Hydrogen produced from coal accounts for 62%, while that produced from natural gas accounts for 19%
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Due to China’s resource profile, which is dominated by coal, coal-based hydrogen production technology is currently the dominant method for hydrogen production in the country. According to data released by the China Coal Industry Association, China’s hydrogen production volume exceeded 25 million tons in 2020; of this amount, 62% was produced from coal, 19% from natural gas, 18% from industrial by-products, and around 1% from water electrolysis.
Generally speaking, about 3.5–5 kWh of electricity is consumed to produce 1 Nm3 of H2. If the current market electricity price is used as the cost of hydrogen production, the water electrolysis approach is not competitive. However, if electricity at a lower cost can be used for hydrogen production, that is, when the overall cost of producing hydrogen through water electrolysis drops to around 1 yuan/Nm3, this method becomes economically competitive. Furthermore, taking carbon emission reduction into account, hydrogen production via water electrolysis offers certain social benefits compared to hydrogen production using fossil fuels.
Hydrogen used in fine chemical industry is mainly produced through methanol cracking and water electrolysis
There is a lot of solar power generation in the northwest region, and it seems that a significant amount of it cannot be connected to the grid; this could potentially be addressed through electrolytic hydrogen production.
I work in the field of producing hydrogen from methanol, and the production process needs to be determined based on actual conditions. The methanol-to-hydrogen process has a short duration and low investment costs. For every 1,000 Nm3, 630 kg of methanol and 200 kWh of electricity are consumed; these represent all the energy and raw material costs. To build a unit with a capacity of 1000 Nm3/h using a conventional methanol-to-hydrogen system, the cost is around 5.5 million yuan, and it occupies an area of 400 square meters. The investment for a methanol-to-hydrogen system that combines catalytic oxidation for heat generation is somewhat higher, at around 6.7 million yuan, but the production cost per cubic meter of hydrogen is 10-20 cents lower than that of the previous systems. And it is environmentally friendly.