BEIJING: Steven Libbrecht, Executive Director of the World Hydrogen Council, predicted that international hydrogen energy trade will begin to take shape by 2030 and form a fixed global trade network by 2050.
Libbrecht emphasised China’s potential to achieve basic self-sufficiency in hydrogen energy, given its vast domestic supply and demand market, while speaking at the ongoing Clean Energy Expo China 2024 (CEEC2024).
According to China Daily, China’s annual hydrogen demand is expected to reach approximately 80 million tonnes by 2050, with 70 million tonnes being supplied domestically and the remaining 10 million tonnes coming from imports. He also highlighted the rapid growth of hydrogen refuelling stations in China, with the number increasing from 350 in 2023 to around 420 as of last week.
Chinese enterprises have been instrumental in driving the country’s hydrogen energy exploration. LONGi Hydrogen, a green hydrogen provider, has developed the ALK Hi1 series products, which can operate stably for 380 mi
nutes under 30 percent low load conditions, with hydrogen content in oxygen less than 1.5 percent. The company’s LHy-LA1000 product has continuously and stably operated for more than 12,000 hours in long-cycle electrolyzer tests, demonstrating world-class performance in hydrogen production equipment.
LONGi Hydrogen also showcased its four-to-one hydrogen production system model at the expo, which includes four alkaline electrolyzers corresponding to one gas-liquid separation and purification skid. This system aims to improve production efficiency while reducing energy consumption and floor space, enabling large-scale, low-cost green hydrogen production through water electrolysis.
The Sinopec Green Refining Project, currently the world’s largest photovoltaic green hydrogen production project, is located in north-west China. The project utilises green electricity generated by more than 500,000 PV panels to produce green hydrogen, which can replace the natural gas used in refining for hydrogen production. LONG
i Hydrogen has provided the project with core equipment, including 16 sets of 1,000Nm3/h alkaline water electrolyzers, enabling an annual production of 20,000 tonnes of green hydrogen.
The China Hydrogen Alliance predicts that by 2050, hydrogen energy will account for more than 10 percent of China’s terminal energy system, with the industry chain’s annual output value reaching 12 trillion yuan. In the long term (around 2060), more than 75 percent of domestic hydrogen supply is expected to come from green hydrogen. Libbrecht noted that China will transport hydrogen energy from resource-rich central and western regions to eastern regions through a pipeline network under construction, and trade in derivatives such as synthetic ammonia will gradually increase. In terms of equipment, China’s existing electrolyzers account for more than half of the world’s production capacity, with the country contributing 7GW out of the globally announced 12GW capacity of electrolyzer projects.
Source: Emirates News Agency