UNIST announced today that it held a grand opening ceremony and signboard-hanging ceremony of its new hydrogen-specialized research center.
The new center will serve as a dedicated research center for the successful research and development, considering not only the production of hydrogen, but also the storage and distribution stages, as well as leading policy development. Thus, the center will become a stepping stone for Ulsan and UNIST to take a big leap forward to becoming a hydrogen technology hub.
A signboard-hanging ceremony was also held to celebrate the grand opening of the new hydrogen center. The ceremony has been attended by Mayor Song Chul Ho of Ulsan Metropolitan City, Mr. Gil-Bu Kang, the National Assembly member Chae-ik Lee, President Dong-hyung Cha of Ulsan Technopark, UNIST President Mooyoung Jung, Vice President JaeSung Lee of UNIST, and 40 other distinguished guests and related officials.
The new center was set up to push for a future hydrogen society in accordance with the nation’s ‘Hydrogen Economy Roadmap’, as well as Ulsan’s ‘2030 Hydrogen City Development Strategy’. Ulsan, which has an excellent infrastructure for hydrogen industry, needed a dedicated research center to spur the development of new technologies, as well as to demonstrate and distribute hydrogen.
Recently, UNIST has laid a stable research foundation by being selected to lead the ‘Eco-friendly Hydrogen Mobility Project’ to supply and demonstrate solar-to-hydrogen production, as part of the ‘Climate Change Countermeasure R&D Project’ by the Ministry of Science and ICT (MSIT).
The research proceeds in three directions: Hydrogen production technology, hydrogen and natural gas utilization technology, and hydrogen-based next-generation petrochemical industry technology. Specifically, eco-friendly hydrogen production technology using solar light, next-generation fuel cell, and carbon dioxide reduction technology are also included. The center will function as a base for human resources, industry-university cooperation, and technology commercialization, as well as the R&D and demonstration of related technologies.
Under the direction of Vice President JaeSung Lee, Professors from the School of Energy and Chemical Engineering (Sang Kyu Kwak, Youngsik Kim, Jin Young Kim, Jungki Ryu, Kwanyong Seo, Hyun-Kon Song, Hankwon Lim, Ji Wook Jang, and Sang Hoon Joo), the School of Natural Science (Hyeon Suk Shin), and the School of Materials Science and Engineering (Seungho Cho) will carry out multi-discipline convergence research projects on various aspects of hydrogen energy, including its production, storage and use as a fuel for generation of mechanical/thermal/electrical energy.
“With the support of this center, UNIST will accelerate the R&D of next-generation hydrogen technologies for various applications,” says President Mooyoung Jung. “Thus, we will strengthen the Industry-University-Institute collaboration with Ulsan city and the hydrogen industry-related organizations.”
Meanwhile, UNIST plans to expand the center through the construction of new dedicated buildings. The building that are currently being planned will comprise six floors and a basement with a gross floor area of approximately 5,700 square meters.
