Development Strategies Through Ecosystem Analysis of the Korean Hydrogen Industry

The South Korean government is trying to boost the hydrogen economy with robust measures. At this point, it is necessary to examine the potential environmental changes that would be caused by a transition to a hydrogen economy, trends in the domestic and foreign hydrogen industry and other major issues. It is also important to analyze the current location and competitiveness of Korea’s hydrogen industry from the perspective of industrial ecosystems.Based on this, it is also critical to explore ways to create an industrial ecosystem and derive development tasks for the mid- to long-term. The hydrogen industry is divided into the supply (hydrogen production, storage and transport) and demand (hydrogen mobility and fuel cells) sides in examining the current status and characteristics of development its development in Korea. The final purpose of the article is to propose tasks for the development of the hydrogen industry by evaluating the constraints and potential for development of the industry by evaluating the growth base and competitiveness levels of each industrial ecosystem. There are limitations in analyzing the hydrogen industry - which is still in its early stages in terms of power generation - given the available quantitative indicators. For this study, surveys of companies in the hydrogen industry as well as practitioners and experts in industry, academia and research, and utilized the results. A review of the literature revealed a lack of prior domestic research on the topic using surveys; the results of the analysis are expected to carry useful policy implications.