Hyundai Rotem said Monday its manufacturing plant for machines to extract hydrogen from natural gas will begin full operations starting this month.

The locomotive and rolling stock unit of Hyundai Motor Group renovated a part of its existing plant for electrical parts in Uiwang, Gyeonggi Province, into one that can produce 20 hydrogen extractors per year in response to a growing number of hydrogen charging stations in South Korea.

“Twenty hydrogen extractors can generate 4,700 metric tons of hydrogen annually, enough to power 850,000 Hyundai Nexo hydrogen fuel cell vehicles. Hyundai Rotem will expand the facility depending on the orders coming,” a company official said.

Of the parts used to build the hydrogen extractors, 80 percent will be Korean made. Hyundai Rotem aims to further raise that figure and localize every part in the extractor except the catalyst by March.

By Kim Byung-wook (kbw@heraldcorp.com)