China Petrochemical Corp, also known as Sinopec, Sinopec to green its hydrogen ecosystem the world’s largest refiner by volume, said it will further boost its green hydrogen manufacturing capacity and expand its hydrogen refueling network nationwide to build itself into China’s largest hydrogen company, the company said on Friday.
The company plans to take advantage of its nationwide gas refueling network and actively build its hydrogen refueling network in China, and aims for a hydrogen refueling capacity of 120,000 metric tons per year by 2025, Sinopec to green its hydrogen ecosystem, the company said in its mid-to-long-term hydrogen development plan released on Friday. The company will also step up its refinery using green hydrogen, which is derived from renewable sources, to gain a lead in the high-quality development of the country’s hydrogen sector, and promote the consumption of cleaner energy in the transportation and industrial sectors. Sinopec will further boost the utilization scale of renewable energy in hydrogen production to gradually replace fossil fuel in the refinery sector, it said. According to the International Energy Agency, refineries across the world are starting to apply hydrogen gas to lower the sulfur content of diesel fuel. Refinery demand for hydrogen has increased due to rising international demand for diesel fuel and as sulfur-content regulations have become more stringent.
Sinopec’s ambition to build a hydrogen economy by seizing opportunities in the production, storage, transport and delivery of hydrogen is seen as an important milestone as a leader in the country’s hydrogen economSinopec to green its hydrogen ecosystem, Wei Hanyang, a power market analyst at research firm BloombergNEF, said Sinopec has made an important first step in following global oil majors’ good practices on hydrogen transition. With advantages in the petrochemical sector, Sinopec is transitioning from gray hydrogen to green hydrogen to help better facilitate the country’s green transition, he said. Li Shousheng, chairman of the China Petroleum and Chemical Industrial Association in Beijing, said he believes while the country’s goals of peaking carbon emissions by 2030 and achieving carbon neutrality by 2060 would put pressure on the country’s refinery sector, they would also present new opportunities. Sinopec started the construction of a 3-billion-yuan ($434 million) green hydrogen plant, with an annual production capacity of 20,000 tons, in Kuqa, Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region, last year. It will also build hydrogen storage tanks and a hydrogen pipeline network. The project is expected to start production in 2023, and the hydrogen it produces will be supplied to Sinopec’s Tahe refinery to replace its current gas-to-hydrogen facilities,
Source: This news is originally published by chinadaily