■ Developed hydrogen storage container since ‘17… First in Korea to procure dry winding optimization design and process technologies easy for quality management and advantageous for mass production
■ Constructed hydrogen tank mass production pilot equipment on an area of 1,488m2 at the LOTTE Aluminum Incheon Plant in preparation for the full-scaled increase of the domestic hydrogen vehicle market
■ Developed large hydrogen tank for tube trailers that can be used in the hydrogen transportation and storage sectors
■ Entered eco-friendly consumption era without carbon concerns through the development of hydrogen tanks that can be applied in various industrial groups such as forklifts and drones
■ Chemical BU Director Gyo-hyun Kim, “Through the organic cooperation among affiliates in the chemical BU, we will create additional value for the hydrogen business, while also creating a hydrogen business road map through the positive cooperation within affiliates in our group”

LOTTE Chemical constructed pilot process equipment for the commercialization of hydrogen storage containers, which is a core part of hydrogen EVs (FCEV).

The pilot facility will span over an area of 1,488m2 and it is an investment for using the hydrogen tank manufacturing technologies researched and developed by LOTTE Chemical to procure the basis for market entry in preparation of the full-fledged hydrogen EV era.

Plans are to utilize the site at the Incheon plant of LOTTE Aluminum, which is part of the LOTTE Group Chemical BU and it is scheduled to complete relevant facilities by the first half of 2022, and it aims at creating synergy through LOTTE Chemical’s hydrogen tank R&D capacities and LOTTE Aluminum’s parts assembly and materials processing capacities.

LOTTE Chemical participated as one of the five institutes for the ‘Hydrogen EV (FCEV) 700bar Hydrogen Storage Container Manufacturing Technology Development Using High-speed Filament Winding’ that was pursued as a core industrial development project of the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Energy since 2017 to begin development of hydrogen storage containers.

Hydrogen storage containers used for hydrogen EVs (FVEC) are core parts requiring safety and reliability at very high pressures of approximately 700bar. The dry winding technology that LOTTE Chemical procured for the first time in Korea is featured by its design capacities of piling by winding carbon fibers on an integrated polymer container and mass production and light weight of hydrogen tanks by developing a process that makes high-speed machining possible.

LOTTE Chemical’s hydrogen tank passed the basic performance evaluation needed for EVs and it is preparing to acquire international certification such as in Europe, and it has plans to develop high-capacity hydrogen tanks to apply them in commercial vehicles, drones, and transportation devices.

LOTTE Chemical BU Director Gyo-hyun Kim stated, “Through the organic cooperation among affiliates in the chemical BU, we will create additional value for the hydrogen business, while also creating a hydrogen business road map through the positive cooperation within affiliates in our group.”

Meanwhile, LOTTE Chemical announced its eco-friendly hydrogen development road map ‘Every Step for H2’ on July 13 stating that it will supply about 30% of the domestic hydrogen demand while achieving carbon neutral growth by 2030, and it also announced its plans to mass produce 100,000 hydrogen tanks in 2025, and expand production to 500,000 by 2030.