Taishan Steel seizes new opportunities in hydrogen energy

Taishan Steel in Laiwu district, Shandong. [Photo provided by Taishan Steel]

Adhering to green, low-carbon and high-quality development, Laiwu-based Taishan Steel in Shandong province is committed to seizing new opportunities to boost the hydrogen energy industry.

The company has built Shandong's first hydrogen refueling mother station, the only in the country to integrate hydrogen purification, refueling, loading, testing, storage and transportation, with an investment of approximately 60 million yuan ($8.28 million).

The station adopts a business model with the station in front and the plant behind it, where by-product coke oven gas from Taishan Steel can be purified through two-stage PSA, pressurized and then directly refueled into hydrogen energy vehicles or loaded into tube trailers.

With a 200-kilometer radius, it is the largest and most functional hydrogen refueling station in Shandong, capable of meeting the needs of 60 fuel cell buses, logistics vehicles, and other hydrogen sub-stations.

Taishan Steel fully leverages its advantages in industrial by-product hydrogen resources, technology, geography and management experience, planning to build the Taishan Steel New Energy (Hydrogen Energy) Industrial Park with a total investment of 1.8 billion yuan. The company has also put into operation eight hydrogen energy heavy trucks to transport materials, establishing a "small but sophisticated" industrial chain.

With a history of more than 50 years, Taishan Steel has a comprehensive production capacity of 5 million tons of steel per year. It is one of China's top 500 enterprises and a national green factory. The company began building the hydrogen refueling mother station in 2020 and put it into operation in May 23, 2021, along with 10 hydrogen-powered heavy trucks. (Edited by Yang Yi)