Construction has begun on the first large-scale green hydrogen project in the Chinese autonomous region of Ningxia, which will produce 16,500 tonnes of renewable H2 annually, for use in transport and the production of green ammonia and methanol.
The 2.086bn-yuan ($290m) Phase 1 of the Ningxia Sun Mountain Integrated Green Hydrogen Project — being developed by a joint venture between electrolyser maker Shanghai Refire Group and solar panel manufacturer Jiangsu Seraphim — is the first of three renewable H2 projects planned for the Sun Mountain Development Zone in the city of Wuzhong.
The other two projects — being developed separately by Guohua New Energy and Beijing Hydrogen Energy with annual production of 8,000 and 12,000 tonnes of green H2, respectively — are due to begin construction in early 2025.
The planned total investment in all three projects will be 4.387bn yuan ($609.6m), according to the Wuzhong city government.
The under-construction project, which includes a refuelling station and 31,875 cubic metres of spherical H2 storage tanks, is expected to achieve annual sales revenue of 328.5m yuan ($45.6m).
Like most Chinese green hydrogen projects, the size of the electrolyser has not been revealed, but with an annual output of 16,500 tonnes of H2, it is likely to be about 165MW.
Refire CEO Lin Qi said his company and its partners will strive “to provide best practices for the commercial development of China’s hydrogen industry and, hopefully, a Chinese solution to the global hydrogen energy commercialisation pathway”.
There has been a wave of green hydrogen projects beginning construction in China in the past six weeks, including a $1.5bn facility in Xinjiang with its own H2-fired power plant; a $3bn hydrogen-to-aviation fuel plant in Heilongjiang; car maker Geely's 100,000-tonnes-a-year green methanol project in Inner Mongolia; and China Coal Group's $600m green H2/methanol project in Inner Mongolia.
