China Petrochemical’s first off-grid PEM water electrolysis hydrogen production test unit has been put into operation; it consumes no more than 4.91 kilowatt-hours of electricity per standard cubic meter of hydrogen produced

Thread Content

In October 2022, Sinopec’s first off-grid proton exchange membrane (PEM) electrolysis water hydrogen production test unit, designed and developed by Shigong Jianzhongyuan Design Company, was successfully put into operation. This is the first time Sinopec has combined photovoltaic power generation systems with proton exchange membrane electrolysis for hydrogen production, enabling the direct conversion of solar energy into hydrogen with zero carbon emissions. It is reported that the new device utilizes the direct current generated by off-grid photovoltaic systems to electrolyze pure water into hydrogen and oxygen, enabling real-time conversion of solar energy into hydrogen energy; the purity of the hydrogen produced reaches 99.999%. The electricity consumption to produce each standard cubic meter of hydrogen is less than or equal to 4.91 kilowatt-hours. Sinopec started late in the field of green hydrogen production, but has made rapid progress. On September 1, 2021, Sinopec’s first megawatt-class PEM electrolysis hydrogen production demonstration project was launched at the Zhongyuan Oilfield. On November 4 of that year, Sinopec’s first proton exchange membrane (PEM) hydrogen production demonstration plant was put into operation at Yanshan Petrochemical; it was also Sinopec’s first electrolysis-based hydrogen production facility developed independently. On March 9, 2022, the R&D project for hydrogen production via PEM membrane electrolysis using ME-grade materials at Beijing Yanshan Petrochemical was officially approved and registered.