Sinopec’s first green hydrogen facility has the capacity to produce 20,000 metric tons of hydrogen a year, using solar power to electrolyse water, the company said in a statement.
The plant, in Kuqa city in Xinjiang, is China’s first solar green hydrogen facility with a annual capacity of more than 10,000 metric tons, the company said.
China and other countries are racing to develop green hydrogen – produced using renewable power to split water into hydrogen and oxygen – as a crucial source of fuel with no carbon emissions to help limit climate change.
China’s state planner last year announced a target to produce 100,000 to 200,000 metric tons of green hydrogen a year by 2025.
Sinopec’s facility, along with its production capacity, has hydrogen storage capacity of 210,000 cubic metres and transmission capacity of 28,000 cubic metres per hour, the company said.
Hydrogen produced at the facility will be supplied to Sinopec’s Tahe refinery to replace hydrogen produced from natural gas.
In February, the company launched construction of a 30,000 metric ton green hydrogen demonstration project in Inner Mongolia and announced plans to build a 400 km pipeline from Inner Mongolia to the capital, Beijing, to transport hydrogen.
($1 = 7.2480 Chinese yuan renminbi)
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