China’s top hydrogen producer Sinopec has decided to build a long distance pipeline to transport green hydrogen it will produce in Inner Mongolia to users in Beijing, confirming an Upstream story published on 24 November 2022.
Sinopec said the proposed pipeline has been listed as part of the national pipeline grid by the central government.
The West-East hydrogen pipeline will span 400 kilometres from Ulanqab, Inner Mongolia to Sinopec Yanshan Petrochemical in Beijing via nine counties and cities in three provinces.
The scheme involves building an onshore wind farm, an electrolysis system using wind energy to produce hydrogen and an export pipeline. The first phase will have pipeline throughput capacity of 100,000 tonnes per annum of hydrogen, expandable to 500,000 tpa at a later stage.
The green hydrogen will replace the grey hydrogen Sinopec currently produces at Yanshan for transportation.
China’s second largest energy company has completed the site survey and is close to finishing the feasibility study for the new pipeline, it said.
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Blue hydrogen is produced from natural gas feedstocks, with the carbon dioxide byproduct from hydrogen production captured and stored. However, the process is not emissions free.
Green hydrogen is made using electrolysis powered by renewable energy to split water molecules into oxygen and hydrogen, creating an emissions-free fuel.
The project will be spearheaded by Sinopec’s new energy outfit, Sinopec New Star Inner Mongolia Green Hydrogen New Energy, which was incorporated in March 2021. The company has started site surveys for the project.
Hydrogen is the key green energy Sinopec is pursuing as part of its grand mission to achieve a carbon emissions peak before 2030 and carbon neutrality in 2050, 10 years ahead of the Chinese government’s 2060 target.
By 2025, the company is aiming to have supplied a cumulative 1 million tonnes of green hydrogen, with plans for its green hydrogen production capacity to hit 500,000 tpa the same year. Sinopec currently produces 3.9 million tpa of grey hydrogen from fossil fuels.