Doosan announces hydrogen turbine pledge

Doosan Heavy Industries & Construction will work with Korea Western Power to develop next-generation eco-friendly hydrogen turbines based on domestic technologies.

Under the plan, the companies will contribute to achieving the goal of carbon neutrality by 2050 and promote Korea’s domestic hydrogen turbine industry. The signing ceremony, held at Doosan Heavy’s headquarters in Changwon, was attended by Korea Western Power President Park Hyungduck and Doosan Heavy President & COO Jung Yeonin, among others from the two companies.

Korea Western Power President Park Hyungduck(left) and Doosan Heavy President Jung Yeonin pose for a photo after signing an agreement to develop next-generation eco-friendly hydrogen turbines based on domestic technologies.

With this agreement, Doosan Heavy plans to develop hydrogen combustors and hydrogen turbines based on domestic technologies, and secure technologies to mass-produce related components. Korea Western Power will promote the application of hydrogen combustors and hydrogen turbines.

The two companies agreed to closely cooperate in building a basis for the demonstration of small and medium-sized 100% hydrogen-fueled turbines, currently being developed by Doosan Heavy. The hydrogen turbine technologies to be secured will be applied to new power plants and the conversion of old thermal power plants into hydrogen power plants, pursued by Korea Western Power.

In addition, the two companies agreed to join efforts to create a hydrogen ecosystem, helping small and medium-sized enterprises develop hydrogen turbine technologies and advance into domestic and overseas markets.

“Doosan Heavy has excellent technical capabilities to become the fifth company in the world to develop a large-scale gas turbine for power generation on its own,” said Doosan Heavy President Jung Yeonin. “Based on these capabilities, we will make company-wide efforts to develop eco-friendly hydrogen gas turbines for carbon neutrality.”

Meanwhile, Doosan Heavy is carrying out a gas turbine demonstration after signing a contract with Korea Western Power in December 2019 to supply gas turbines to the Gimpo Combined Heat & Power (CHP) Plant. In July 2020, it signed an MOU with Korea Western Power to cooperate on next generation Korean standard Combined Cycle Power Plant (CCPP) installation.

Since May 2020, Doosan Heavy has been developing a 50% hydrogen dual-fuel combustor for 300 MW class high-efficiency hydrogen turbines jointly with domestic industry, academia, and research institutes such as KIMM (Korea Institute of Machinery & Materials), and it is also participating in a national project to develop a 100% hydrogen-fueled combustor for 5MW-class small gas turbines, taking the lead in development of hydrogen turbine technologies.