China Petrochemical Corp has announced plans to build the country’s first long-distance hydrogen pipeline stretching over 400 km from Inner Mongolia to Beijing. As per the company’s statement, the pipeline will bolster China’s efforts towards the green energy transition. China Petrochemical Corp is also the parent company of fuel supplier China Petroleum & Chemical (Sinopec).
The pipeline will stretch from Ulanqab in the Inner Mongolia autonomous region to Sinopec’s Yanshan petrochemical processing plant in Beijing. The hydrogen will be used to power green energy projects in Beijing’s industrial centre. The pipeline will have a transmission capacity of 100,000 tonnes in the short term with plans to expand capacity to 500,000 tonnes. China Petrochemical Corp plans to incorporate a number of connection points across the length of the pipeline.
China Petrochemical announced that the pipeline and its projected sub-branches will play a crucial role in decarbonising the densely populated area it will serve, home to 110 million people with the annual economic output is 10 trillion yuan, which is equivalent to $1.45 trillion.
According to media reports, Beijing has set an ambitious goal of having renewable energy contribute 14 per cent of the capital city’s energy consumption by 2025 and green electricity imports doubled from 2020 to help China reach peak carbon emissions by 2030 and become carbon neutral by 2060.
REGlobal’s Views: With the global focus on hydrogen and its derivates for decarbonisation of industries, power and transport, there are impressive plans to develop pipelines for transport of hydrogen to demand centers. There are discussions also on modifying the existing infrastructure to make it suitable for hydrogen transport. More such long-distance pipelines are expected in the future as large projects come up and hydrogen adoption gains more traction.
