Posco Chemical and OCI to begin construction of H2O2 factory 

P&O Chemical, the joint venture between Posco Chemical and OCI, will begin construction of a new hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) factory at Gwangyang, South Korea, the companies said.

The factory will be completed in May 2022 and have a production capacity of 50,000 metric tonnes per year.

It is close to Posco’s steel mill and will be built at an area of 42,000 meter-square.

H2O2 is made from by-product hydrogen. The factory will be connected with pipes of the steel mill’s coke oven gas, which will extract and process the hydrogen. The extract cost less than LNG and coke oven gas that has finished extraction in returned to the steel mill for reuse.

H2O2 is used in a variety of application, as bleach and cleaners, including as disinfectant for COVID-19. A purified form with metals of 10ppb(part per billion) and 10ppt(part per trillion) is used in semiconductor and display production. 

The new factory will produce H2O2 for use in semiconductor production. Demand is on the rise from chip companies’ expansion of their facilities recently and expanded steps in the chip production process, which requires more of the chemicals.

Posco Chemical owns a 51% stake and OCI 49% of P&O Chemical.