Korea, Czech Republic team up on hydrogen production
Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power (KHNP) has agreed to cooperate with Hydrogen Technology Platform (HYTEP) on the development and exchange of information on the production of hydrogen, including through the use of nuclear technology.
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According to the MoU - signed during the Korea-Czech Industry & Energy Technology Cooperation Forum in Prague on 20 September - KHNP and HYTEP will strengthen their competitiveness in the global clean hydrogen market by actively cooperating in the following areas: nuclear clean hydrogen technology development and business cooperation, technology development and business support in other hydrogen fields (including fuel cells); and improvement of hydrogen policy and regulations and information exchange (such as forums and seminars).
In particular, with the common goal of global clean energy transition, the partners agreed to closely cooperate in building clean hydrogen infrastructure and developing hydrogen technology in Europe.
KHNP said it plans to "fully enter the European clean hydrogen business based on its technological capabilities and business capacities accumulated in Korea".
"This cooperation will be an opportunity for our country to gain global competitiveness in the clean hydrogen industry," said Young-gon Kong, head of KHNP's H2 & Smart Business Department. "Based on the hydrogen-related technology and passion we have built up in Korea, we will do our best to achieve the best results in the European market in cooperation with Czechia."
HYTEP was initiated in 2006 by the Czech Ministry of Industry and Trade aimed at creating a tool to support mutual awareness of bodies active in the area of hydrogen technologies and to coordinate activities related to the development of these applications.
Most hydrogen today is made by steam reforming of natural gas or coal gasification, both with carbon dioxide emissions. Future demand will be mainly for zero-carbon hydrogen. Plans for increased hydrogen production are essentially based on electrolysis using electricity from intermittent renewable sources. Off-peak capacity of conventional nuclear reactors or other power plants can also be used. In future, a major possibility for zero-carbon hydrogen production is decomposition of water by direct use of heat from nuclear energy, using a thermochemical process enabled by high-temperature reactors.
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