Since the beginning of summer, the Chinese oil group Sinopec launched its pilot project in the town of Kuqa, in Xinjiang province. It is the biggest solar-to-hydrogen conversion site in the world.

No less than 52 electrolysers are used to produce green hydrogen, with a volume of 20,000 tonnes per year. This site will be used to decarbonise the production of electricity for Sinopec’s needs, reducing CO2 emissions by 485,000 tonnes a year.

The project, which required an investment of 3 billion yuan ($417 million), includes a 300-megawatt photovoltaic power plant, an electrolysis plant and a hydrogen storage facility with a capacity of 210,000 cubic metres. The group has also planned hydrogen pipelines enabling the transport 28,000 cubic metres per hour.

Sinopec sees itself as the champion of hydrogen in China. This very year it launched another mega-site in Inner Mongolia, which will deliver 30,000 metric tonnes a year. Total capacity now stands at 4.5 million tonnes.

Do you want to learn more about China and hydrogen? Then our latest 2 articles on the subject should interest you. You can read our latest article about hydrogen mobility in China here and about the recent developments regarding pipelines there. 

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Article written by Laurent Meillaud and translated by Logan King