The scooter, the result of a project sponsored by the Ministry of Science and Technology and the Korea Institute of Science and Technology, can run up to 140 kilometers on 6 liters of hydrogen fuel, it said. 

The newly-developed technology uses a water-based solution of sodium borohydride, made from sodium borate, to produce hydrogen gas. 

The company explained that on 6 liters of hydrogen fuel, the vehicle can travel three times farther than a scooter powered by a nickel-cadmium cell, saying that the technology can also be applied in automobiles, laptop computers and mobile phones. 

The downside is that there are only about 300 million tons of sodium borate worldwide, located mostly in Tibet, and that annual global production of sodium borohydride stands at 10,000 tons, it added. 

"The development and testing of the hydrogen-powered scooter shows that South Korea's technology is on a par with that of the world," said Yu Yong-ho, president of Samsung Engineering's R&D center.