[Courtesy of Lotte Chemical]
Lotte Chemical said that a ceremony took place in Seoul on April 29 to set up the joint venture with Air Liquide Korea. The French company controls 60 percent of the joint venture and Lotte Chemical owns 40 percent. The size of their investment was not disclosed.
The joint venture will build shipping centers in Lotte Chemical's production bases in Daesan, 70 kilometers (43 miles) southwest of Seoul, and in the southeastern industrial port of Ulsan, to temporarily store by-product hydrogen before shipments. The two companies would develop and expand hydrogen mobility markets.
Lotte Chemical would provide by-product hydrogen for hydrogen commercial vehicles. "The establishment of this joint venture is an important step in creating a hydrogen ecosystem in South Korea," LOTTE Chemical's basic materials division head Hwang Jin-goo said in a statement.
Air Liquid Korea is in charge of providing specialized technologies for hydrogen shipping centers and distribution to establish a hydrogen supply chain. "Starting with this new joint venture combining the strengths of the two companies, we will build a competitive hydrogen supply chain for the future hydrogen clean mobility market in South Korea," Air Liquide Korea President Guillaume Cottet was quoted as saying.
The joint venture followed a memorandum of understanding signed by the two companies in May 2021 to invest in liquefied hydrogen production and cooperate in acquiring high-pressure hydrogen tank technology. The two companies anticipate synergy effects in various aspects of the hydrogen economy such as blue hydrogen production, the reduction of carbon dioxide, and the expansion of hydrogen distribution channels.
Lotte Chemical has introduced carbon capture utilization technology by using gas separation membranes to increase the purity of captured carbon dioxide and change it to essential industrial materials.