Aju Business Daily

SEOUL -- South Korea's state electricity company claimed to have succeeded in storing a large amount of liquid hydrogen using a new method which is safe and easy to handle and has a higher hydrogen density than other storage types.

Korea Electric Power Corporation (KEPCO) said on Monday that it has used liquid organic hydrogen carrier (LOHC) technology to store a large amount of hydrogen. The conventional method utilizes pressurized tanks, but it's dangerous to set up hydrogen fuel charging stations in populated areas because hydrogen is highly reactive.

Traditional hydrogen storage tanks store one normal cubic meters per hour (Nm3/hr). KEPCO said that it has succeeded in storing gas at 20 Nm3/hr. Nm3/hr is a unit used to measure the gas flow rate.

"Liquid hydrogen storage technology is significantly higher in storage capacity, reliability and economy than conventional compressed storage methods," a KEPCO official was quoted as saying.

The LOHC technology is based on the chemical bonding of hydrogen to liquid organic carriers. It utilizes characteristics of unsaturated organic compounds that are capable of storing huge amounts of hydrogen. The liquid organic material, which was used to carry hydrogen, can be re-hydrates.

Doubts about the reliability and effectiveness of hydrogen fuel charging stations have slowed down the speedy adoption of hydrogen-fuel charging infrastructure in South Korea.