Guangdong plans to establish over 200 hydrogen refueling stations by 2025

Guangdong, a province in southeast China, plans to establish 200 hydrogen refueling stations, have 10,000 hydrogen fuel cell vehicles (FCEVs) on road, and offer 100,000 mt/year of hydrogen supplies by 2025, the provincial government announced late Aug. 12.

The targets were released in an action plan published by the provincial economic planner Guangdong Development and Reform Commission. The three-year action plan (2022-2025) is aimed at "shaping Guangdong into a world-class industry leader for FCEV technologies and applications."

The action plan proposed to retrofit the conventional refueling stations, equipping them with hydrogen refueling capabilities, especially the refueling stations along the main roads of the highways with heavy traffic.

The Guangdong government also allowed industrial companies to establish captive hydrogen refueling stations solely for the companies' own use, the plan said.

On a national scale, China is expected to have 1,000 hydrogen fuel cell vehicles by 2025, servicing 100,000 FCEVs with 390,000 mt/year hydrogen demand, according to projections by China's government-backed think tank China Hydrogen Alliance (CHA).

Based on CHA's projections, if Guangdong fulfills the government-set targets on time, it will account for 10% of the nation's FCEV fleet, 20% of hydrogen refueling stations, and 26% of hydrogen supplies.

Guangdong is one of the most developed provinces in China, with the highest GDP as of 2021. It is also one of China's busiest logistic hubs with heavy cross-provincial traffic volumes. Guangdong has relatively mature and well-organized refining and petrochemical industries, and has become the nation's testbed for various decarbonization technologies.

The Guangdong government also targets to cultivate FCEV enterprises that are internationally competitive, and enable technological advancements for key FCEV components, including fuel cell stacks, membrane electrodes, bipolar plates, proton exchange membranes, catalysts, carbon papers, air compressors and hydrogen circulation systems, the action plan said.

Economies of scale

With economies of scale achieved, the plan said hydrogen retail price in Guangdong is expected to drop to Yuan 30/kg (approx. $4.4/kg) for FCEVs by 2025.

According to forecasts by China's oil major Sinopec, on a national scale, hydrogen fuel for FCEV is expected to be cost-competitive against fuels used by conventional vehicles by 2030. It added that the threshold for hydrogen fuel cost to be competitive against petroleum would be Yuan 34/kg (approx. $5.0/kg).

This means that if the Guangdong government's target can be met, the province is capable of realizing hydrogen cost-competitiveness relative to petroleum by 2025.

The provincial action plan does not specify the sources of the 100,000 mt/year target hydrogen supplies. The majority of hydrogen production in China still relies on coal, which is emission intensive.

In China's first national hydrogen development plan released earlier this year, the country plans to build up capacities for producing renewables-based, water electrolytic hydrogen or green hydrogen, utilizing the rapidly expanding domestic solar and wind generation capacities. The national target is to build 100,000-200,000 mt/year of green hydrogen supplies by 2025.

Most of the FCEVs in China are expected to be for commercial use, such as trucks and public buses. CHA's forecasts show that in 2060, commercial vehicles will account for 85% of the hydrogen-fueled fleet, while passenger cars would only account for 15%.

Commercial vehicles usually have planned routes and greater fuel demand per vehicle, making it easier to build hydrogen refueling networks and utilize existing refueling stations' infrastructure.

According to the interim-phase forecasts by CHA, China is expected to have 1.2 million FCEVs on road -- mainly commercial vehicles -- by 2035, and the total hydrogen fuel demand will be about 3.94 million mt/year.

The cities of Foshan and Yunfu, in Guangdong, have already introduced hydrogen-powered public buses, according to local media reports.