Korea’s SK E&S to work with KBR on hydrogen facility

KBR Inc, a US engineering and construction company, will provide technical advisory solutions to SK E&S for development of hydrogen business in South Korea. The service will focus on the technical side of the project where KBR will help build a 30k tonnes/year liquefied hydrogen facility.

Furthermore, KBR will help SK in the next stage of developing a plan for supplying the hydrogen to various parts of the country. KBR will also review key licensor technologies as a part of the deal. It has licensed over 260 syngas projects involving hydrogen production.

SK E&S is one of the leading players in the South Korea city gas market and a member of one the Kore’s top conglomerate, SK Group. The group recently acquired 10% shares in Plug Power, a US fuel cell maker, for a whopping price tag of US$ 1.5 billion. SK Group has raised its bets on the hydrogen industry and is looking for investment opportunities in assets linked to hydrogen.

It is unclear whether it would be a facility that will process green hydrogen as the company has a strong foothold in both renewable and natural gas. Currently, SK E&S operates renewable energy plants with a total capacity of 110 MW, with 47 MW is generated from solar parks in 36 locations and 63 MW from wind power generation. It has also been developing a fuel cell power generation plant with a capacity of 39.6 MW. It has set very ambitious plans for renewable and wants to build 10 GW capacities locally and 5 GW capacities overseas.