ULSAN < invest Korea

According to Yonhap News,

(Ulsan = Yonhap News) Reporter Kim Yong-tae – Ulsan City announced on the 24th that it has been selected for a new research and development (R&D) project under the '2026 Energy Technology Development Project' hosted by the Ministry of Climate, Energy and Environment. With this selection, the city is set to embark on localizing and advancing hydrogen fuel cell systems for submarines.

The selected sector is the 'Development of a 20 kW-class Submarine Fuel Cell System Based on Nitrogen-Circulating Mixed Gas Utilizing Commercial Fuel Cell Stacks.'

Accordingly, the city signed a national R&D project agreement with six enterprises and institutions, including HD Korea Shipbuilding & Offshore Engineering (HD KSOE) and the Ulsan Technopark, to launch full-scale research and development.

The city says that the pure-oxygen Air-Independent Propulsion (AIP) system—a system providing propulsion power without an external air supply—currently applied to most submarines is widely utilized in the global defense market due to its low noise levels and extended underwater endurance.

The K-Fuel Cell Consortium, which is leading this project, plans to advance this technology further to secure integrated gas supply, circulation, and control technologies capable of operating stably even in a nitrogen-oxygen mixed gas environment similar to actual air. It also aims to implement a fuel cell system that functions reliably under extreme submarine tilt and vibration conditions.

The city explained that once the technology development is finalized, it is expected to improve the high-risk and high-cost structure of existing systems while reducing maintenance, repair, and overhaul (MRO) expenses by replacing foreign components with localized versions.

The project will be pursued for 45 months from this year through 2029, with a total project budget of KRW 11.33 billion. The government will provide KRW 7.4 billion, Ulsan City will contribute KRW 300 million, and the private sector will cover KRW 3.63 billion.

The co-R&D institutions participating in the project include the K-Fuel Cell Consortium, Ulsan City, the Ulsan Technopark, the Soongsil University Research Foundation, and Hongsworks.

Furthermore, HD KSOE is participating both as a co-R&D institution and as the end-user enterprise that will utilize the final development outcomes, which is expected to boost the completeness of commercialization and actual verification.

A city official stated, "We will create a world-class, marine-specialized fuel cell ecosystem by combining our pre-established Hydrogen Fuel Cell Verification Center and hydrogen mobility technologies with HD KSOE's world-class submarine construction technology."

yongtae@yna.co.kr



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Source Text

Source: Yonhap News (June 24, 2026)

** This article was translated from Korean.