Chinese oil and gas enterprise Sinopec has officially launched the country’s first methanol-to-hydrogen and hydrogen refueling service station in Dalian, China.
According to the company, also known as China Petroleum & Chemical Corporation, the new service station is an upgrade from the previous fueling station that offered gas, oil, electric charging services and hydrogen.
The service station’s methanol-to-hydrogen and hydrogen refueling devices have an hourly production capacity of 500 standard cubic meters and occupy only 64 square meters of the floor area. This is significantly less than traditional equipment of the same production capacity, which would take up 500 square meters of land, the Beijing-based company adds.
China is the largest producer of methanol in the world, accounting for 60 percent of the global total. Methanol-to-hydrogen is seen by some as an ideal hydrogen production technology as the storage and transportation cost of methanol is much lower than hydrogen.
Sinopec says its solution produces zero solid waste, waste water and tail gas, while consuming less methanol and conserving more energy. Sinopec Fuel Oil Sales has already built two integrated fueling stations in Dalian’s free trade area, with six more under construction.
"The launch of the Service Station has showed that distributed methanol-to-hydrogen is the right roadmap for the sustainable development of China’s hydrogen fueling stations, it is a leapfrog development that offers a safe, reliable, green, intelligent, integrated and efficient solution that will contribute to the scaled application of hydrogen energy at lower cost,” said Yang Junze, Executive Director of Sinopec Fuel Oil Sales.
As part of its efforts to becoming the country’s No.1 hydrogen energy enterprise, Sinopec has built nine hydrogen fuel cell supply centers across China. It also claims to have the largest number of hydrogen fueling stations across the globe.
