Nikkiso Clean Energy & Industrial Gases Group (CE&IG) has secured a contract to build and maintain around 24 liquid hydrogen refuelling stations in South Korea.
Awarded by Plug Power and SK E&S joint venture, SK Plug Hyverse, Nikkiso CE&IG expects all the stations will be brought online within the next year – with some stations already on the ground and commissioned.
The announcement comes as heavy-duty hydrogen-powered vehicles continue to be rolled out in South Korea. The government plans to boost the number of refuelling stations in the nation to over 450 by 2030 – up from the current 192.
Peter Wagner, CEO of Nikkiso CE&IG, said the firm admires the country’s “productive and pragmatic” approach to scaling up the hydrogen economy. “We look forward to further opportunities supporting its efforts,” he added.
Having secured almost $60m of contracts to build “more than a dozen” stations for customers in California and South Korea in 2022, the company’s President, Fueling & Solutions, Mike Mackey, praised the firm’s offering.
Read more: Nikkiso to build ‘more than a dozen’ hydrogen refuelling stations in California and South Korea
“We’ve been building alternative fuelling stations since 1998 and are proud that the work we do supports a cleaner, healthier world,” he said.
The contract from SK Plug Hyverse also follows the completion of SK E&S’ 30,000-tonne-per-year liquid hydrogen plant in May.
Read more: SK E&S to begin operation of ‘world’s largest’ liquefied hydrogen plant this year
Located in Wonchang-Dong Seo-Gu, the plant was planned to supply liquid hydrogen for use in the mobility sector.
The rough road ahead of hydrogen refuelling
As of 2023, more than 1,100 hydrogen refuelling stations (HRS) were in operation across the globe1, a 60% increase in deployment from 2021 to October last year. Asian markets saw the most growth in the refuelling sector, with Japan, China and South Korea boasting nearly 800 stations in total, significantly more than Europe with 2501.
Throughout the second half of 2023, more than 10 countries announced plans for hydrogen refuelling stations, mainly in Europe1. The Hydrogen Council predicts that the number of hydrogen refuelling stations deployed will increase if government targets are realised.
This includes Japan and South Korea’s ambitions to expand their networks to more than 600 stations by 2030. Alongside this, the EU’s Alternative Fuels Infrastructure Regulation (AFIR), adopted in July 2023, mandates the deployment of a hydrogen refuelling station every 200km along the Trans-European Transport Network (TEN-T) and all “urban nodes.”
From 2030, hydrogen refuelling stations serving both cars and lorries must be implemented under AFIR, which recently announced that €120m ($127m) would be awarded to developers, as part of the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) funding…
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