Your current location：home > Product
Your current location：home > News > News Details
China Gas Information
Exploring China's first comprehensive experimental platform for hydrogen blending in urban gas
China's First Urban Gas Hydrogen Blending Comprehensive Experimental Platform Put into Operation in Shenzhen
China's first urban gas hydrogen blending comprehensive experimental platform was recently put into operation in Shenzhen. Its commissioning provides a promotable and replicable model for China to utilize existing urban gas pipelines for hydrogen blending.
China's first gas hydrogen blending comprehensive experimental platform integrates testing, verification, and production functions, with a hydrogen blending ratio of up to 20% and a pressure range covering all pressure operation ranges of urban gas. The so-called hydrogen blending transportation in natural gas pipelines refers to mixing hydrogen and natural gas in different proportions and then transporting them through existing natural gas pipelines. Experts told reporters that hydrogen and natural gas have different properties. After hydrogen is blended into natural gas pipelines, it will bring a series of safe operation problems to pipes, valves, and other equipment. The comprehensive platform can not only carry out long-term hydrogen environment experiments on gas pipelines under pipeline transportation conditions, as well as gas infrastructure such as valves, connectors, and meters but also conduct adaptability research on various gas appliances and terminal application scenarios. At this stage, the proportion of natural gas blended with hydrogen in China is 3%, while some European and American countries have reached a maximum proportion of 20% in natural gas hydrogen blending transportation.
How are natural gas and hydrogen blended?
With the successful commissioning of the gas hydrogen blending platform, what is the appropriate proportion of hydrogen blended into natural gas? How to ensure the smooth progress of the hydrogen blending process? Can existing hardware facilities adapt to hydrogen-blended natural gas? And what about safety? Let's take a look at the reporter's on-site visit. This is the urban gas hydrogen blending comprehensive experimental platform. Staff are inspecting the hydrogen blending experimental pipelines to ensure the stable and safe operation of the hydrogen blending pipelines. They perform such work every two hours. To make the experimental data more practical and authentic, this experimental platform simulates all application scenarios of urban gas. This is the heart of the gas hydrogen blending system, where natural gas and hydrogen are blended before entering the testing 環(huán)節(jié). Through adaptability experiments under different scenarios and pressures, the safety of gas hydrogen blending is ensured. Gas hydrogen blending is not an easy task. It is necessary to consider not only whether the hydrogen blending ratio can meet the stable gas supply for daily urban gas but also ensure the safety of the gas transmission and distribution system and the supporting facilities of the upstream and downstream of the hydrogen industry chain. Then why do we need to blend hydrogen into gas? With such questions, we went to the Shenzhen Gas Dispatch Center, more than 20 kilometers away from the platform, to find out. The natural gas supply fluctuates continuously 24 hours a day, and the consumption is also very large. If our hourly gas consumption is 1,000 cubic meters, it can meet the gas demand of 5,000 to 10,000 households. Based on this data, the daily gas consumption in Shenzhen is quite large. Experts told reporters that compared with pure natural gas, hydrogen-blended natural gas is a cleaner and low-carbon fuel. Blending 20% hydrogen by volume into natural gas can reduce nitrogen oxides, carbon monoxide, etc., by more than 20% after combustion, achieving the goal of reducing carbon emissions from energy use. He calculated an account for reporters: if hydrogen is blended into urban gas, based on the current annual urban gas consumption of about 400 billion cubic meters in China, blending 20% hydrogen by volume into natural gas can reduce national carbon emissions by about 30 million tons annually.
The Development Potential of China's Hydrogen Energy Industry is Gradually Released
Considering the unique advantages of hydrogen energy, many regions in China have recently introduced supporting policies for the hydrogen energy industry to accelerate its development. Breakthroughs have been made in hydrogen production, storage and transportation, and infrastructure construction, and the development potential of the hydrogen energy industry is gradually being released, showing a clustered development trend. In terms of hydrogen energy technological innovation, China has mastered a number of advanced technologies such as water electrolysis hydrogen production devices, storage and transportation equipment, and fuel cells, and these high-end equipment are gradually being introduced to the market. In terms of hydrogen production, renewable energy hydrogen production projects are being actively promoted in North China and Northwest China, and the cost of hydrogen production by water electrolysis is steadily decreasing. Lin Weibin, Director of the Energy Policy Research Office of the China Energy Research Society, said: "China has the world's largest installed capacity of renewable energy. By 2030, the installed capacity of renewable energy hydrogen production is expected to exceed 100 million kilowatts. By 2060, the production of green hydrogen is expected to approach 100 million tons, and the installed capacity of power generation using hydrogen energy may exceed 100 million kilowatts." By the end of 2023, China had built and operated 428 hydrogen refueling stations and 58 renewable energy hydrogen production projects covering 21 provinces, autonomous regions, and municipalities directly under the Central Government, with a total project scale of 654.5 megawatts. It is predicted that by 2060, China's hydrogen energy consumption scale will reach nearly 86 million tons, and the industrial scale will reach 4.6 trillion yuan. By then, the proportion of non-fossil energy in China's energy structure for hydrogen production will increase from 1% in 2022 to 93%, among which hydrogen production from wind and solar energy will account for two-thirds.
Considering the unique advantages of hydrogen energy, many regions in China have recently introduced supporting policies for the hydrogen energy industry to accelerate its development. Breakthroughs have been made in hydrogen production, storage and transportation, and infrastructure construction, and the development potential of the hydrogen energy industry is gradually being released, showing a clustered development trend. In terms of hydrogen energy technological innovation, China has mastered a number of advanced technologies such as water electrolysis hydrogen production devices, storage and transportation equipment, and fuel cells, and these high-end equipment are gradually being introduced to the market. In terms of hydrogen production, renewable energy hydrogen production projects are being actively promoted in North China and Northwest China, and the cost of hydrogen production by water electrolysis is steadily decreasing. Lin Weibin, Director of the Energy Policy Research Office of the China Energy Research Society, said: "China has the world's largest installed capacity of renewable energy. By 2030, the installed capacity of renewable energy hydrogen production is expected to exceed 100 million kilowatts. By 2060, the production of green hydrogen is expected to approach 100 million tons, and the installed capacity of power generation using hydrogen energy may exceed 100 million kilowatts." By the end of 2023, China had built and operated 428 hydrogen refueling stations and 58 renewable energy hydrogen production projects covering 21 provinces, autonomous regions, and municipalities directly under the Central Government, with a total project scale of 654.5 megawatts. It is predicted that by 2060, China's hydrogen energy consumption scale will reach nearly 86 million tons, and the industrial scale will reach 4.6 trillion yuan. By then, the proportion of non-fossil energy in China's energy structure for hydrogen production will increase from 1% in 2022 to 93%, among which hydrogen production from wind and solar energy will account for two-thirds.