Innovative Solutions
Innovative Solutions
The use of fossil fuels, such as coal and oil, and incineration of petrochemical materials, like plastics, contribute greatly to air pollution around the world. Indiscriminate waste disposal, meanwhile, has led to more than 10 million tons of detritus flowing into the ocean and harming marine ecosystems.
Protecting the environment has become an issue affecting all of humanity. As a global business, we must focus our efforts to develop and adopt sustainable technologies and business practices. These include helping to broaden the adoption of solar energy and building a reliable ecosystem for the rising hydrogen economy.
As a leading solar-solutions provider, Hanwha Q CELLS has established a robust value chain – from equipment manufacturing and sales to power-plant operations and management, and energy retail – to deliver sustainable energy to customers around the world.
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01Green Hydrogen: The Next Generation of Clean Energy
With the global rise of hydrogen as a viable, clean energy source, Hanwha aims to become a prime mover in the burgeoning hydrogen economy. Hanwha is building a comprehensive value chain of green hydrogen—one that encompasses everything from production to storage, delivery, and utilization.
Hanwha is developing efficient and economic electrolysis technologies to produce green hydrogen from water while leveraging renewable energy through its world-class solar solutions. Currently, Hanwha Solutions’ Chemical Division is developing ways to mass-produce green hydrogen through an anion exchange membrane water electrolyzer (AEMWE). With this method, an alkaline solution is subjected to an electric current that splits water molecules into hydrogen and oxygen atoms, producing hydrogen and leaving oxygen as the only by-product of the process.
Meanwhile, Hanwha Solutions’ Advanced Materials Division develops specialty composite materials that it uses to manufacture safe and durable high-pressure tanks, allowing for the storage and transportation of hydrogen around the world. Hanwha Power Systems produces solutions that compress hydrogen for storage and use in refueling stations.
Hanwha’s green-hydrogen-business value chain will serve as a powerful competitive advantage and contribute to achieving net-zero emissions worldwide.
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02
’s Hydrogen-Fuel-Cell Power Plant
The adoption of hydrogen as a power source can also foster the creation of a circular economy, which emphasizes resource recycling. Take for example, the one-of-a-kind power plant Hanwha Energy operates in Seosan, Korea. It is the first hydrogen-fuel-cell power plant to only use hydrogen extracted as a byproduct from petrochemical production.
The power plant operates in a near-perfect loop. Hanwha Total Petrochemical pumps waste hydrogen to Hanwha Energy’s hydrogen-fuel-cell power plant. The electricity produced is fed back to Hanwha Total Petrochemical. The fuel cells emit water vapor as a byproduct of electricity production. The water vapor is condensed and pumped to Hanwha Total Petrochemical, where it is used to cool manufacturing processes that produce more waste hydrogen for the power plant.
At maximum capacity, the power plant will produce up to 50 MW of electricity per year, enough to provide power to 200,000 homes. Hanwha Energy expects this production model will be of great interest to both the petrochemical and utility industries.
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Hanwha Solutions’ Chemical Division is committed to addressing pressing pollution issues by developing eco-friendly plastics and new materials that are safer for the environment.
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01Eco-Friendly Plastics Development
In 2017, Hanwha Solutions’ Chemical Division successfully commercialized ECO-DEHCH, an eco-friendly plasticizer. Plasticizers help make plastics more flexible and less brittle, but traditional plasticizers can have harmful effects on humans and the environment. ECO-DEHCH addresses these issues and makes plastics safer to handle and recycle.
ECO-DEHCH has been cleared for use in food-related products – such as plastic wrap and bottle caps – by the United States Food and Drug Administration. It also passed toxicity tests conducted by the General Society of Surveillance in Switzerland.
In recognition of its safety and product qualities, ECO-DEHCH received Korea’s prestigious IR52 Jang Young-shil Award in 2018.
Learn moreAdditionally, the Chemical Division is developing eco-friendly bioplastics, including biodegradable plastics made from plant-based starches. These alternative materials will transform the way plastics are produced, used, and disposed while being safer for the environment.
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02Waste Recycling
Hanwha Solutions’ Chemical Division has a growing interest in recycling waste materials to produce high-value materials. For example, the Chemical Division’s manufacturing plant in Ningbo, China, accepts waste anhydrous hydrochloric acid from a neighboring plant. The Ningbo plant recycles the material, which would have been discarded, to produce polyvinyl chloride (PVC) that can be used in a wide variety of industrial and consumer applications.
The Chemical Division is also the first in the world to develop recycling technology that turns waste materials from toluene diisocyanate (TDI) manufacturing back into raw materials that can be processed into adhesives, automotive materials, and other industrial goods.
Learn more about Hanwha’s efforts to recycle plastics