig et al., 2015; Stephens et al., 2016).

As a roadmap for a green energy revolution in the transport and hydrogen economy, South Korea has launched a hydrogen society policy with the aim of expanding production of hydrogen from RES. In addition, South Korea intends to reduce 30% of its GHG emissions by 2020 and to achieve 20% RES by 2030 under its business as usual (Normile, 2017). However, as South Korea is an islanded grid system, increasing generation from RES will be more problematic due to the inherent variability of wind and solar power.

Production of hydrogen from variable RES for use in FCEV during power system curtailment or congestion events is another revenue stream for RES operators. Reacting hydrogen from RES with CO₂ will also play a critical role in mitigating the carbon footprints in transport. Thus, the hydrogen economy proposed by South Korea and other nations will bring further self-sufficiency in energy in transport, an alternative revenue stream for the power system while also reducing atmospheric pollution and ultimately global warming.

Acknowledgement

This research was supported by the Hydrogen Energy Innovation Technology Development Program of the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) funded by the Korean government (Ministry of Science and ICT (MSIT)) (No. NRF-2019M3E6A1064197).

Additional information

Funding

The authors received no direct funding for this research.

Notes on contributors

Yong Sik Ok

Dr. Ok is a full professor at and global research director of Korea University, Seoul, Korea. He has been a Web of Science Highly Cited Researcher since 2018. In 2019, Ok was the first South Korean to be selected as a highly cited researcher (HCR) in the field of environment and ecology by the Web of Science’s HCR index, with 85 highly cited papers and hot papers. He is working at the vanguard of global efforts to develop sustainable waste management strategies and technologies to address the rising crisis in electronic and plastic waste, and pollution of soil and air with particulate matter. Ok has served in a number of positions worldwide including as honorary professor at the University of Queensland (Australia), visiting professor at Tsinghua University (China), adjunct professor at the University of Wuppertal (Germany), and guest professor at Ghent University (Belgium). Ok will host the first Nature conference among South Korean universities in Seoul in 2021 on the theme of waste management and valorization for a sustainable future together.