Almost all of Chinese mainland on board with hydrogen development, as Beijing banks on clean fuel for carbon-neutrality drive
- Tangshan, the world’s biggest steel-producing city, is the latest Chinese city to introduce policies to develop a local hydrogen industry
- The clean fuel is expected to play a much larger role after China introduced its first-ever national hydrogen strategy in March
It also aims to introduce more leading domestic hydrogen enterprises to the city and develop more leading domestic hydrogen enterprises and a local hydrogen economy that will generate an annual income of 20 billion yuan (US$2.9 billion) by 2025, according to the plan.
“It’s gladdening to see that China is now building its own supply chain in hydrogen technologies, ranging from hydrogen production, transport and storage to consumption,” said Shao Minhua, a chemical and biological engineering professor at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. The country has made significant progress in some hydrogen technologies, such as membrane electrode assemblies and fuel-cell stacks, he added.
The clean fuel is expected to play a much larger role after China introduced its first-ever national hydrogen strategy – a medium and long-term plan for the development of the hydrogen energy industry between 2021 and 2035 – in March. Under the plan, China would have at least 50,000 hydrogen fuel-cell electric vehicles on the road and produce 100,000 to 200,000 tonnes of “green hydrogen” annually by 2025.