Chinese fossil-fuel giant Sinopec Group has built a new hydrogen refueling station in the southwestern Chinese city of Chongqing, making hydrogen storage well technology available in China for the first time.
The station, its first in the city, has a daily hydrogen supply capacity of 1,000 kilograms and will provide hydrogen refueling services for Chongqing’s first hydrogen demonstration buses and logistics vehicles in the city, the company said Monday on Weibo.
The station is located on Longmenzhen Avenue in Chongqing’s Jiulongpo District and covers an area of 4,000 square meters. In addition to hydrogen refueling, it can also provide services including gas refueling and charging, and can meet the hydrogen demand of 100 hydrogen fuel cell vehicles per day.
A hydrogen storage well is a storage facility buried about 150 meters deep underground and has features including high safety and a small footprint.
Sinopec’s annual hydrogen production last year exceeded 3.5 million tons, accounting for about 14 percent of China’s hydrogen production.
The company plans to build 1,000 hydrogen refueling stations, 5,000 charging and battery swap stations and 7,000 distributed photovoltaic power generation sites during the 14th Five-Year Plan period.
It has already built 21 hydrogen refueling stations in 14 provinces and cities, including Guangdong, Shanghai and Hainan, according to the company’s annual social responsibility report released Friday.
Sinopec first commissioned hydrogen-powered heavy-duty trucks for short-haul transportation last month, which use hydrogen cylinders of 35 megapascals, the current standard in China.
Each hydrogen-powered heavy-duty truck can reduce carbon emissions by 140 tons per year compared to diesel heavy-duty trucks.
(Photo source: Sinopec)
