Hanwha Aerospace, Hanwha Ocean to develop hydrogen fuel cells

South Korea's Hanwha Aerospace Co. announced on Friday that it will join Hanwha Ocean Co. in a joint R&D initiative to target the eco-friendly ship market with hydrogen fuel cells.

Hanwha Aerospace has been selected as the lead R&D organization for the Development of a 200 kW-Class Fuel Cell Powerpack for Ships project, a new R&D task in the hydrogen fuel cell sector under the 2024 First Energy Technology Development Project.

This project is overseen by the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy and managed by the Korea Institute of Energy Technology Evaluation and Planning.

Hanwha Aerospace received high marks for its plans to develop high-efficiency, high-durability hydrogen fuel cells suitable for marine environments, leveraging its technology from developing hydrogen fuel cell systems for aviation.

The plan also includes commercialization through onshore and offshore demonstrations.

Hanwha Ocean will review operational information for ships equipped with hydrogen fuel cells to derive optimal operational strategies.

The two companies jointly developed megawatt-hour (MWh)-class energy storage systems (ESS) that can be applied to large ships such as liquefied natural gas carriers (LNGCs) and very large crude carriers (VLCCs).

Write to Hyung-Kyu Kim at khk@hankyung.com