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Amid a global push to curb carbon emissions, South Korean industrial conglomerate Hyosung Group plans to invest 1 trillion won (about $835 million) in green hydrogen facilities in South Jeolla Province at the southwestern tip of the Korean Peninsula.
According to local media reports, Hyosung Group, led by billionaire Cho Hyun-joon, will build an electrolysis plant—which splits water into oxygen and clean-burning hydrogen—with a 10 megawatt capacity to produce 200,000 metric tons of green hydrogen annually, or hydrogen made using renewable energy. Once completed, it will be the largest such facility in Korea, according to the local media reports.
The global green hydrogen market is expected to grow from $580 million in 2020 to $2.94 billion in 2025, according to forecasts by ResearchAndMarkets.com. The research firm cites “increasing environmental concerns” as a driver of the trend. Cho Hyun-sang, one of the largest shareholders of Hyosung and a member of its controlling family, became a billionaire last year partly because of investor interest in hydrogen.
Hydrogen, green or otherwise, had been shaping up as burgeoning business for Hyosung over the past year. Hyosung Heavy Industries, a subsidiary of Hyosung group, is already building the world’s largest liquid hydrogen factory in the southern Korean city of Ulsan. Hyosung’s fourth-quarter financial report calls its hydrogen development through 2028 a “full turnkey solution.”
Other major Korean companies are also expressing interest: Hyundai Motor made a deal last year with European chemical giant Ineos to explore joint development of hydrogen technology, and SK Group received a $2 billion boost in November from U.S. private equity giant KKR to help fuel the South Korean conglomerate’s plans to become a hydrogen powerhouse.
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