South Korea’s Doosan Corp. has completed the construction of the country’s largest fuel cell plant that has cost the company a total 40 billion won ($36 million), the company announced on Tuesday.

According to the company, the new fuel cell plant can produce 144 units of 440-kilowatt fuel cells a year, the largest fuel cell capacity in Korea. It is built on a space of 10,744 square meters in Iksan, some 250 kilometers south of Seoul. This is the company’s second fuel cell power plant following the one already in operation in Connecticut, USA.

With the fuel cell plants in the U.S. and the new one in Korea, Doosan is now able to promptly respond to growing needs of fuel cell users at home and abroad. "If 144 units of fuel cells are operated for one year, 550,000 megawatts of power can be generated. We are also positioned to supply heat for household heating that can be used for one year at 100,000 households,” said an official at Doosan.

A fuel cell is a generator that produces electricity and heat using an electrochemical process. It is an eco-friendly power plant with a high utilization rate and requires a smaller space for installation. After Korea’s new government has ordered to close down aged coal-fired power plant and suspend their new construction in the country in a bid to fight against fine dust and air pollution, demand for such eco-friendly fuel cell power plants is expected to grow further.

The company aims to continue to develop eco-friendly technologies to produce fuel cells that use by-product hydrogen as a fuel source and provide it to a petrochemical industrial complex in Chungnam Province.

By Moon Ji-woong

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