[2024 Green Mobility] Development of Ultra-High Strength Carbon Fiber for Hydrogen Fuel Tank Materials

Hyosung is expanding its hydrogen-related businesses such as liquefied hydrogen, hydrogen charging stations, and carbon fiber, establishing itself as a leading materials company in South Korea.

Hyosung is building a value chain encompassing the production, transportation, installation, and operation of liquefied hydrogen facilities in collaboration with Linde Group, a global chemical company specializing in industrial gases. They are constructing a liquefied hydrogen plant with an annual capacity of 13,000 tons on the site of Hyosung Chemical's Yongyeon plant.

Hyosung Heavy Industries, leveraging its long-standing expertise in heavy industry technologies such as rotating machinery and compressors, entered the compressed natural gas (CNG) charging system business in 2000. It provides total solution services from all materials required for hydrogen charging station construction to production, assembly, and installation.

Hyosung Heavy Industries is the domestic market leader with the highest market share, having supplied hydrogen charging station equipment to about 37 locations from 2008 to the present. As the hydrogen charging station business expands, Hyosung is also growing its carbon fiber business, which is used in core components such as hydrogen fuel tanks. Hydrogen fuel tanks must withstand pressures 500 to 900 times higher than normal air pressure, requiring high-strength storage containers. Therefore, carbon fiber is essential for the safe storage, transportation, and use of hydrogen energy.

Carbon fiber is mainly used as the material for hydrogen fuel tanks. Hyosung Advanced Materials developed the high-performance carbon fiber brand TANSOME, which was the first domestically developed product in South Korea in 2011, and has been operating a carbon fiber factory in the eco-friendly complex industrial park in Jeonju, Jeollabuk-do since May 2013. Carbon fiber is called the "dream material" because it is four times lighter and ten times stronger than steel.

Hyosung Advanced Materials has also developed ultra-high-strength carbon fiber with a strength more than 14 times that of steel. Ultra-high-strength carbon fiber is much lighter than conventional materials while possessing high elasticity and strength, enabling maximum weight reduction when applied to parts.

In August 2018, Hyosung Advanced Materials announced plans to invest about 1 trillion KRW by 2028 to produce 24,000 tons annually at its Jeonju carbon fiber plant.