China Building World's Largest "Green Hydrogen" Factory

■ Source: SCMP

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Good evening everybody

China is building the world’s largest solar-powered “green hydrogen” factory in Xinjiang as part of its efforts to reduce carbon emissions, state media has reported.

The project in Kuqa in the south of the region uses renewable energy sources, including solar and wind power, to produce hydrogen that can then be liquefied and transported long distances through natural gas pipelines and help tackle energy shortages in the most populated parts of the country.

The factory, built as part of the country’s Peak Carbon Dioxide Emissions plan, is designed to produce 20,000 tonnes of hydrogen a year.

The “green hydrogen” is produced using electricity produced from renewable sources to break water down into its two constituent elements of hydrogen and oxygen.

This cleaner energy source is designed to replace “grey hydrogen”, which uses fossil fuels instead of renewable ones, and should reduce annual carbon dioxide emissions by about 500,000 tonnes, according to a report by state broadcaster CCTV on Thursday.

The site is currently under construction and the solar panels will cover an area of more than 630 hectares (1,560 acres), equivalent to the size of more than 900 soccer fields, the broadcaster added.

“Xinjiang region is rich in sunlight resources, making it a perfect place to explore green hydrogen production. The cost of hydrogen production here from photovoltaic electrolysis is only 18 yuan (US$2.67) per kilogram,” Cao Jie, a manager from Sinopec working at the site, told CCTV.

Li Bo, from the National Energy Administration, told CCTV hydrogen fuel batteries have advantages when used in vehicles due to their high performance and long operating range.

One kilogram of hydrogen could produce the same amount of heat as 4 litres (1 gallon) of petrol and the cost is expected to fall as it becomes more widely used.

“In the future, hydrogen production from water electrolysis will become the largest load of the power system, accounting for more than 20 per cent of the total electricity consumption,” Dai Jianfeng, deputy chief engineer of the Electric Power Planning Design General Institute, told CCTV.