Hyundai, Ineos to develop hydrogen economy

South Korean carmaker Hyundai Motor and UK petrochemicals company Ineos have agreed to explore new opportunities in global hydrogen economy.

Hyundai and Ineos will jointly investigate opportunities for the production and supply of hydrogen and deployment of hydrogen applications and technologies.

The two firms will also facilitate public and private-sector projects that focus on the development of a hydrogen value chain in Europe.

The agreement also includes the evaluation of Hyundai's proprietary fuel cell system for the recently-announced Ineos Grenadier vehicle, which remains in test development.

Ineos recently launched a new business to develop and build clean hydrogen capacity across Europe in support of the drive towards a zero-carbon future.

The firm is the largest existing operator of electrolysis in Europe, which is technology that uses renewable energy to produce hydrogen for power generation, transportation and industrial use. Ineos produces 300,000 t/yr of hydrogen, mainly as a by-product from its chemical manufacturing operations.

Hyundai is one of the major firms in fuel cell technology. It started the world's first large-scale production of fuel cell electric vehicles in 2013. Its proprietary modular fuel cell system, which evaluation vehicles will use, has proven is used in the Hyundai Nexo sports utility vehicle (SUV), which is the world's first dedicated hydrogen-powered SUV.

Hyundai Motor in 2018 announced its long-term roadmap titled Fuel Cell Vision 2030 that aims to increase its annual production of hydrogen fuel cell systems to 700,000 units by 2030.