(Beijing / China) – The Chinese natural gas and mineral oil company China Petroleum & Chemical Corporation (Sinopec) has been awarded the contract to build a plant to produce green hydrogen. The location of the project called “Sinopec Xinjiang Kuqa Green Hydrogen” is the town of Kuqa in the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region in northwest China. 
The electricity for electrolysis is generated in a 300 megawatt solar power plant and its yield is forecast at 618 gigawatt hours. The commissioning of the first construction phase with a production capacity of 10.000 tons of hydrogen per year is scheduled for June 2023; In the final stage it should be 20.000 tonnes. According to the company, investments amount to more than three billion yuan (416 million euros).
1.000 hydrogen filling stations within the next five years
Sinopec wants to use its first self-developed PEM electrolyzer for production. The hydrogen is stored in a spherical tank with a capacity of 210.000 cubic meters. There is also a transport pipeline with a flow rate of 28.000 cubic meters per hour. The gas will replace natural gas previously used for hydrogen production at Sinopec's Tahe Refining & Chemical refinery.
Sinopec currently produces around 3,9 million tonnes of hydrogen per year, making it the largest producer in China. At the end of 2020, the country had around 7.300 hydrogen-powered vehicles, the company said, and had installed 128 hydrogen filling stations. The group wants to build 1.000 hydrogen filling stations within the next five years.
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Sinopec wants to build 1.000 hydrogen filling stations within the next five years (Photo: filling station in Singapore) © Sinopec
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Ceremony to mark the start of the construction phase of hydrogen production in Xinjiang © Sinopec
