(Beijing / China) – According to media reports, the state-owned China Petroleum & Chemical Corporation (Sinopec) wants to build a pipeline to transport green hydrogen from China's sparsely populated northwest to the cities in the east of the country. The line will stretch 100.000 kilometers from Ulanqab in the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region to the capital Beijing, with an initial capacity of 400 tons per year, Reuters news agency said, citing Sinopec Chairman Ma Yongsheng.
Ports will be built along the route to enable access to new potential sources of hydrogen, the report continues. While the country already operates pipelines for gray hydrogen, which is produced from fossil fuels, the project is the first green hydrogen pipeline from west to east, according to the article.
Hydrogen production hotspot
Sinopec, China's largest hydrogen producer, started in February Hydrogen demonstration projectt in the autonomous region. The “Inner Mongolia Erdos Wind-Solar Green Hydrogen Project” aims to utilize the solar and wind energy resources in Erdos to produce green hydrogen. The planned annual production capacity is 30.000 tons. To achieve this, the group wants to build a wind farm with an output of 450 megawatts and a photovoltaic power plant with an output of 270 megawatts.
This announcement, in turn, followed the pilot project for green hydrogen in Kuqa Xinjiang, also in northwest China, announced in 2021, called “Sinopec Xinjiang Kuqa Green Hydrogen”. The electricity for electrolysis there is generated in a 300 megawatt solar power plant. Commissioning was scheduled for 2023 at the time.
Sinopec currently produces almost four million tons of hydrogen per year. The group wants to build 1.000 hydrogen filling stations by the middle of the decade.
Photos
Sinopec headquarters in Beijing. © Sinopec
