The plant will save 485,000 tons of carbon dioxide emissions per year
China Petrochemical Corporation, China’s largest oil refinery – also known as Sinopec – has begun construction of the world’s largest solar-powered green hydrogen plant.
Sinopec said on Tuesday that the $ 470 million plant in Cook, in the far western region of Xinjiang, is expected to begin production in June 2023 with a capacity of 20,000 tonnes a year.
According to the company, it will be the first photovoltaic hydrogen plant in China with an annual production capacity of over 10,000 tons, as well as the largest in the world.
Hydrogen, a highly reactive gas, has many industrial applications, including as an energy source. China, which produces the largest amount of it in the world, uses it mainly as an industrial raw material – for example, for the production of plastics or chemicals.
Most of the country’s hydrogen is produced from fossil fuels, with only 4 percent coming from renewable sources.
Green hydrogen – produced from renewable sources such as solar and wind energy – has significantly lower carbon emissions than gray hydrogen, which is produced using fossil fuels such as natural gas.
Sinopec will build a solar power plant with an installed capacity of 300 megawatts to support hydrogen production. It will also build a hydrogen electrolysis plant, hydrogen storage tanks and a hydrogen pipeline.
The plant is expected to save 485,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions per year.
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