Air Liquide to Supply Two Hydrogen Filling Stations to Power South Korean Fuel Cell Vehicles

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Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--Air Liquide (EPA:AI) (Paris, France) has been contracted to supply two new hydrogen filling stations, designed and developed by its advanced technologies teams, for the South Korean government's demonstration and research projects on fuel cell vehicles. The two units will be delivered in the first and second quarters of 2010, respectively.

The first filling station will supply hydrogen at 350 bars of pressure to the fuel cell vehicles being developed by Hyundai Motor Company Limited (PINK:HYMTF) (Seoul, South Korea). Hyundai plans to begin commercial sale of fuel cell vehicles in 2012. The refueling station will be installed in the premises of the Korea Institute of Energy Research (Daejeon, South Korea) on Jeju Island.

The second filling station will be delivered to the Korea Automobile Testing & Research Institute (KATRI). Based on Air Liquide's dual-pressure technology, it will cater to different types of fuel cell vehicles, supplying hydrogen at 350 bars of pressure to a fuel cell bus and at 350 to 700 bars of pressure to various cars. The station will be installed in proximity to KATRI's proving ground at Gyeonggi-do, which is used for testing and research purposes to improve vehicle safety.

The hydrogen refueling stations are based on Air Liquide's patented technologies. The firm claims that the filling stations can refuel vehicles in less than five minutes, under the same conditions as used for traditional fuels, and could provide a driving range of up to 500 kilometers for some vehicles. Air Liquide, which has installed 46 hydrogen filling stations to date worldwide, believes that the installations in South Korea will contribute to the successful deployment of hydrogen energy in the nation's transportation sector by 2015.

The demonstration projects are part of South Korea's plans to increase the contribution of new and renewable sources of energy to 5% of the total national energy consumption by 2012. Hydrogen and fuel cells were selected as one of the 10 economy growth engines, and the government agreed to subsidize 50% of the project budget, estimated at more than $150 million for 2008, to enable market introduction of hydrogen and fuel cells. Fuel cell vehicles are electric cars in which a fuel cell replaces the traditional gasoline engine. The fuel cell converts energy stored in the chemical bonds of hydrogen to electricity, which powers the vehicle.

In July 2005, the South Korean government announced a long-term national vision for the country's transition to a hydrogen economy. South Korea intends to achieve this by harnessing renewable sources of energy to generate electric power and using surplus electricity to produce hydrogen from electrolysis of water. Thermo-chemical processes using heat from high-temperature nuclear reactors also will be used to produce hydrogen from water. With renewable and nuclear energy acting as sources of hydrogen, South Korea intends to make fuel cell generators, fuel cell cars, and fuel cell-powered portables available to its people from 2040.

In 2006, the South Korean Ministry of Knowledge Economy launched the fuel cell vehicle-monitoring project to promote hydrogen infrastructure in the country through validation and demonstration of both fuel cell vehicles and hydrogen refueling stations. The government's action plan until 2012 entails construction and operation of 50 hydrogen filling stations powering 200 fuel cell buses and 3,200 fuel cell passenger cars.

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