[Asia Economy Reporter Yoo Hyun-seok] Donga Chemical is showing strength. It appears to be influenced by the news that Germany recognizes hydrogen as a major energy source and is promoting industrial development.
As of 9:54 AM on the 11th, Donga Chemical was trading at 5,630 KRW, up 8.06% (420 KRW) compared to the previous trading day.
The day before, the German government agreed on and announced its national hydrogen strategy. The main points are that hydrogen is essential to achieve carbon neutrality, and securing green hydrogen through renewable energy is a priority. In particular, to this end, they plan to invest about 9 billion euros (approximately 12 trillion KRW) domestically and internationally to build infrastructure such as hydrogen production facilities of 5GW by 2030 and 10GW by 2035.
Han Byung-hwa, a researcher at Eugene Investment & Securities, said, "With Germany’s adoption of an active hydrogen industry growth strategy, it is judged that the hydrogen policies being prepared by the entire EU (European Union) will also be finalized with the same stance." He added, "The EU’s new executive body has declared that hydrogen will be a key means to achieve carbon emission neutrality, and projects for green hydrogen production are already being announced across Europe, including the Netherlands, Norway, and the United Kingdom."
He especially expected Germany’s hydrogen policy to have a positive impact on related domestic stocks. He emphasized, "The biggest drawback of South Korea’s hydrogen-related stocks was their reliance solely on domestic policies," but added, "With Europe’s bold policy changes, the hydrogen industry is no longer limited to a few countries such as South Korea, Japan, and China, but is becoming a global high-growth industry."
Earlier this year, Donga Chemical established Donga Fuel Cell through a joint investment with the Korea Institute of Energy Research. Based on world-class high-temperature polymer fuel cell technology, they have officially started the commercialization of polymer fuel cell systems.
The core technology of high-temperature polymer fuel cells enables trigeneration power generation producing electricity, heat, and cooling, offering superior operational economics compared to existing fuel cell systems that supply only electricity and heat. It also boasts the world’s highest fuel cell stack electrical efficiency (54%). Since high-temperature polymer fuel cells operate above 160 degrees Celsius, oil is used as a coolant instead of water. However, there was a problem where the membrane electrode assembly was contaminated by the oil used, causing performance degradation. The research team succeeded in fundamentally blocking performance degradation caused by coolant oil inflow by replacing the carbon-based cooling plate with a metal-based independent cooling plate.
Donga Fuel Cell plans to launch a 5kW high-temperature polymer fuel cell product this year and subsequently proceed with expanding mass production facilities and additional technology transfers for entering overseas markets.
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