With the development of human society, the total demand for energy is rising. However, due to the limited fossil energy stock and the threat of the green-house effect, adjusting the energy structure is crucially important for the sustainable development of all countries in the world.

Hydrogen energy has received great attention as one technology that can provide society with clean energy, support decarbonization, and be one key technology in the electrification of transport.

In 2018, China’s hydrogen production was 21 million tons, accounting for 2.7% of the total energy according to the calorific value of energy management. According to the prediction of China hydrogen energy alliance, hydrogen energy will account for 5% of total energy consumption in 2030 and 10% in China’s thermal energy by 2050. According to the market forecast, China’s hydrogen production will exceed 20 million tons in 2020. China hydrogen energy alliance predicts that China’s hydrogen demand will reach 35 million tons by 2030, with a compound annual growth rate of 5.76%.

In 2050, China’s hydrogen demand will be close to 60 million tons. Hydrogen energy is increasingly more widely used in China, and the market development speed is growing rapidly.

This report focuses on the development of hydrogen technology in China where the Chinese central government has put hydrogen technology on the strategic listing, repeatedly issued relevant policies to support the development of hydrogen technology and the industry, upgraded the fuel cell development to the level of strategic development, and guides and encourages the development of the fuel cell vehicle industry.

Hydrogen based vehicles have been launched mainly in Japan, USA and South Korea. Compared with the relatively mature fuel cell vehicle market in Japan and South Korea, the customers of domestic hydrogen refueling stations in China are mainly buses and official vehicles. However, there are several Chinese enterprises manufacturing passenger cars to runon hydrogen fuel, such as Chery, Changan, Hongqi, GAC, FAW and others. As illustration, the GAC’s self-developed hydrogen fuel cell-based passenger vehicle has an operational range of 650 km.

Compared with the more mature pure electric vehicle, based on batteries as energy source, the hydrogen fuel vehicle is still in a very early but rapidly maturing stage.

The data show that in 2018, China’s input of hydrogen energy vehicles reached 1,527, including 1,418 buses and 109 logistic trucks. In 2019, the production and sales of fuel cell vehicles in China was 2,833 and 2,737, respectively, with a year-on-year growth of 85.5% and 79.2%, respectively. By the end of 2019, the cumulative number of fuel cell vehicles in China was 6,000.

In 2020, the policy for fuel cells became favorable. From the development of China, there is still a lot of room for growth.

Hydrogen technology requires refueling stations, and in China, several traditional oil suppliers are building hydrogen refueling stations.

On 1 July 1 2019, Sinopec built the first domestic oil and hydrogen combined station in Foshan, Guang-dong Province. Since then, Sinopec has built the first batch of comprehensive energy supply stations in Zhejiang, Shanghai and other places, which integrate refueling, hydrogenation and other functions. As a strategic partner of the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympic Games, Sinopec will provide hydrogen supply, vehicle hydrogenation, and operation support of hydrogenation stations for hydrogen fuel cell vehicles in the Beijing and Zhangjiakou Winter Olympic Games.

On 28 May 2020, Sinopec Guangdong Petroleum Branch, together with Huangpu District and Guang-zhou Development Zone, built the infrastructure for the application and development of hydrogen energy vehicles. It was planned to build more than 20 integrated energy sales stations in the area, integrating hydrogenation, refueling, charging, non-oil and photovoltaic power generation. It is estimated that the revenue of a series of projects will exceed 10 billion yuan/RMB (1,6 billion USD).

The Foshan area in the south of China has rapidly become a center of hydrogen development. Foshan municipal government has successively issued development planning and supporting subsidy policies.

The hydrogen energy industry development plan (2018-2030) includes building 57 hydrogen stations in 2030, which will develop the Foshan area into a leading national hydrogen energy industry demonstration city and agglomeration highland. Finally, hydrogen energy in China is facing a trend of rapid speed and scale of development. Clean energy hydrogen production and energy utilization are still in the early but rapidly growing stage of development. Soon, hydrogen energy will see immense development prospects in the field of transportation, heavy freight transportation and electric energy storage.

We have reasons to believe that hydrogen will be one of the strategic technologies and practices in China in the development of a green society, decarbonization and the electrification of transport.