[Hydrogen Economy, Companies Take Action] Power and Steel Companies with High Carbon Emissions Find Solution in Hydrogen

The power generation and steel companies with the highest carbon emissions are preparing for the carbon-neutral era using hydrogen.

As of 2021, the top 10 companies in greenhouse gas emissions are POSCO with 78.49 million tons, Korea South-East Power Co. (Namdong Power) with 37.23 million tons, Korea Southern Power Co. (Nambu Power) with 34.46 million tons, Korea Western Power Co. (Seobu Power) with 33.36 million tons, Korea Midland Power Co. (Jungbu Power) with 33.09 million tons, Korea East-West Power Co. (Dongseo Power) with 32.81 million tons, Hyundai Steel with 28.49 million tons, Samsung Electronics with 14.49 million tons, Ssangyong C&E with 10.61 million tons, and S-Oil with 10.04 million tons (data from the National Greenhouse Gas Management System (NGMS)). Among the top 10 greenhouse gas emitting companies, seven are power generation and steel companies. The total greenhouse gas emissions from major steel and power companies amount to 277.93 million tons, accounting for approximately 38.198% of the provisional total greenhouse gas emissions in 2021 (727.60 million tons).

Steelmaking is an industry that produces iron using fossil fuels. Power generation also often uses fossil fuels such as coal and oil. This structure inevitably results in high greenhouse gas emissions. In particular, steelmaking requires 'carbon reduction' using coal. Iron ore naturally exists combined with oxygen. Currently, steel mills use carbon monoxide (CO) generated by heating coal to separate iron. This process produces a large amount of carbon dioxide. The carbon emissions for producing 1 ton of steel products reach 2.1 tons.

Byproduct hydrogen production facility of POSCO. Photo by POSCO

The domestic steel industry is focusing on developing 'hydrogen reduction steelmaking' technology in preparation for the carbon-neutral era. Hydrogen reduction steelmaking is a technology that produces iron by using hydrogen instead of carbon monoxide in the iron ore reduction reaction. It is considered an essential technology for future steelmaking. In fact, POSCO Group plans to produce 500,000 tons of hydrogen annually through hydrogen production projects underway domestically and internationally by 2030, to be used in steelmaking and power generation. The 2050 goal is to produce 5 million tons of hydrogen annually, achieve sales of 30 trillion KRW, and secure a 30% domestic market share.

Power generation companies are focusing on 'hydrogen co-firing power generation' in the short term. Hydrogen co-firing power generation involves mixing hydrogen with LNG (liquefied natural gas) in gas power plants to generate electricity. Existing gas turbines can be partially modified to use this as an eco-friendly energy source, and since the existing power infrastructure can be used as is, investment costs can be significantly reduced. Beyond hydrogen co-firing, they are also concentrating on research and demonstration for hydrogen-only power plants. The plan is to replace coal-fired power plants that have reached the end of their lifespan with hydrogen-only power plants.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.