China’s Shandong using hydrogen fuel to achieve carbon neutrality

China is implementing a pilot plan to transform Shandong, a regional industrial power house in eastern China, into a “hydrogen society” that holds out much hope of delivering on the green promise of the fuel of the future, with its abundance and zero tailpipe emissions.

In April 2021 an agreement was signed for “sweeping hydrogen adoption and commercialization initiatives by the provincial authorities, the Chinese State Council’s National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) and the Ministry of Science and Technology.

“The agreement contains a raft of tailor-made measures for Shandong as China’s pilot zone for hydrogen’s wider application. Under the auspices of Beijing, Shandong will be made a testing ground for the cells, batteries, pipelines and business models indispensable for a future nationwide roll-out. An NDRC policy paper setting out the direction of new energy was signed off on last month by Deputy Premier Liu He.

Hydrogen can be stored like LNG or Propane

An article in the Asia Times newspaper provided details, including:

  • “Leading the pack of the infrastructure projects being floated in Shandong is a 180-kilometer pipeline network to deliver hydrogen from its upstream “factories” to end-users scattered in both commercial and industrial centers across the province under a five-year “hydrogen for 10,000 plants and households” program.”
  • “The trunk route of the pipeline network will be between Shandong’s provincial capital, Jinan, and the province’s largest city, Qingdao, with feeder lines extending into neighboring industrial estates in two other cities, Weifang and Zibo.”
  • “All service areas along the busy expressway connecting Jinan and Qingdao will run on 100% hydrogen power with retail hydrogen fueling stations for fuel cell vehicles. The province already boasts a fleet of 269 emissions-free buses running on hydrogen cells.”
  • Hydrogen production is energy-intensive and would increase CO2 emissions unless zero-carbon inputs are used. However, Shandong plans to harness its cheap wind and solar energy for hydrogen production – similar to the Ningxia Hui green hydrogen project.
  • Sixteen water decomposition and electrolysis plants and hydrogen storage facilities in the province will be up and running by 2025.

The newspaper went on to say:

Hydrogen energy produces zero tailpipe emissions as only water is made when hydrogen is burned for energy. Photo: China NRDC

“Talk of laying extensive hydrogen pipelines linking major cities in Shandong, not for trials but as a backbone distribution system, suggests that the groundwork of research and development for the transport and storage of the gas has been finished and that most of the production and application projects covered in the broad pact for the province are shovel-ready.”

Asia Times

Read full article here: https://asiatimes.com/…/chinas-hydrogen-dream-takes…/

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Industrial clusters using Green Hydrogen can drive clean energy transition in Europe and China

The World Economic Forum in an article dated 6 May 2021 said that hydrogen produced with renewable resources will become cheaper than fossil fuels by 2030 across a range of applications, with Green hydrogen being used to replace fossil fuels in hard-to-abate sectors, and that cooperation on hydrogen industrial clusters between China and Europe could help move the clean energy transition agenda forward.

Industrial clusters can be powered by green hydrogen.

The article went on to point out that:

  • China is the largest hydrogen producer and consumer in the world, the central government first endorsed hydrogen in the 2019 State Council work report. Since then, at least 23 out of 31 provincial level regions in China have already issued development plans for hydrogen energy and fuel cell vehicles, and more than 10 of them included hydrogen development in their 14th Five Year Plan for Economic and Social Development and the Long-Range Objectives Through 2035.
  • Various levels of Chinese government fully embrace the concept of hydrogen industrial clusters and are already creating them: from East China (Shanghai and adjacent regions) to Central China (Wuhan and beyond), Southern China (Guangdong and beyond), and the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region. Even at provincial (such as Hebei) and lower local government level (such as Foshan City in Guangdong), the concept of industrial clusters has been integrated into hydrogen plans.
  • China’s eager embrace of hydrogen industrial clusters is largely incentivized by the country’s ability to significantly bring down unit manufacturing cost through industrial clusters. Chinese manufacturers and contractors possess significant cost advantages against their counterparts in western countries. The importance of industrial clusters in achieving economies of scale is clear.

Sources:

This article was originally posted on 7 May 2021 on China-Environment-News.com on Facebook

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