PK Valve & Engineering, a subsidiary of STX, which specializes in industrial valves, said it has developed the country’s first valves for liquefied hydrogen after three years of research and development.

The “3-inch Globe valve for liquefied hydrogen,” made of 316L stainless steel, can be directly applied to containers that store liquefied hydrogen at minus 253 degrees Celsius.

Hydrogen liquefies at the extremely low temperature of minus 253 degrees, and constantly gasifies at higher temperatures. The core technology for valves for liquefied hydrogen is minimizing the generation of gas to keep hydrogen in liquid form. Until now, all cryogenic valves used in Korea had been imported.

PK Valve said it has supplied the new valves to Hylium Industries, which is currently manufacturing storage tanks for liquefied hydrogen to be supplied to the US. PK’s new valves will be installed at liquefied hydrogen stations in the US as well as storage tanks made by Hylium.

The STX subsidiary said it plans to expand its business to cryogenic ISO containers, hydrogen fuel cell ships and vehicles.