by MA Yueran
The first phase of the world's largest green hydrogen and ammonia project has officially gone into operation in Chifeng, Inner Mongolia, with an annual capacity of 320,000 tonnes. Once fully completed, the Envision Chifeng Zero-Carbon Industrial Park will reach a planned capacity of 1.52 million tonnes per year.
Envision Group, the project's developer, said the site is the world’s first off-grid facility to produce green hydrogen and ammonia powered entirely by renewable energy. It runs on electricity generated from a dedicated wind and solar power system, without relying on the national grid.
The company also announced the dispatch of its first tank of green ammonia on July 8. The shipment was awarded the world's first ISCC-certified renewable ammonia certificate by Bureau Veritas, a global certification body.
Envision chairman ZHANG Lei described the facility as a "new petroleum base," positioning green hydrogen and ammonia—what the company calls "new oil"—as key to future energy systems. "Filling one ammonia tank stores the equivalent of 100 million kilowatt-hours of energy," Zhang said, adding that while traditional battery storage would require 60 billion yuan in investment, an ammonia tank costs just 150 million yuan.
Green hydrogen is produced by electrolyzing water using renewable electricity. When combined with nitrogen from the air, it forms green ammonia, which can serve as a stable, transportable form of hydrogen. Green ammonia has applications in fertilizer, chemicals and shipping, and is gaining traction as a clean fuel option.
According to Envision Energy senior vice-president LOU Yimin, the Chifeng plant uses a smart operating system called EnOS to optimize energy flow and production in real time. The key, he told Jiemian News, is to convert intermittent wind and solar output into a reliable electricity supply suitable for hydrogen and ammonia synthesis. Lou likened the system to an intelligent reservoir: green hydrogen and ammonia are "adjustable irrigation networks," coordinated by AI models to adapt to variable renewable inputs.
Chifeng, known for its abundant renewable resources, has become a clean energy hub. According to WANG Weidong, director of the city's energy bureau, total power generation capacity reached 15.67 GW by the end of 2024, of which over 10 GW came from renewables. That figure is expected to double to 20 GW by the end of 2025.
The Chifeng plant is part of Envision's broader plan to build 100 zero-carbon industrial parks globally over the next decade. In 2023, it signed an agreement with the Spanish government to jointly develop a green hydrogen equipment plant and ecosystem in Spain, powered entirely by renewables.