Hyundai Motor to convert Indonesian landfill waste into hydrogen

Korean automaker to build its 1st overseas waste-to-hydrogen production site in Southeast Asian country

Officials from Hyundai Motor Group and Indonesian government announce their project to utilize the Sarimukti landfill to produce hydrogen at the Global Hydrogen Ecosystem Summit 2025 in Jakarta on Tuesday. (Hyundai Motor Group)

Hyundai Motor will initiate its first overseas project to produce hydrogen from waste in Indonesia as it aims to build a hydrogen ecosystem in the Southeast Asian nation in collaboration with local partners, the Korean auto conglomerate said Tuesday.

Hyundai Motor unveiled its plan to utilize the biogas extracted from the Sarimukti landfill near Bandung in West Java to produce hydrogen and carry out what it calls the Waste-to-Hydrogen, or W2H, solution. The Sarimukti landfill processes about 80 percent of the 1,500 metric tons of waste produced in Bandung daily.

The hydrogen project was announced at the Global Hydrogen Ecosystem Summit 2025, hosted by the Indonesia Fuel Cell and Hydrogen Energy Association in Jakarta. Hyundai Motor has been cooperating with the Indonesian government and state-owned energy firm Pertamina to create a hydrogen ecosystem in Indonesia.

The Korean automaker pointed out that the W2H solution can reduce transportation and storage costs and enhance energy independence with local hydrogen production footholds. The W2H solution can refine methane generated from organic waste such as food, sewage sludge and manure to biogas and convert it to hydrogen.

Hyundai Motor is actively conducting W2H projects in Korea, including a food waste bio center in Chungju and a public sewage treatment facility in Cheongju in North Chungcheong Province.

In this file photo, Hyundai Motor Group Executive Chair Chung Euisun (second from right) watches then Indonesian President Joko Widodo writing his autograph on a Kona Electric at the celebration of Hyundai Motor's completion of an EV battery plant in Karawang, Indonesia, July 2024. (Hyundai Motor Group)

Hyundai Motor said it will cap the Sarimukti landfill in collaboration with Sejin G&E, a Korean landfill development company, and begin extracting biogas from the landfill to convert it into hydrogen using Hyundai Rotem’s hydrogen refiner. According to Hyundai Motor, a technical feasibility analysis for the landfill development has been completed. The Korean firm is working with the West Java government to break ground for the project before the end of this year.

Through a consortium with Korean institutes and companies, Hyundai Motor noted that it plans to apply technologies related to Korea’s production, operation and charging of hydrogen to Indonesia and present the country’s hydrogen policies and safety regulations to the Southeast Asian nation.

Hyundai Motor set up its first manufacturing Indonesian plant in the Deltamas industrial complex near Cikarang, 40 kilometers east of the capital city of Jakarta, in March 2022. The plant also marked the automaker’s first production site in Southeast Asia.

“The Indonesian W2H hydrogen ecosystem project is meaningful as it represents the first overseas expansion of our successful domestic hydrogen production projects,” said a Hyundai Motor official.

“Through our hydrogen business brand HTWO, we look forward to working with the Indonesian government and companies to expand hydrogen production and accelerate the transition into a hydrogen society.”

In this file photo, officials from Hyundai Motor Group and Indonesian government, including Executive Chair Chung Euisun (fifth from right) and then Indonesian President Joko Widodo (fourth from left) take part in the opening ceremony of Hyundai Motor's first manufacturing plant at the Deltamas industrial complex near Cikarang, Indonesia, March 2022. (Hyundai Motor Group)