Chinese Oil And Chemicals Giant Begins Producing Green Hydrogen

Chinese oil and chemicals giant Sinopec has started producing green hydrogen from its first such production plant in the country, state news agency Xinhua reported on Friday.

Sinopec’s first green hydrogen plant in Kuqa city in Xinjiang in the northwest has the capacity to produce 20,000 metric tons of hydrogen annually and it is using solar power for the water electrolysis, Xinhua added. The green hydrogen produced at the Kuqa plant will supply Sinopec’s Tahe refinery in the Xinjiang area and will replace there the hydrogen produced from natural gas.
China has set a target to produce 100,000 to 200,000 tons of green hydrogen annually, along with around 50,000 hydrogen-fueled vehicles by 2025, as it aims to transition towards renewable energy.
“Development of hydrogen is an important move for energy transition and a great support for China’s carbon peak and carbon neutrality goals,” Wang Xiang, the deputy director of the High Technology Department at China’s National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), said last year.

China targets to have its emissions peak by 2030 and to achieve net-zero emissions by 2060, a decade later than most of the pledges of the developed economies.

Earlier this year, Sinopec said it plans to build the first ‘West to East’ green hydrogen transmission line in the country.
The company will construct a 400-km (248 miles) pipeline from Inner Mongolia’s Ulanqab to Beijing to transfer hydrogen from renewable energy projects in the northwestern region to cities in China’s east. The pipeline, set to have an initial capacity of 100,000 tons per year, will also have ports to grant access to new potential hydrogen sources.

Sinopec has also embarked on the world’s largest project to use green hydrogen to produce coal chemicals. The project, valued at approximately $830 million, is set to be built in Ordos, Inner Mongolia. The facility will produce 30,000 metric tons of green hydrogen and 240,000 tons of green oxygen each year.