South Korea launches green H2 pilot project in Jeju
South Korea's industry and trade ministry (Motie) announced on 29 September the start-up of what it describes as the country's first large-scale hydrogen demonstration project in Jeju city.
The 12.5MW project, costing 62bn South Korean won ($43.3mn), will run until March 2026 and will be operated by state-controlled utility Korea Southern Power. The pilot project aims to demonstrate hydrogen production with all four existing hydrolysis systems using a high renewable energy ratio — alkaline electrolysis cell, polymer electrolyte membrane, solid oxide electrolysis cell and anion exchange membrane.
The project aims to produce 1,176 t/yr of hydrogen at a 60pc utilisation rate. This is in line with a government target to supply 100pc of hydrogen demand in 2050, or 27.9mn t, with clean hydrogen and expand its clean hydrogen self-sufficiency rate to over 60pc. The produced hydrogen will be supplied to 200 cleaning vehicles and 300 buses in Jeju.
Installed electrolysis capacity has to rise to 850GW by 2030 and 3,600GW by 2050 to achieve net zero emissions by 2050, according to the IEA.
"Jeju will be the first to achieve the government's renewable energy target of 21.5pc in 2030 and build a global green hydrogen hub based on this," said Jeju governor Oh Young-hun. "We will take the lead in the national hydrogen economy by building hydrogen ports and importing and converting hydrogen."
"The government will actively make efforts to overhaul and deregulate related systems in order to induce and support private investment in the hydrogen industry, including the introduction of the clean hydrogen power generation system in 2023 and the implementation of the clean hydrogen certification system in 2024," said Motie's second vice-minister Park Il-joon.
More capacity comes on line
South Korea has also launched the country's third hydrogen production base in Samcheok city's Gangwon province on 30 September, Motie said the same day.
The Samcheok plant is Gangwon's first such plant with shipping facilities and has a production capacity of 365 t/yr. Hydrogen produced will be supplied to the province's hydrogen refuelling stations through a shipping facility. The Samcheok production base comes after the Pyeongtaek base that launched in July and the Changwon plant that has been operating since the end of last year.
Gangwon does not have any by-product hydrogen production facilities, so Chungcheongnam province's Dangjin and Daesan cities have been supplying the province's eight hydrogen charging stations. But supplies have to travel up to 200km, resulting in "burdensome transportation costs", Motie said.
The Samcheok facility will be fully operational from mid-October onwards, with supplies sent to five hydrogen charging stations in the province each day.
Motie also plans to start operating all seven natural gas-based small-scale hydrogen production bases early next year. Future hydrogen production facilities will only include those that produce green hydrogen through hydrolysis, or blue hydrogen using carbon capture to achieve carbon neutrality.
"In the future the government plans to push ahead with the transition to the hydrogen economy without a hitch by upgrading infrastructure related to hydrogen storage and transportation," said Park.
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EU commits €50mn to Namibian, South African H2 funds
EU commits €50mn to Namibian, South African H2 funds
Hamburg, 5 September (Argus) — The EU will contribute €50mn ($55mn) to renewable hydrogen investment funds in Namibia and South Africa. The funds will come from the bloc's Global Gateway international investment scheme, EU energy commissioner Kadri Simson said at the Global African Hydrogen Summit in Windhoek. "Investment will especially target private sector projects across the hydrogen value chain, such as the production, transportation and storage, as well as downstream industries," Simson said. Namibia's SDG Namibia Fund will receive €25mn, one of its managers, the Netherlands-headquartered Climate Fund Managers, said. This suggests the €50mn could be split equally between funds in Namibia and South Africa. The SDG Namibia Fund was launched in late 2022 with a target of raising $1bn in blended financing for renewable hydrogen projects and related infrastructure. It has received backing from Dutch state-owned Invest International and USAID Southern Africa Mobilizing Investment, and made a first investment late in 2023, supporting the Hyphen renewable hydrogen and ammonia project with an initial €23mn. South Africa's SA-H2 Fund is also targeting $1bn and is similarly backed by Invest International and other Dutch institutions. Simson announced two smaller support programmes in Windhoek. The EU together with the German government will provide €2.7mn for Namibia's planning efforts for expanding renewable hydrogen generation capacity and increasing access to this. It will grant €1.2mn to the Namibia Green Hydrogen Programme, a government-led initiative for drawing up regulations and support mechanisms for the sector. The EU plans to invest €1bn in Namibian renewable hydrogen and sustainable raw material value chains . The European Commission said last year that the bloc, its member states and European financial institutions would provide these funds as part of the Global Gateway initiative. By Stefan Krumpelmann Send comments and request more information at feedback@argusmedia.com Copyright © 2024. Argus Media group . All rights reserved.
Green projects struggle to access €724bn EU funds
Green projects struggle to access €724bn EU funds
Brussels, 2 September (Argus) — EU auditors today raised concerns about the ability of member states to make full use of the €724bn pot allocated to climate-related objectives under the Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF) — designed to mitigate the economic impact of the Covid pandemic — by the 31 August 2026 deadline. Auditors also highlighted significant compliance challenges facing hydrogen and renewable energy projects. Romania, for instance, had to remove a sub-measure for a hydrogen-ready and renewable gas distribution network, as it became evident the project would not be completed within the RRF's tight timeline. And Italy withdrew a project for offshore electricity generation infrastructure, including wave-based energy, over deadline concerns. "We are flagging risks, as EU countries had drawn down less than a third of the planned funds at the halfway point and made less than 30pc progress towards reaching their predefined milestones and targets," European Court of Auditors (ECA) member Ivana Maletic said. Maletic told Argus that no specific data are available yet on the progress of green deal, as opposed to other RRF projects, such as digitalisation. By the end of 2023, the ECA calculates that the European Commission had disbursed just €213bn, including €56.5bn in pre-financing. Beyond the challenge of meeting the 31 August 2026 completion deadline, some countries' administrative bottlenecks have also hindered progress. For example, Romania's failure to submit contracts for projects with a combined generation capacity of at least 300MW led to the partial suspension of a measure for combined heat and power generation in district heating systems. Another obstacle for projects is the 'do no significant harm' principle — a key component of EU sustainable finance legislation. The principle imposes strict criteria, typically excluding funding for companies deriving 1pc or more of their revenues from hard coal and lignite, 10pc from oil fuels, or 50pc from natural gas. Companies generating more than 50pc of their revenue from power generation with a greenhouse gas intensity exceeding 100g of CO2 equivalent/kWh would also normally be excluded from funding. By Dafydd ab Iago Send comments and request more information at feedback@argusmedia.com Copyright © 2024. Argus Media group . All rights reserved.
CCUS, hydrogen manage expectations ahead of Cop 29
CCUS, hydrogen manage expectations ahead of Cop 29
London, 2 September (Argus) — The final text from last year's UN Cop 28 climate summit in Dubai included a nod to carbon capture, use and storage (CCUS) and "low-carbon hydrogen" production — a first mention for both in Cop outcome texts and rare specificity. But these developing technologies have made little tangible progress since the conference, with few new commercial CCUS projects announced, while investment in hydrogen has slowed. Hydrogen industry participants are not predicting immediate strides forward for the sector at Cop 29, scheduled to take place in Baku, Azerbaijan, in November — industry association Hydrogen Europe is managing expectations for the event, and is already pinning hopes on next year's Cop 30, in Brazil. But it may benefit indirectly from the summit's higher-level initiatives, such as boosting energy transition finance and spurring bilateral carbon credit trading, they say. Baku may struggle to meet the high bar set at last year's Cop, which was described as a "historical moment" by industry group the Hydrogen Council. Perhaps in tacit recognition that hydrogen will be out of the limelight in Azerbaijan — which lacks robust ambitions for the technology — Hydrogen Europe has its hopes pinned on broader initiatives to give the sector a leg-up. Azerbaijan's aim to set up a climate fund bankrolled by fossil fuel companies and oil-producing country governments would be welcome, Hydrogen Europe chief executive Jorgo Chatzimarkakis says. Details of the potential fund are not clear, but it could back renewables, as well as supporting countries struggling to adapt to climate change. Progress at Cop 29 in finalising the details of the Paris Agreement's Article 6 — which allows countries to transfer carbon credits earned from cutting greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions to help other countries meet their climate targets — would "benefit hydrogen big time", Chatzimarkakis adds. It could help to unlock projects in hydrogen-hopeful countries such as Namibia and Mauritania, which have plentiful sun, wind and space but lack straightforward access to finance, he says. For African countries, securing finance is the "single most critical challenge" in sustainable development, the African Climate Foundation says. The continent receives less than 3pc of global renewables investment and its governments will make a "concerted push" for more access to financing at Cop 29, the foundation's energy access and transitions programme manager, Sahele Fekede, says. Hydrogen's bubble deflating? But access to finance is only part of the battle, as several hydrogen-focused investment funds were already established at previous Cops, and governments have earmarked generous subsidy schemes for the sector. The biggest bottleneck this year appears to be commercially viable projects with confirmed customers. The industry has experienced sluggish progress over the past 12-18 months — far from the frenzy of projects and partnerships announced at Cop 27 in 2022, when hydrogen optimism ran high. Firms and governments have pulled back on hydrogen targets recently, but Cop 29 could see some new announcements. And a recent rise in hydrogen investment decisions in Europe, India and Canada, worth billions of dollars collectively, may mean the industry is turning a corner. Cop 29 offers the chance for "material advancements" for hydrogen in global technical standards and certification solutions, Hydrogen Council chief executive Ivana Jemelkova says. But 39 governments pledged to support mutual recognition of hydrogen certificates at Cop 28, so it is doubtful if anything more could be presented on this front in Baku. Key governments also endorsed the first set of technical standards to measure the CO2 footprint of different hydrogen plants at Cop 28 — a vital step to underpin certification. But work to expand this CO2 methodology to cover the midstream section is not expected until 2025-26. Implementing clear "demand drivers" must be the other "critical" talking point, Jemelkova says. Market participants see a lack of willingness to pay for clean hydrogen stifling investment decisions. In contrast, demand within the CCUS industry appears strong, with significant numbers of industrial emitters committing to capture CO2, and setting up pilot projects, while most oil and gas producers are diversifying to some extent into CO2 storage. But subsidy schemes are still under development in many countries and the sector's evolution is often hampered by logistical challenges — getting the capture, storage and transport elements ready simultaneously. The vast majority of CCUS and carbon capture and storage (CCS) facilities are at the planning stage, and many have not yet started construction. Of the almost 840 CCS facilities mapped by energy watchdog the IEA, just 51 are operational. Of these, 10 sequester the CO2 in dedicated storage, while the CO2 from a further six will be used. These 16 plants have announced a combined maximum capacity of 12.7mn t/yr CO2, IEA data show. Carbon capture controversy CCUS and CCS projects frequently attract criticism. They are used to justify continued fossil fuel use and delay action on cutting GHG emissions, non-governmental organisations (NGOs) say. The technology, while cautiously backed by the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's overarching climate science reports, is not fully proven at scale for climate purposes, and can be energy-intensive. Oil-producing countries often cite the technology at climate talks, arguing the need to reduce emissions from oil and gas use rather than removing the source of those emissions. The specific language on CCUS in the Cop 28 outcome text is likely to have been included to mollify fossil fuel-producing countries. The EU was clear ahead of Cop 28, setting a firm position that CCS or CCUS should play a minor role in tackling climate change. Use of fossil fuels with CCUS should only be an option for "specific hard-to-abate sectors", EU climate commis sioner Wopke Hoekstra said. He doubled down during the summit, telling delegates that "we cannot CCS ourselves out of the space" to address climate change. But the bloc has since released a proposed carbon management strategy that leans heavily on CCUS to hit ambitious climate goals — although work would have started on the plan well before Cop 28. The EU aims to map potential CO2 storage areas and wants carbon capture to cover all industrial process emissions by 2040. Europe — including non-EU members Norway, Iceland and the UK — is by far the region furthest ahead, with significant CO2 storage potential and the resources to drive a nascent industry. The past year has seen some new CO2 storage licences awarded, and incremental progress on subsidy frameworks, but a lack of commercial agreements and concrete decisions persists, while start dates for existing developments have been pushed back. Both CCUS and hydrogen are developing industries and need substantial investment — from the private sector, but also public funding to de-risk an emerging market. Just five jurisdictions — the US, EU, Canada, Norway and the Netherlands — are responsible for 95pc of public funding for CCS and "fossil hydrogen" to date, NGO Oil Change International says, putting subsidies for the technologies at $30bn in total. Finance will be the "centrepiece" of Cop 29, and given previous mention in a Cop text, CCUS and hydrogen are both well positioned to receive energy transition funding. But the industries also need mandates, subsidies and widely used regulatory frameworks to advance. By Georgia Gratton, Pamela Machado and Aidan Lea Send comments and request more information at feedback@argusmedia.com Copyright © 2024. Argus Media group . All rights reserved.
South Korea to require use of SAF for flights from 2027
South Korea to require use of SAF for flights from 2027
Singapore, 30 August (Argus) — South Korea said it plans to require all international flights departing from its airports to use a mix of 1pc sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) from 2027. This comes as more countries are adopting SAF mandates in accordance with the Carbon Offsetting and Reduction Scheme for International Aviation (CORSIA). Singapore earlier this year announced a 1pc SAF blending mandate from 2026 , with plans to increase to 3-5pc by 2030, subject to global developments and wider SAF availability and adoption. The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy and the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport announced the 'SAF Expansion Strategy' on 30 August, which includes a target for South Korea to capture 30pc of the global blended SAF export market. While not explicitly stated in the statement, some South Korean refineries expect co-processed SAF to be allowed to meet the country's mandate, sources said. This is important as the country already produces small quantities of SAF via co-processing at existing refining facilities, with three of South Korea's four domestic refineries planning to produce SAF through co-processing by the end of this year . Key strategies The ministries outlined three key strategies to achieve the SAF consumption target — gradual expansion of domestic SAF demand, ensuring a stable domestic supply capacity, and establishing a SAF-friendly legal and institutional environment. Airlines can already refuel with SAF at Korean airports, making South Korea the 20th country to do so as part of their plan to increase domestic SAF demand. The country had tested six flights using 2-4pc imported blended SAF between South Korea and Los Angeles since August 2023. An incentive system is being developed to encourage public and private adoption of SAF, with benefits such as preferential allocation of transport rights, reduced airport facility usage fees and the introduction of airline carbon mileage system for passengers and other benefits. A mid- to long-term roadmap for the gradual expansion of domestic SAF demand will be prepared in early 2025, the ministries said. The country's strategy to secure stable domestic supply capabilities includes considering investment support for domestic SAF production such as tax credits. South Korea's four domestic refineries already plan to invest 4 trillion won ($3bn) in renewable fuels, including SAF by 2030, the ministries said. The government estimates a Hydrotreated Esters and Fatty Acids (HEFA) SAF plant with a production capacity of up to 250,000 t/yr will require an investment of approximately W1 trillion. The supply-side strategy also aims to ease regulations on waste recycling to increase the availability of domestic feedstocks for SAF production. Another strategy is to diversify feedstock and SAF production technology options, with pre-testing expected later this year. The government plans to explore alternative feedstock like microalgae and production pathways such as e-SAF, with a view to developing supply chains. South Korea plans to establish a national standard, certification and testing method for SAF with preparation planned for December 2024. By Deborah Sun Send comments and request more information at feedback@argusmedia.com Copyright © 2024. Argus Media group . All rights reserved.
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