China is planning on building a 400km hydrogen pipeline to carry the clean energy carrier for the renewable resource-rich west to the energy consuming regions in the east of the country, according to Xinhua.
Reports have said the pipeline project is designed to carry hydrogen from Unlanqab, in China’s Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, to Beijing, making it the country’s first trans-regional hydrogen pipeline.
Xinhua reported, Ma Yongsheg, Chairman of Sinopec, China’s largest oil refiner, said in its first phase, the pipeline will be able to handle around 100,00 tonnes of hydrogen each year, with the potential to increase capacity to 500,000 tonnes in the future.
Ma added, once put into operation, the supply of low-carbon hydrogen from Inner Mongolia will replace current fossil fuel-based hydrogen production in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region.
The Chinese news agency also said the project has been included in the country’s oil and gas network construction plan, released by the National Energy Administration in March (2023).
In February (2023), China Petroleum & Chemical Corporation (Sinopec) launched a green hydrogen project in Inner Mongolia to which could produce up to 30,000 tonnes of green hydrogen annually to decarbonise coal processing.
Said to be the ‘world’s largest’ project in the green hydrogen coal-chemical field, Sinopec hopes it will expand China’s and global green hydrogen production capacity and promote the development of the green hydrogen supply chain, while advancing China’s renewable energy goals.
H2 View, in October last year (2022), reported that China’s Industrial Development plan predicted that hydrogen produced from electrolyser, powered by intermittent renewable energy, will reach around 200,000 million tonnes per year in China by 2025.
The plan noted that hydropower in Sichuan in the southwest; solar power in Xinjiang to the northwest, and wind power in the north’s Inner Mongolia are likely to see high levels of green hydrogen production.
A report by RMI also suggested that industries and regions in China have the potential to install 100GW of renewable hydrogen capacity by 2030.
