BEIJING : China’s Sinopec has begun producing green hydrogen at a plant in Kuqa city in Xinjiang, Chinese state media outlet Xinhua reported on Friday.
The plant – Sinopec’s first green hydrogen facility – has the capacity to produce 20,000 metric tons of hydrogen per year, using solar power to electrolyse water, according to the report.
A Sinopec spokesperson was not immediately available to comment on the plant’s start-up.
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, Xinhua said.
Hydrogen produced at the facility will be supplied to Sinopec’s Tahe refinery to replace hydrogen produced from natural gas.
Sinopec began construction of the plant in November 2021, with an initial investment of around 3 billion yuan ($414 million).
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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