▲ SaemChan Energy / CEO Gwangchan Ahn

The UN warned that the Earth temperature would go up more than 1.5﹎ within 5 years. As if to prove it, the temperature has gone up by 1.11﹎ last year compared to before the Industrial Revolution. Experts point out fossil fuel as the main catalyst. World leaders and businessmen were reluctant to take action at first but they are now moving fast backed up by international climate agreements. While governments are busy introducing eco-friendly policies and entrepreneurs are building eco-friendly energy facilities such as solar, wind, ocean and hydrogen.

Hydrogen in particular is highly sought after as it is everywhere and is better than electric vehicles which take long charging time. Hydrogen vehicles have attracted attention since 2018 but the charging and pressing techniques still have long way to go. Amid this struggling, a South Korean hydrogen charging company SaemChan Energy is becoming a center of attention with its development of ‘hydrogen dispenser’ that satisfies the American international hydrogen charging standard.

SaemChan and CEO Gwangchan Ahn

Gwangchan Ahn, who established SaemChan in 2018, boasts 23 years of experience in gas facilities, CNG charging and hydrogen charging. Working for the world’s first pressed gas supply facility project of the peaker plant in Indonesia between 2012 and 2018 in particular has earned him a strong presence in the field. Backed up by the support of KNK Heater and the Korea Technology and Information Promotion Agency for SMEs, he succeeded development of a hydrogen dispenser in 2018. 

Satisfying SAE J 2601 and 2799

“The core part of this hydrogen dispenser is the controller. It is a device that injects hydrogen at the optimum ratio of pressure according to the temperature outside at the time of the injection. To put it simple, the work is extremely sensitive as the process is affected by many factors. I went through more than 20 tester vehicles a day alongside charging 11 vehicles in a row to make sure whether the controller works perfectly” explains Ahn.

And the result was the nation’s first satisfying the SAE J 2601. SAE stands for Society of Automotive Engineers, the American international standard introduced in 2010. The criteria of the standard are as follows: charging temperature over -40﹎ and below 85﹎, charging pressure less than 0.5MPa, charging ratio less than 100%, and charging speed less than 60g/s. SaemChan’s hydrogen dispenser satisfied all of these and obtained SAE J 2601. It is being used at hydrogen stations in Sangam Seoul, Ulsan, Jangsaengpo Port, and Osong.

Capacity of 12,000 charging times

A high pressure storage, liquid storage and metallic alloy hydrogen storage are the three hydrogen storage methods. The high pressure storage is efficient, economic, simple and responding  which are the reasons that it is being used for charging hydrogen vehicles. The high pressure storage requires 70Mpa pressure and SaemChan’s hydrogen dispenser satisfies this and can charge 40 times a day of the total 300 days. Calculating into the total charging times is 12,000 times which prove that the dispenser is highly durable and trustworthy. It also can charge 9 vehicles in a row within 1 hour, and 70Mpa pressured 3kg hydrogen can charge up to 300 times. When used for boat or ship, it can charge up to 8kg hydrogen. 

SaemChan hydrogen dispenser wowed experts and visitors at the 2021 H2MOBILITY + ENERGY SHOW, registered for 2 government projects amid 2 projects being under progress, obtained an hydrogen device inspection order from the Korea Gas Safety Corporation, and registered to the Public Procurement Service for an internal pressure tester.

“I’m ambitious to grow my hydrogen charging techniques for the benefit of hydrogen industry and carbon neutrality” says Ahn.

Ahn is looking forward to seeing the dispenser that can charge 100kg pressured hydrogen with 350bar charging pressure within the first half of this year. <PowerKorea>