Interface News Reporter |Hou Ruining.In response to the lack of operational efficiency of its world's largest photovoltaic hydrogen production project, China Petroleum & Chemical Corporation (hereinafter referred to as Sinopec) has the latest response.Interface News Editor |
On December 25, the Sinopec Information Office announced that since it was put into operation to December 21, its Xinjiang Kuqa green hydrogen demonstration project has been running smoothly for 4,200 hours, and a total of 22.36 million cubic meters (about 2,010 tons) of green hydrogen have been transported to the user Tahe refining and chemical industry.
Sinopec said that with the completion of the expansion and transformation of the Tahe refining and chemical production unit, the green hydrogen transmission capacity will gradually increase, and it is expected that by the fourth quarter of 2025, the hydrogen transmission capacity will reach 20,000 tons per year, that is, to achieve full production.
Xinjiang Kuqa Green Hydrogen Demonstration Project is the world's largest photovoltaic hydrogen production project, and it is also the first large-scale domestic project to directly produce green hydrogen using photovoltaic power generation, with a hydrogen production capacity of 20,000 tons per year by water electrolysis.
The project was put into operation on June 30 this year and fully completed and put into operation on August 30. Sinopec said at the time that this marked a breakthrough in China's first large-scale industrial application of 10,000-ton green hydrogen. Among the projects that have been put into production in the world, only the Xinjiang Kuqa Green Hydrogen Project has an electrolyzer scale of 260 MW.
The 260 MW green hydrogen production facility in Kuqa, Xinjiang, has been operating at less than one-third of its installed capacity due to the lack of some safety features in the system design and substandard efficiency, the research institute Bloombegnef (BNEF) said recently.
Bnef attributed this to the design and material of the electrolyzers used in the project, and said that in order to ensure safety, the Kuqa project had to limit the scope of operation of the project, running some electrolyzers while leaving others idle. This may mean that the project will not be able to meet the target of 20,000 tons per year.
Green hydrogen refers to the hydrogen directly produced through renewable energy sources such as photovoltaic and wind energy, and basically no greenhouse gases are produced in the production process. The electrolyzer is the core equipment for hydrogen production by electrolysis of water, which is composed of the tank, anode and cathode.
LONGi Green Energy (601012SH) is one of the leading electrolyzers in the Kuqa green hydrogen project in Xinjiang. On December 22, Li Zhenguo, founder and president of LONGi Green Energy, publicly stated at the 2023 Tsinghua University "Carbon Neutral Economy" Forum that the above analysis by BNEF was "irresponsible".
For example, Li Zhenguo said that if the project has 1,000 electrolyzers, in the case of cloudy days, photovoltaic can only produce 30% of the electricity, at this time it is impossible to work all 1,000 electrolyzers, but will turn off 700 units, and the remaining 300 units to ensure full load. This is feasible both in terms of safety, stable operation, and economy.
Sinopec also responded that broadening the range of operating load fluctuations of electrolyzers is a common problem faced by the water electrolysis hydrogen production industry. The Xinjiang Kuqa Green Hydrogen Demonstration Project has carried out the integrated optimization and operation of the electrolysis hydrogen production system, which effectively solves the problem of low-load operation with system efficiency.
This greatly improves the adaptability of wide power fluctuations in the application of large-scale alkaline electrolyzers, so that green hydrogen plants can be more adaptable to photovoltaic power with a wide range of power fluctuations. Sinopec said.
LONGi Green Energy provided alkaline electrolyzers for the project. At this stage, most domestic companies focus on alkaline electrolyzers. As of the first half of 2023, China's total nominal electrolyzer production capacity exceeded 14 GW, of which alkaline electrolyzers accounted for about 94% and PEM electrolyzers accounted for about 6%, according to data from Guotai Junan**, citing Gaogong Hydrogen Energy.
According to an article published by the International Hydrogen Energy Network, the high-efficiency electrolysis hydrogen production technology with wide power fluctuation adaptability has yet to be developed. Because the power output of renewable energy fluctuates in a wide range, it is required that the power tolerance range of the hydrogen production system should reach 0%-100% as much as possible, so as to better couple wind power and photovoltaic power generation systems and improve the consumption of renewable energy such as wind and solar.
According to public information, compared with the wider power fluctuation adaptability of 0-100% of the proton exchange membrane (PEM) electrolyzer, the operating load range of the alkaline electrolyzer is narrower, and the power fluctuation adaptation range is usually 30-110%, that is, the lower limit of the operating load of the alkaline electrolyzer should not be less than 30%, otherwise it is easy to cause downtime and safety hazards. However, the cost of alkaline electrolyzers is lower than that of PEM electrolyzers, and it has strong economic advantages.
In the context of energy transition, Sinopec has been accelerating the construction of "China's No. 1 hydrogen energy company" in recent years.
Up to now, Sinopec has developed more than 100 hydrogen refueling stations, accounting for about 28% of the number of hydrogen refueling stations in China, making it the company with the largest number of hydrogen refueling stations in the world.
In terms of green hydrogen refining, Sinopec has vigorously carried out centralized wind power and photovoltaic development relying on refining and chemical bases in accordance with the development direction of "hydrogen and electricity integration, green hydrogen carbon reduction", and has laid out large-scale renewable energy power generation, hydrogen production, hydrogen storage and utilization projects.
In addition to the Kuqa green hydrogen demonstration project in Xinjiang, in February this year, Sinopec launched the construction of a 30,000-tonne-year green hydrogen project in Ordos. The project is currently the world's largest green hydrogen coupled coal chemical project, using the abundant solar and wind energy resources in the Ordos region to generate electricity and directly produce green hydrogen, with a total investment of about 5.7 billion yuan.
Sinopec is also planning a 100,000-tonne-per-year green hydrogen project in Ulanqab. The new energy construction scale of the project is 25460,000 kilowatts Among them, wind power 17420,000 kilowatts, photovoltaic 8040,000 kilowatts The total planned investment of the project is 20.5 billion yuan.
China is the world's largest hydrogen producer. According to the "China Hydrogen Energy and Fuel Cell Industry Development Report 2022" released by the China Hydrogen Energy Alliance, China's annual hydrogen production capacity was about 48.82 million tons last year, and the annual output was about 35.33 million tonsThe sales volume of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles increased by 3,367 units, and the number of units owned reached 12,682 units358 hydrogen refueling stations were built, a year-on-year increase of more than 40%.