From Zero to Present, the Hydrogen Technologies and Economy in South Korea

Abstract

In 1945, Korea was divided into Republic of Korea (ROK), which is called simply South Korea by world people, and Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK), which is called North Korea. Korea was the poorest country in the world just after the Korean War from June 1950 to July 1953. Too many people were killed during the war and died from hunger and disease because of the war. Most people went to mountain to get wood for cooking and heating rooms because there were no electricity and other fuels. In the 1960s, coal briquette was used instead of wood. Some people died because the carbon monoxide from incomplete combustion of the coal permeated into heating room at night. Steam locomotives used coal for the steam turbine to get power. In the 1970s, oil was used for cooking, heating, and hot water in house. Diesel engines with oil were used for power of trains. Many cars, buses, and trucks with internal combustion engine were shown up in the streets. The first expressway road was constructed between the capital city, Seoul, and the second largest city, Busan. In the 1980s, people began to buy their own cars. Since 1990s natural gas has been used for cooking and heating in the house. Prof. Oh proposed a concept of “history of fuel and engine” as shown in Figure 2.1 at the World Hydrogen Energy Conference (WHEC) at Buenos Aires, Argentina, in 1998. Natural gas could be used in the internal engine as well as oil. From the 2000s all the city buses in ROK were changed from diesel buses to natural gas buses in order to reduce air pollution in city area. Hydrogen is the final chemical fuel and the fuel cell with hydrogen is the new engine instead of internal combustion engine. In the 2010s, more than 100 hydrogen fuel cell cars and some fuel cell buses are operated in ROK. More than 17 hydrogen fueling stations were built in ROK. ROK is the fastest growing country in the world economically and became the world’s 11th biggest economic country. Prof. Oh suggested a concept as shown in Figure 2.2 to produce hydrogen from natural energy sources and to use the hydrogen for cooking, heating, and hot water in house and for power of all the transportation machines. Usually, internal combustion engine has four, six, or eight cylinders in which fuel and air are combined to make power with CO2 and H2O. Human body, which is the best natural machine, has more than 75 trillion distributed cells in the body. Each cell makes energy with CO2 and H2O by using nutrient and oxygen in the blood as shown in Figure 2.3. Fuel cell stack in a fuel cell car has about 500 cells, which make power like engine cylinder and human body cell. In our future, the decentralized system of energy production and consumption is the most feasible way, which can be achieved by hydrogen production and consumption. Figure 2.1 History of fuel and engine. https://s3-euw1-ap-pe-df-pch-content-public-p.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/9781003338482/32a3632c-7405-4e8a-a239-7e6591e58010/content/fig2_1.tif" xmlns:xlink="https://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"/> Figure 2.2 Concept for hydrogen production and utilization. https://s3-euw1-ap-pe-df-pch-content-public-p.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/9781003338482/32a3632c-7405-4e8a-a239-7e6591e58010/content/fig2_2.tif" xmlns:xlink="https://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"/> Figure 2.3 Energy decentralized system. https://s3-euw1-ap-pe-df-pch-content-public-p.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/9781003338482/32a3632c-7405-4e8a-a239-7e6591e58010/content/fig2_3.tif" xmlns:xlink="https://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"/>