CES 2024 – Hyundai Motor Company unveils ‘hydrogen solution’ to accelerate the transition to a hydrogen society

Hyundai Motor Company held a ‘Consumer Electronics Show (CES)’ held at the Mandalay Bay Convention Center in Las Vegas, USA on the 8th (local time) under the theme ‘Great transition to hydrogen and software: Ease every way’. Media Day’ was held and the future vision was revealed.

Hyundai Motor Company presented the value and future blueprint of ‘human-centered life innovation’ that will be brought to the world by the hydrogen energy ecosystem and the great transformation based on software and artificial intelligence (AI) that will be completed based on the Hyundai Motor Group’s value chain.

At this CES, Hyundai Motor Company redefined its role to go beyond ‘movement’ in terms of mobility and add comfort to everyday life through innovation for a better world.

Under Hyundai Motor Company’s brand vision ‘Progress for Humanity’, it presents a blueprint to create a comfortable and peaceful place to live by providing universal human values ​​of ‘freedom, equality, and safety’ beyond the physical utility value of technology. did. The intention was to provide freedom of movement from various restrictions through the use of advanced software and artificial intelligence (AI), reduce environmental pollution through hydrogen energy, and harmonize society through equal opportunities in energy use. This is implicitly reflected in the CES 2024 Hyundai Motor Company theme ‘Ease every way’.

Hyundai Motor Company’s future blueprint is embodied in ▲comprehensive ‘hydrogen’ solutions that will accelerate the transition to a hydrogen society, and ▲’software’ innovation to build an optimal ecosystem by connecting people, mobility, data, and cities.

“Science and humanity are two sides of the same coin,” said Jaehoon Jang, CEO of Hyundai Motor Company. “All of Hyundai Motor Company’s technological advancements are aimed at making human life richer. We are committed to creating a hydrogen society where clean hydrogen is used as energy for everyone and everything, and can be used everywhere.” “We will expedite its realization,” he said.

Jose Muñoz, Global Chief Operating Officer (COO) of Hyundai Motors, said, “For Hyundai Motors, progress is evaluated as a practical positive impact that can be provided to humanity.” “Ease every way,” the theme of this CES 2024 Hyundai Motors, is a large and difficult blueprint, but “We will continue the DNA of the challenging spirit that we have consistently maintained for people for 56 years through the great transition to hydrogen and software,” he said.

Announcement of HTWO Grid solution encompassing production, storage, transportation and utilization of hydrogen energy

Hyundai Motor Company has intensively developed hydrogen-related technologies since the beginning of fuel cell research in 1998. Since then, following the world’s first mass production of the Tucson ix35 hydrogen electric vehicle in 2013, the company has continued to strengthen its leadership in the hydrogen field by investing in hydrogen energy technology for over 25 years.

Hydrogen energy has the characteristics of being clean, infinite, and present anywhere in the world. Hydrogen can be produced and utilized in a variety of ways and has strengths in storage and transportation due to its high energy density compared to other energy sources. At the same time, it is possible to secure stable energy security by reducing dependence on specific energy, and has the potential to increase energy independence through local hydrogen production.

Hyundai Motor Company is continuously investing in the development of hydrogen energy based on the characteristics of hydrogen energy that can contribute to the advancement of human values.

At this year’s CES, Hyundai Motor Company declared that it would expand its existing fuel cell brand ‘HTWO’ into Hyundai Motor Group’s hydrogen value chain business brand and announced the HTWO Grid solution that will accelerate the transition to a hydrogen society.

‘HTWO’, Hyundai Motor Group’s hydrogen value chain business brand, combines the capabilities of each affiliate within the group to provide a unit solution (Grid) tailored to the various environmental characteristics and needs of customers at all stages of hydrogen production, storage, transportation and utilization. By combining, we provide an optimized customized package.

It is expected that the HTWO Grid solution will be able to drive the growth of the hydrogen business from production to utilization by connecting all value chains in the hydrogen industry.

First, Hyundai Motor Company is developing various technologies related to hydrogen production. To produce ‘Green Hydrogen 1′, the ultimate eco-friendly hydrogen, Hyundai Motor Company aims to mass produce two megawatt (MW)-level PEM water electrolyzers within a few years.

[Green hydrogen: Hydrogen produced without carbon emissions using new and renewable energy during the production process]

[Polymer Electrolyte Membrane (PEM) water electrolysis: Uses only water as a raw material without compounds, so hydrogen purity is high, miniaturization is possible, and reaction response is fast, making it easy to respond to renewable energy volatility, but expensive due to the use of precious metals ]

Currently, the cost of hydrogen production through PEM water electrolysis is approximately 1.5 times higher than that of alkaline water electrolysis3, but in the future, through commonization of fuel cell parts and production infrastructure for hydrogen electric vehicles, hydrogen can be produced at a competitive price compared to the current PEM water electrolysis and alkaline water electrolysis. Being able to mass produce is what differentiates Hyundai Motor Group.

[Alkaline Electrolysis: A method of electrolyzing water using an alkaline electrolyte. It has been commercialized for the longest time, has high technological maturity, and is inexpensive due to the use of non-precious metals. However, it is somewhat inferior in terms of reaction responsiveness, hydrogen purity, and current density. Thirteen]

In addition, Hyundai Motor Company also unveiled a resource-cycling hydrogen production technology that produces hydrogen using waste. The current method of producing ‘green hydrogen’ is water electrolysis, but this is difficult to realize in areas where water resources are limited or renewable energy is not readily available. To solve this problem, Hyundai Motor Company is developing a resource-cycling hydrogen production technology that converts household waste into hydrogen.

The resource recycling hydrogen production technology being promoted by Hyundai Motor Group is ▲ a method of converting organic waste into hydrogen (Waste-to-Hydrogen, hereinafter referred to as W2H) ▲ a method of converting waste plastic into hydrogen (Plastic-to-Hydrogen, hereinafter referred to as P2H) It is divided into two types.

The first method, W2H, purifies methane generated from organic waste such as food waste, sewage sludge (sediment from the water treatment process), livestock manure, etc. to create biogas and then converts it to hydrogen.

W2H is also noted as having the advantage of being able to create a hydrogen production base in the region, thereby increasing the independence of hydrogen resources by reducing the costs of the hydrogen transportation and storage process.

The second method, P2H, is characterized by enabling large-scale hydrogen production by melting non-recyclable waste plastic into a liquid state, producing synthetic gas through a gasification process, and then purifying it to produce hydrogen.

Hyundai Motor Group is developing various technologies not only for the production of hydrogen, but also for storage, transportation, and utilization. Hydrogen can be stored in liquid, gas, and solid forms, and like natural gas, it can be transported in various ways, including on land and sea. As an actual application example, a mobile hydrogen charging station (H Moving Station) is currently being operated in Gwangjin-gu, Seoul, and expansion to Jeju Island and other locations is being considered in the future.

When it comes to utilizing hydrogen energy, including city streets, skies, and oceans, Hyundai Motor Group plans to provide hydrogen mobility solution packages tailored to customers’ diverse uses and scales.

In addition, Hyundai Motor Group plans to actively participate in hydrogen-related demonstration projects and spread customized HTWO Grid solutions for each project.

Typically, the HTWO Grid solution centered on the W2H production model is provided to the Indonesian government-private joint project. Indonesia is showing great interest in introducing hydrogen solutions to achieve carbon neutrality. A solution centered on the W2H production model applied to West Java, where Hyundai Motor Group’s main production base is located, will make it possible to solve regional energy self-sufficiency issues, and we plan to expand this.

The case of Indonesia, which plans to build a small-scale hydrogen production hub using locally generated waste and create an industrial complex based on hydrogen energy through Hyundai Motor Group’s W2H production model, is expected to spread as a technology to support carbon neutrality in the ASEAN region and further around the world. I’m doing it.

In addition, 30 Xcient hydrogen electric vehicles are participating in the U.S. ‘California Port Eco-Friendly Truck Introduction Project (NorCAL ZERO, Zero-Emission Regional and Drayage Operations with Fuel Cell Electric Trucks)’ to verify quality and test emissions reduction. It also participates in the ‘H2Hub4′ program, the US government’s hydrogen infrastructure construction project.

[H2Hub: A program in which the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) selects seven hydrogen hubs to accelerate the expansion of the domestic clean hydrogen market and provides an estimated $7 billion in federal support]

At the same time, we plan to collaborate with global e-commerce companies and contribute to building a carbon-neutral logistics infrastructure through Hyundai Motor Company’s hydrogen electric vehicle mobility technology.

The state of Georgia, where Metaplant is being built, is also promoting a Clean Logistics Project in the Savannah region. We plan to introduce Xcient hydrogen electric truck tractors into logistics and build infrastructure such as hydrogen charging stations together with the state of Georgia. The state of Georgia predicts that it will be able to drive the expansion of the hydrogen ecosystem and is expecting job creation and overall economic effects.

In addition, to transition to a hydrogen society, Hyundai Motor Group, as an end user of hydrogen as an energy source, will increase its annual hydrogen consumption from 13,000 tons last year to about 3 million tons by 2035. Hyundai Motor Group’s efforts to increase hydrogen consumption are part of its efforts to accelerate the realization of a hydrogen society by contributing to the creation of large-scale hydrogen demand.

Hyundai Motor Company announced that it plans to launch a successor model to the NEXO by 2025 to strengthen its market leader position in the passenger fuel cell electric vehicle (FCEV) field.​