Sinopec breaks ground on green hydrogen project

The world's largest integrated green hydrogen production project, which will be applied at a nearby coal chemical plant, kicked off construction in the Inner Mongolia autonomous region on Thursday, operator China Petrochemical Corp said.

With an annual green hydrogen production capacity of 30,000 tons, the project will take advantage of the abundant solar and wind resources in the region to produce green hydrogen which will be used in the nearby coal processing demonstration project in the city of Ordos to further reduce carbon emissions.

The company, Asia's largest refiner by volume and also known as Sinopec, is set to dominate the country's hydrogen sector this year, with multiple projects from upstream production to equipment manufacturing scheduled to be completed or start construction.

It will further boost its green hydrogen manufacturing capacity and expand its refueling network nationwide to build itself into China's largest hydrogen company.

In 2021, Sinopec started construction on a 3-billion-yuan ($434 million) green hydrogen plant with an annual production capacity of 20,000 tons in Kuqa, Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region. It will also build hydrogen storage tanks and a hydrogen pipeline network. The project is expected to start production in 2023, and the hydrogen it produces will be supplied to Sinopec's Tahe refinery to replace its current gas-to-hydrogen facilities.

zhengxin@chinadaily.com.cn