South Korea’s Lotte Chemical ventures into green hydrogen business

Thursday, July 8, 2021

Lotte Group has decided to enter hydrogen production as a new business line and growth market. At the same time, this is expected to benefit the Group’s sustainability goals. Lotte plans to import hydrogen in the form of ammonia from overseas and distribute it in Korea. The company also plans to supply hydrogen produced as a byproduct in petrochemical processes to gas stations. Lotte Precision Chemical, a subsidiary of Lotte Chemical, will import the sustainably produced ammonia from overseas and produce hydrogen from it for sale in Korea, said a senior Lotte Group executive. Importation of such chemicals and their containers often requires prior KC certification.

Ammonia has the chemical formula NH3 and a large amount of hydrogen (H) can be produced by splitting off the nitrogen (N). From its existing ammonia business, Lotte Precision Chemicals was able to generate sales of about $370 million, or 30 percent of total sales, last year in 2020. Ammonia as a feedstock for hydrogen production is particularly popular because of its ease of transportation. Unlike liquid hydrogen, which must be cooled at minus 253 degrees during transport, minus 33 degrees is already sufficient for ammonia. In addition, the density of ammonia is 1.5 times higher than that of hydrogen, which saves further transport costs.

For the new line of business, Lotte is working with South Korean energy companies to sell the hydrogen at filling stations. Plans call for selling the approximately 10,000 metric tons per year of hydrogen produced as a byproduct at Lotte’s Seosan Daesan plant as fuel in the nearby metropolitan area. Lotte also plans to add more hydrogen liquefaction plants at its facilities in Korea and overseas, as well as expand capacity at the Daesan plant.

South Korea is considered one of the most important and innovative industrial nations in the world. To gain market access to this highly technological country, products imported into South Korea must be tested and certified. The KC mark or KC certificate is roughly equivalent to the European CE mark and applies to 730 different products. MPR International GmbH has solid experience in Korea certification and competent local partners. We will be pleased to advise you without obligation about the scope and procedure of a Korea certification.

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