In a significant breakthrough, Sinopec (China Petroleum & Chemical Corporation)’s 10,000-ton photovoltaic green hydrogen production project is now live.

The Sinopec Xinjiang Kuqa Green Hydrogen Project is a pilot project and is expected to produce 20,000 tons of green hydrogen annually at full capacity.

The newly produced green hydrogen will gradually replace existing natural gas and fossil energy at Sinopec Tahe Petrochemical. This will enable the hydrogen-producing company to realize low-carbon development in modern oil processing and green hydrogen coupling.

Operationalizing the project is considered a breakthrough in China’s scaled industrial applications of green hydrogen. With the project, China estimates to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by approximately 485,000 tons annually.

The Project is China’s first large-scale utilization of photovoltaic power generation to produce green hydrogen directly. The project, which utilizes solar resources in Xinjiang, has an electrolyzed water hydrogen plant with an annual capacity of 20,000 tons, a spherical hydrogen storage tank with a hydrogen storage capacity of 210,000 standard cubic meters, and hydrogen transmission pipelines with 28,000 standard cubic meters per hour.

With a focus on hydrogen transportation and green hydrogen refining, Sinopec is accelerating its hydrogen development by establishing more than 100 hydrogen refueling stations. With this, it will be the owner and operator of the largest number of hydrogen refueling stations in the world.

In addition to the current project, Sinopec’s green hydrogen project in Ordos, which will produce 30,000 tons annually, began construction in February 2023, while the Ulanqab project is now in the planning stage, the company said.