The First Commercial Project of Hydrogen Production by Photocatalytic Water Splitting in China is Signed
2025-2-28
On February 25th, the industrialization project of the first production line for hydrogen production by photocatalytic water splitting, namely the "Polyhedral Strontium Titanate Concentrated Light Technology for Hydrogen and Oxygen Production", led by the scientific research team of Duan Dongping from the Institute of Process Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences, was officially signed and settled in Panzhihua. The commercial application of this disruptive technology marks an important leap from the laboratory to industrialization in the field of green hydrogen production in China, and will open up a brand-new path for the development of clean energy.
The three major innovation points of this project will have a significant impact. Firstly, the project has remarkable cost advantages. For the first-phase production line with an annual output of 200 tons of hydrogen, it is expected that the comprehensive cost of hydrogen will be reduced to 18-20 yuan per kilogram, which is about 40% lower than the cost of traditional hydrogen production by electrolyzing water. At the same time, there is an innovation in energy utilization in this project. It takes the lead in creating a "photovoltaic-hydrogen-heat" combined production mode, simultaneously producing 1,600 tons of industrial-grade oxygen and waste heat energy, and realizing the cascaded utilization of energy. In addition, this project can also achieve zero environmental burden, with no carbon emissions throughout the whole process. Only 9 liters of deionized water are consumed to produce 1 kilogram of hydrogen, which saves 65% of water compared with the traditional process.
The first-phase project is expected to be completed and put into operation by the end of June. At that time, it will become the first production line for hydrogen production by photocatalytic water splitting that realizes commercial operation in the country. What¡äs more exciting is that the project party has already launched the preparatory work for a ten-thousand-ton hydrogen production line, and plans to build a super-large production base with an annual output of 12,000 tons of green hydrogen in stages within the next three years. According to estimates, after the full-scale production of this project, it can reduce carbon dioxide emissions by about 480,000 tons per year, which is equivalent to the carbon sequestration capacity of newly added 35,000 mu of forests.
The successful implementation of this project innovatively opens up the achievement transformation channel of "Basic Research---Pilot Scale-up---Industrial Application", and provides a replicable "Chinese solution" for the development of the green hydrogen economy. With the nationwide promotion of this technology, China is expected to build the largest industrial cluster for hydrogen production by photocatalytic water splitting before 2030, accelerating the green transformation of the energy structure.
The three major innovation points of this project will have a significant impact. Firstly, the project has remarkable cost advantages. For the first-phase production line with an annual output of 200 tons of hydrogen, it is expected that the comprehensive cost of hydrogen will be reduced to 18-20 yuan per kilogram, which is about 40% lower than the cost of traditional hydrogen production by electrolyzing water. At the same time, there is an innovation in energy utilization in this project. It takes the lead in creating a "photovoltaic-hydrogen-heat" combined production mode, simultaneously producing 1,600 tons of industrial-grade oxygen and waste heat energy, and realizing the cascaded utilization of energy. In addition, this project can also achieve zero environmental burden, with no carbon emissions throughout the whole process. Only 9 liters of deionized water are consumed to produce 1 kilogram of hydrogen, which saves 65% of water compared with the traditional process.
The first-phase project is expected to be completed and put into operation by the end of June. At that time, it will become the first production line for hydrogen production by photocatalytic water splitting that realizes commercial operation in the country. What¡äs more exciting is that the project party has already launched the preparatory work for a ten-thousand-ton hydrogen production line, and plans to build a super-large production base with an annual output of 12,000 tons of green hydrogen in stages within the next three years. According to estimates, after the full-scale production of this project, it can reduce carbon dioxide emissions by about 480,000 tons per year, which is equivalent to the carbon sequestration capacity of newly added 35,000 mu of forests.
The successful implementation of this project innovatively opens up the achievement transformation channel of "Basic Research---Pilot Scale-up---Industrial Application", and provides a replicable "Chinese solution" for the development of the green hydrogen economy. With the nationwide promotion of this technology, China is expected to build the largest industrial cluster for hydrogen production by photocatalytic water splitting before 2030, accelerating the green transformation of the energy structure.