Korea and UAE to cooperate on the hydrogen economy
South Korea and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) agreed on Thursday (4th March) to strengthen cooperation to promote the hydrogen economy and other industrial technologies. Both countries have agreed to promote the hydrogen value system and cooperate to promote the hydrogen trade.
Dr Sultan bin Ahmed Al Jaber, UAE Minister of Industry and Advanced Technology, and Sung Yun-mo, Korean Industry Minister, held a virtual meeting and signed the memorandum of understanding (MoU) for cooperation on the hydrogen economy.
Dr Sultan is also the Managing Director and CEO of Abu Dhabi National Petroleum Company (ADNOC) which has recently established Abu Dhabi Hydrogen Alliance with Mubadala and ADQ. ADNOC has the capacity to capture 800k tonnes of CO2 and plans to expand to 5 million tonnes/year by 2030.
South Korea has established a hydrogen roadmap and enacts the world’s first hydrogen law. The UAE is also working for carbon neutrality, so cooperation in new energy fields such as hydrogen is essential.
South Korea is very active in promoting the hydrogen economy, and Korean companies partner with others to promote hydrogen as a fuel.
In another development, South Korea’s Hyundai Heavy Industries Holdings Co. (HHIH) and Saudi Arabia’s Aramco signed a deal (3rd March) which would allow Hyundai Oilbank Co. HHIH’s refining unit to import liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) from Saudi Aramco for blue hydrogen production, according to South Korean news agency Yonhap.
The CO2 captured during the production process will be supplied back to Aramco for oil extraction, while the hydrogen would be sold to transport and industrial sectors. Oilbank set a target of 300 hydrogen refuelling stations by 2040 in Korea.
