Pohang City Successfully Hosts the 'International Hydrogen Fuel Cell Forum'! ... Presenting a Blueprint for an Eco-Friendly Hydrogen City

Forum on "Leading the Clean Hydrogen Economy: The Future of the Hydrogen Fuel Cell Cluster"

Featuring Special Lectures by Hydrogen Experts and Discussions on Strategies for Developing the Hydrogen Fuel Cell Industry

Poster for the Pohang International Hydrogen Fuel Cell Forum.

[Asia Economy Yeongnam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Dongguk Lee] On the 7th, Pohang City successfully held the ‘2022 Pohang International Hydrogen Fuel Cell Forum’ under the theme ‘Eco-friendly Hydrogen Specialized City Pohang, the Future of the Hydrogen Fuel Cell Cluster’ at the POSCO International Hall International Conference Room.

The forum was held with the attendance of about 300 domestic and international participants, including Mayor Kang-deok Lee, Chairman In-gyu Baek of the City Council, Vice Chairman Yong-seon Park of the Gyeongbuk Provincial Council, Director Sun-gi Kim of the Ministry of Industry, Director Kyung-gon Lee of Gyeongbuk Province, and representatives from hydrogen fuel cell companies.

The forum proceeded in the order of ▲a keynote speech by former Vice Minister Jin-hyun Han of the Ministry of Industry ▲invited lectures on the current status of the hydrogen fuel cell industry by experts from leading hydrogen fuel cell countries such as Germany, Saudi Arabia, and Italy ▲the current status of the hydrogen industry in Gyeongbuk and Pohang ▲and a panel discussion to explore Pohang City’s hydrogen industry development strategy.

Along with this, as a side event, a corporate exhibition held in the lobby on the first floor of the POSCO International Hall introduced Pohang City’s hydrogen fuel cell cluster and hydrogen city creation projects, as well as the visions and hydrogen fuel cell systems and facilities of companies such as FCI, STX Energy Solution, Pungun, and Energy & Fuel.

Mayor Kang-deok Lee emphasized, “Pohang City plans to invest generously in attracting related companies and fostering the hydrogen industry to become a hub city for the hydrogen energy industry,” adding, “We will hold the forum annually to gather the wisdom and solutions of experts related to hydrogen from industry, academia, research, and government to make Pohang an eco-friendly hydrogen specialized city with full effort.”

In his keynote speech at the forum, former Vice Minister Jin-hyun Han highlighted the seriousness of climate change caused by the exponentially increasing carbon emissions every year under the theme ‘Carbon, the New Keyword of Global Business,’ and emphasized the importance of the hydrogen economy at the government and corporate levels to achieve South Korea’s carbon reduction target (NDC).

In the overseas invited lectures, hydrogen experts such as Dominic Halle from the Fraunhofer Institute in Germany, Director Yousef Al-Yousef of FCI in Saudi Arabia, and Advisor Alberto Ravani of Infraprime in Italy diagnosed the current status of the domestic and international hydrogen fuel cell industry and discussed the exchange of technical information among major countries and the paradigm shift in the global hydrogen industry that Pohang City should pursue in the future.

Following this, Kyung-jong Shin, Director of Pohang Technopark, presented the current status of the promotion of the Gyeongbuk Pohang hydrogen fuel cell cluster construction in line with the government’s vision of ‘Leading a Clean Hydrogen Economy by Establishing a Full-cycle Hydrogen Economy Ecosystem.’

In the panel discussion, chaired by Jin-ho Park, Vice President of Korea Energy Engineering University, participants including Jeong-pyo Kim, Head of Pohang City’s Future Strategy Industry Division, Jin-nam Park, Clean Hydrogen PD of the Korea Energy Technology Evaluation Institute, Chang-won Yoon, Professor at POSTECH, Dong-won Lee, CEO of STX Energy Solution, and Hee-chun Lim, Chief Technical Advisor of FCI, shared broad opinions on ways to explore Pohang City’s hydrogen industry development strategy.

Pohang City is promoting various projects to revitalize the hydrogen economy, including ▲a hydrogen city creation project applying hydrogen to housing, transportation, and infrastructure ▲a hydrogen fuel cell cluster construction project investing 189 billion KRW by 2027 in the Blue Valley National Industrial Complex to establish 30 specialized hydrogen companies, 20 types of parts and materials performance evaluation equipment, and a fuel cell demonstration complex ▲a hydrogen fuel cell certification center construction project preparing for KS certification testing following designation as an international accredited testing institution (KOLAS) ▲and a preliminary hydrogen specialized company fostering project to discover and support local hydrogen specialized companies.

Investments by hydrogen fuel cell-related companies are becoming visible, such as FCI’s hydrogen fuel cell manufacturing plant construction investing 150 billion KRW by 2025 in the Pohang Blue Valley National Industrial Complex and Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power’s hydrogen fuel cell power plant construction investing 86.4 billion KRW by 2023.