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China's First Commercialized Ammonia-to-Hydrogen Refueling Station Put into Operation

Recently, China's first commercialized self-developed distributed ammonia hydrogen generation and hydrogen refueling station, Guangxi Petroleum Nanning Zhenxing Energy Refueling Station, was completed and successfully put into operation in Nanning, Guangxi. The station adopts ammonia hydrogen production technology, and can produce 500 kilograms of 99.999% high-purity hydrogen per day. The scale of hydrogen production is the largest of its kind, and it can meet the hydrogen demand of more than 40 hydrogen-fueled vehicles. Compared with the previous way of using hydrogen in Guangxi, the cost reduction is up to 60%, which provides a new path for solving the transportation and storage problems faced by China's hydrogen energy industry development.

Provide a new "solution" to the dilemma of hydrogen storage and transportation, with a good foundation for industrial development. Hydrogen storage and transportation is the key link that restricts the development of hydrogen energy industry chain. At present, China's hydrogen refueling stations mainly rely on long trailers for transportation, with low hydrogen transportation capacity and high cost. Ammonia decomposition hydrogen production is a technical route for hydrogen production, i.e., ammonia is decomposed into nitrogen and hydrogen through ammonia decomposition catalyst, and the hydrogen is purified to meet the relevant energy demand. Ammonia is a highly efficient hydrogen storage medium with the advantages of easy storage and transportation, low storage and transportation costs, and the process of hydrogen production from ammonia decomposition does not emit carbon dioxide, which is greener and more environmentally friendly. As the second largest chemical in the world, ammonia has a wide range of raw materials. China is the world's largest producer and consumer of synthetic ammonia, the ammonia industry throughout the country, the development of distributed ammonia hydrogen has a good foundation. 2022 March, the National Development and Reform Commission and the Energy Bureau issued the "14th Five-Year Plan" new energy storage development implementation program, for the first time "ammonia" as an important hydrogen storage carrier. In March 2022, the National Development and Reform Commission and the Energy Bureau issued the "Implementation Program for the Development of New Energy Storage in the 14th Five-Year Plan", which for the first time included "ammonia" as an important hydrogen storage carrier in the key direction of research and development, and explicitly proposed to carry out the demonstration of "ammonia-hydrogen storage".

It occupies less land and is easy to promote, ending the history of no high-purity hydrogen production in Guangxi. Guangxi has unique location advantages, is an important hub of the new western land and sea corridor, has abundant wind, light, water and other renewable energy resources, hydrogen industry is ready to develop. Now put into use hydrogen plant covers an area of only 80 square meters, hydrogen production capacity of 240 standard cubic meters / hour, can produce 500 kg per day 99.999% high purity hydrogen, can meet the demand for automotive hydrogen in Nanning, Liuzhou, Beihai and other places. In addition, the hydrogen production equipment adopts unit modularization and skidding design, which can realize rapid installation and commissioning on site, and facilitate rapid promotion and replication.

Self-developed technology, equipment intelligence level leading in China, the distributed ammonia decomposition hydrogen production technology adopted by this integrated station was independently developed by Sinopec Petrochemical Scientific Research Institute Co. The production unit has low energy consumption, low ammonia consumption, and remarkable safety and economy. The main hydrogen refueling equipment and systems can realize the dual functions of hydrogen refueling for hydrogen fuel trucks and filling for long-tube trailers, and the level of device automation and intellectualization has reached the leading level in China.