By WANG Yong

China Hydrogen Alliance said the output of China’s hydrogen industry will reach 1 trillion yuan (US$153 billion) and by 2050, the demand for hydrogen will reach 60 million tons, reducing carbon dioxide emission by 700 million tons.

YU Zhuoping, director of the alliance, told Jiemian News the annual output of the hydrogen industry will exceed 1.2 trillion yuan by 2050. China now only has the capacity to produce about 200,000 tons of hydrogen with the equipment at hand.

Photovoltaics manufacturer LONGi Green Energy Technology is the world's largest manufacturer of monocrystalline silicon wafers. In March, LONGi founded a subsidiary focused on hydrogen energy. LONGi has been working in water electrolysis since 2018. Around 80 percent of hydrogen energy in China is produced from fossil fuels with high carbon emissions. Water electrolysis is emission-free, but three times more expensive than the fossil-fuel method. 

“The reason we want to use hydrogen energy is to reduce emissions,” said RUAN Weimin, an engineer from Shanghai Shunhua New Energy Group. “If we produce large amounts of emissions, we are defeating the whole purpose of the endeavor.”

Fuel cell vehicles are the major consumer of hydrogen though there are only 7,000 fuel cell vehicles in China. By 2050, the annual output of fuel cell vehicles will be 5.2 million.

More than 30 local governments have plans to develop clean energy. Ten provinces and cities, including Beijing and Guangdong, have made Hydrogen a part of their 14th Five-Year Plan. Beijing plans to build 37 hydrogen refueling stations by the end of 2023.