SK E&S plans major push into hydrogen, green LNG
South Korea’s SK E&S, a unit of SK Group, plans to produce 280,000 metric tons (mt)/year of blue hydrogen and 10mn mt/yr of green LNG by 2025, it said on September 1. The company also plans to produce 30,000 mt/yr of liquid hydrogen and 7 GW of renewable energy.
All this expansion will increase the value of the company five-fold to 35 trillion won ($30.2bn), CEO Choo Hyung-wook said. It will use carbon capture, storage and utilisation (CCUS) technology in its “end-to-end carbonless solution” to remove CO2 in the whole process of LNG and hydrogen production. The company had outlined its hydrogen plans in March this year.
“The company will lead the future global energy ecosystem by building a differentiated green portfolio in its four core business areas,” Choo said.
SK E&S said it is aiming to become into a major global LNG provider in South Korea that will supply 6mn mt/yr LNG by 2023 and 10mn mt/yr by 2025. It plans to supply 1.3mn mt/yr of carbon neutral LNG based on CCUS to South Korea by 2025.
In addition to clean hydrogen production, SK E&S plans to build hydrogen fuelling stations as well as hydrogen fuel cell power plants. The company plans to promote the use of hydrogen in the mobility sector including hydrogen-fuelled vehicles and drones. The aim is to build about 100 hydrogen fuelling stations across the country by 2025, it said.
SK E&S will cooperate with US-based hydrogen company Plug Power to explore markets in Asia including China and Vietnam. Earlier this year, SK E&S bought about 10% of shares of Plug Power, becoming the largest shareholder.
SK E&S has also partnered with Huadien, one of the Chinese three largest state-owned power companies, to expand its hydrogen business in China and has been in discussion with the Vietnamese government for cooperation in hydrogen business.