(Yicai Global) April 11 -- A long-distance hydrogen pipeline project of China Petroleum and Chemical Corporation, also known as Sinopec, has become the country’s first green hydrogen project to be included in the National Energy Administration’s medium to long-term energy transmission plans.

The west-to-east pipeline will run more than 400 kilometers from Ulanqab in Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, a region well-suited to wind and solar power generation, to Sinopec’s Yanshan plant in Beijing, Sinopec said yesterday.

As China’s first national transregional, large-scale, and long-distance hydrogen pipeline, it is expected to have an annual transmission capacity of 100,000 tons in the first stage and have the potential to be expanded to 500,000 tons in the future, the Beijing-based oil and gas giant said.

The project has been added to the NEA’s Energy Pipeline Network Construction Guideline, a document released last month that includes projects considered crucial for the development of China’s national pipeline network.

Once the new pipeline is in operation, it will provide enough green hydrogen for hydrogen-powered vehicles in the Greater Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region so that existing local hydrogen production facilities using fossil fuel can be replaced completely, according to Sinopec.

Sinopec has largely completed the project’s feasibility study and is advancing initial work, the company said.

China has just 400 km of hydrogen pipelines in use because of technological limitations. But Sinopec is gaining experience and tech know-how in building and operating pilot projects from its several short hydrogen pipelines in the country, one of which has been in operation for about 16 years.

As a demonstration for production capability buildup along the industry chain, Sinopec also plans to build wind and solar power farms in Ulanqab, use the clean energy to produce hydrogen locally, and move it through the new pipeline to Beijing vie Hebei province to provide clean energy for local oil refining plants and fuel cell vehicles.

Other state-owned energy giants such as China National Petroleum Corporation and State Power Investment Corporation have similar pipeline plans that mostly start from Inner Mongolia, Gansu province, and Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, all regions well-suited to wind and solar power generation, Yicai Global learned.

Editors: Tang Shihua, Futura Costaglione