POSCO International Expands Hydrogen Electric Vehicle Parts Business

Check-in 2021.03.08 12:12

POSCO (005490)Along with the launch of the group’s integrated green 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 core of the electric vehicle drive motor. 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 made up of an anode and an anode. The separator serves as a channel to supply hydrogen to the anode and oxygen to the cathode, and also functions as a support between the unit cells that make up the cell.

The ‘Poss470FC’ hydrogen fuel cell separator produced by POSCO SPS, a subsidiary of POSCO International, is made of highly conductive stainless steel from POSCO and has superior conductivity, durability and uniformity than other materials. In particular, ‘Poss470FC’ features a slim thickness of 0.1mm. In addition, ‘Poss470FC’ is evaluated as an environmentally friendly material because it can avoid harmful substances for the environment generated during the coating 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 be extended to mobility markets such as robots and UAM (Downtown Air Mobility) in the future.

The current production capacity of POSCO SPS is 1,400 tonnes, 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 approximately 10,000 tons by 2027.

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