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Thirty kilometres south of central Beijing, a hydrogen business development zone the size of about 300 Olympic swimming pools is under construction in the suburban Daxing district.
The district government wants to turn the Daxing International Hydrogen Energy Demonstration Zone into an innovation base with the aim of commercialising the nascent low-carbon energy source. Already completed and awaiting government approval for commercial operations at the zone is the world’s largest hydrogen refuelling station, with daily throughput capacity of 4.8 tonnes and 16 refuelling guns.
“Daxing is a perfect location for a hydrogen demonstration park, as we have transport hubs around us and major highways pass by our zone, ” Zhao Yuan, the zone’s director, said in an interview.
The development of the zone is significant because of China’s hydrogen fuel cell ambitions. The country had about 7,300 hydrogen fuel cell vehicles at the end of last year, most of them commercial vehicles. It is targeting about between 50,000 and 100,000 such vehicles on its road by 2025, rising to one million in 2035. Moreover, as of March, only 108 hydrogen refuelling stations were in operation in China. Most of them were located in Guangdong and Shanghai, according to a report by industry research provider Qianzhan. Beijing plans to have more than 1,000 such stations in 2025 and 5,000 in 2035.
Located close to the world’s largest airport and the biggest logistics hub of Chinese e-commerce giant JD.com in Beijing, the refuelling station in the Daxing zone can serve up to 600 logistics zero emissions vehicles daily, Zhao said.
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Beijing HyPower Energy Technology, the station’s operator, is among 20 companies in the hydrogen supply chain that will operate in the 360,000 square metre demonstration zone. When completed next month, it will have 54,000 square metres of industrial space, including testing and research and development facilities, some of which will be occupied by start-ups.
