POSCO International expands hydrogen electric vehicle parts business

Input 2021.03.08 12:12

POSCO (005490)In conjunction with the launch of the group’s integrated eco-friendly vehicle brand,’e Autopos’, POSCO International began mass-producing key parts for hydrogen electric vehicles.

POSCO International plans to expand the production of hydrogen fuel cell separators following the electric vehicle drive motor core. The separator is a key component of the hydrogen fuel cell stack. The stack is assembled by stacking hundreds of unit cells, and each unit cell is composed of an anode and an anode. The separator serves as a channel for supplying hydrogen to the anode and oxygen to the cathode, and also functions as a support between unit cells constituting the stack.

The hydrogen fuel cell separator’Poss470FC’ produced by POSCO SPS, a subsidiary of POSCO International, is made of POSCO’s highly conductive stainless steel and has superior conductivity, durability, and uniformity than other materials. In particular,’Poss470FC’ boasts a thin thickness of 0.1mm. In addition,’Poss470FC’ is evaluated as an eco-friendly material because it can avoid environmentally harmful substances generated during the plating process.

The membranes produced by POSCO SPS are applied to hydrogen fuel cells for drones as well as hydrogen electric vehicles, and are expected to spread to mobility markets such as robots and UAM (city center air mobility) in the future.

The current production capacity of POSCO SPS is 1400 tons, which is the quantity that can be supplied to 35,000 hydrogen electric vehicles. In the future, it plans to increase its production capacity to about 10,000 tons by 2027.

Hae-ik Jeong, head of POSCO SPS STS Business Division, said, “As the release of new hydrogen electric vehicle models expands in the future, the demand for materials for’Poss470FC’ is expected to increase rapidly.” did.