Collaboration needed to build low carbon hydrogen system
(From right) Dr Jeong, Satoshi, Gentari chief hydrogen officer Michèle Azalbert and ENEOS Holdings executive vice president Koichiro Tanaka share their thoughts during a plenary session at Energy Asia 2025.
KUALA LUMPUR (June 17): Cross-sector collaborations is crucial to build a scalable and commercially viable hydrogen economy in a call towards coordinated efforts across the entire value chain, from production and infrastructure to policy frameworks and sustained market demand.
Low-carbon hydrogen is rapidly emerging as a cornerstone of Asia's decarbonisation strategy, with the potential to transform energy systems and enable emissions reductions across hard-to-abate sectors.
During a panel session at Energy Asia 2025, industry specialists underscored the need for collaboration to facilitate the development of the hydrogen economy.
Samsung E&A's head of green H2 business team Dr Jeong Hyunseok cited Samsung E&A's recent acquisition of a 9.1 per cent stake in Norwegian hydrogen company Nel ASA (Nel) for approximately US$33 million.
Nel offers various electrolyser solutions for hydrogen production based on renewable energy. The company is developing proton exchange membrane (PEM) and atmospheric alkaline electrolysers.
'It (the electrolyser technology) is one of our most strategic investment in now globally,' he said during the session. 'It is not just a financial investment. It's about co-developing the electrolyser technology together that combines our proven alkaline and PEM technology with Samsung E&A's project delivery and engineering capability.
'Based on that, we can offer, very successfully, to reduce capital expenditure, and we also can offer the full integrated supply chain and fully modularised 100-megawatt solution to the market. Based on that kind of collaboration, we would like to provide some sort of early idea-proven project.
'So I believe we can offer more bankable and integrated hydrogen plant solutions combined together.'
One of the biggest lessons learnt, Jeong said, has been the alignment of technology management with commercial project timeline as the final investment decision (FID) could not be achieved without any optimised balance of the plan.
'If a client cannot navigate the interface between electrolyser, the original equipment manufacturer (OEM), and the energy transition company (ETC), we cannot achieve that. So, based on our last three months' experience with Nel, we fully recognise that joint planning is really important.
'It is not just technical, but also supply chain and fully integrated ready-made modularisation, which is quite important. Our team has learned from each other and accelerating faster than expected.
'I would also like to point out that this kind of team collaboration between electrolyser, OEM, and ETC — this industry can get more reliable and affordable solution. So it's maybe a model that can be carried out elsewhere as well.'
Meanwhile, Kawasaki Kisen Kaisha Ltd senior managing corporate officer Satoshi Kanamori, agreed that partnerships can play a key role in de-risking the transportation of hydrogen.
'Partnerships for hydrogen — or any other zero emission type of energy transportation — is fundamental because a single company cannot provide services of an entire value chain,' he said.
'Portfolio should be necessary depending on the distance, location or the size. So, collaboration or the information exchange among such partners or even different models — that is very important.'
To note, Kawasaki Kisen Kaisha Ltd is a Japanese transportation company with a fleet of dry cargo ships (bulk carriers), container ships, liquefied natural gas carriers, Ro-Ro ships, tankers, and container terminals.
Kanamori said partnership is very important in de-risking hydrogen import activities as industry players can share best practises and resources in supplementing services to each other.
'Also, joint investments can reduce our financial risks and that's another good opportunity where we can pursue with the partnership,' he affirmed.
'Producing hydrogen, supplying it from one customer to another, is a supply chain that requires success in every step of the way.' Energy Asia 2025 hydrogen low-carbon hydrogen
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