‘Killing two birds with one stone, Panasia will secure both marine market and hydrogen economy with hydrogen reforming technology

“PANASIA has grown as a global technology company by manufacturing scrubbers and BWTS. Also Panasia is developing Hydrogen Reforming technology focused on the Korean Hydrogen Economy Roadmap. Through this, Panasia is planning on securing both marine equipment market and hydrogen economy.”

James (Seung-Ha) Han, Team Leader of Strategic Planning Team announced Panasia’s future plans of business in a Interview recently.
Panasia is a manufacturing company of marine equipment getting a benefit from IMO 2020 regulation. 

IMO has set a limit for sulphur in fuel oil used on board ships of 0.50% from 1 January 2020. as IMO 2020 regulation in force, Ship owners are preparing a countermeasure with using LSFO(Low Sulphur Fuel Oil) , LNG fueled vessel or reduction of HSFO(High Sulphur Fuel Oil) with Scrubber. in this situation, Panasia Scrubber have been recognized for technical prowess with global market share accounting for 8-10% (world’s fourth-largest).

but, Panasia isn’t complacent with it. Panasia, which has a cash cow called scrubber, is expanding their business field with its hydrogen reformer in line with the upcoming hydrogen era.

Mr. Han explained “When we manufactured Scrubber, BWTS, and other equipment, The major clients were stakeholders in the shipbuilding and shipping industry.

But now, we have prepared for an opportunity to expand the company’s business field by attracting customers from institutions and companies that are pushing hydrogen projects such as local governments and Hyundai Motor Group.”.  accordingly, Panasia signed an agreement with Daejeon City Corporation in April to expand hydrogen business in Daejeon. Daejeon City Corporation will be in charge of the construction and operation of hydrogen-related facilities, and Panasia will invest in hydrogen reformer facilities

Mr. Han explained “The government announced its ‘The Korean Hydrogen Economy Roadmap’ policy in January last year to become the world’s leading nation in hydrogen economy”, “The government is aiming to install amount of 310 hydrogen stations using hydrogen reformer in 2022 and 450 in 2025, Panasia is aiming to have an 30% of market share in the hydrogen reformer market in 2025.”

Generally, 250Kw Hydrogen reformer is supplied to hydrogen stations. The price of a hydrogen reformer is known to be about 2 billion won. If Panasia increases its market share in line with governments hydrogen economy strategy, Panasia expect to exert a strong influence in the market of hydrogen station, which is worth 900 billion won in 2025.

He said “Panasia has completed basic design, and research on hydrogen reformer by 2018, and plans to produce and test a prototype equipment by 2020.” And “through this, we aim to produce and sell products and deliver ten of the middle-sized hydrogen reformer to onsite hydrogen fueling stations in domestic *onsite (the way producing hydrogen at the site).

Mr. Han gave advice on development of hydrogen economy in South Korea. the Korean hydrogen economy has developed greatly in the forward market (such as automobiles), but the backward market (such as hydrogen reformer and hydrogen generator) that produces hydrogen is still growing slowly in development.”

He said. “Korea, which lacks resources, needs fundamental technology to meet the era of hydrogen economy and minimize the outflow of royalties due to lack of technology.”

Panasia is also trying to simplify the process of hydrogen reforming.

Mr. Han said “The more hydrogen reforming stages there are, the higher the unit cost of production is. ” and “Especially, we are trying to do our best to lower the unit cost and produce high-quality hydrogen by improving Pressure Swing Adsorption (PSA) technology.”. the phase of hydrogen reforming is consisted of LNG supply, hydrogen desulphurization process, water injection, steam reforming process, water-gas shift process, PSA, and hydrogen tank storage.

Panasia is planning on securing high-quality hydrogen production and reducing the unit cost of production by simplifying the process.