(Kuqa / China) – The Chinese state-owned oil company China Petroleum & Chemical Corporation (Sinopec) has put its first pilot project for green hydrogen into operation. The location is the city of Kuqa in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region in northwest China.
Location of the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region in northwest China. © Wikimedia Commons
According to the company, this is the first plant of this size in the country. It is intended to generate 20.000 tons of green hydrogen per year using solar power. From the 210.000 cubic meter hydrogen storage facility, 28.000 cubic meters per hour could be transported to the refinery of Sinopec's subsidiary Tahe Refining & Chemical. The group wants to replace the hydrogen previously produced using fossil fuels, which would reduce its CO2 emissions by 485.000 tons annually.
Construction of the facility began in November 2021 and investments amount to around three billion yuan (380 million euros).
Hydrogen project in Inner Mongolia
Only a few months ago Sinopec had it launch for a first green hydrogen project in the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. The planned annual production capacity there is 30.000 tons and 240.000 tons of oxygen.
For the project called “Inner Mongolia Erdos Wind-Solar Green Hydrogen”, Sinopec is building a wind farm with an output of 450 megawatts and a photovoltaic power plant with an output of 270 megawatts in the Erdos region, as well as the infrastructure for electricity transmission, hydrogen production, storage and transport. The storage capacity there is 288.000 cubic meters. According to the information, the investment costs amount to 5,7 billion yuan (773 million euros).
According to the Reuters news agency, China wants to build hydrogen production capacity of 2025 to 100.000 tons by 200.000.
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Sinopec's Xinjiang Kuqa Green Hydrogen Pilot Project begins operations. © Sinopec
