Shell has set out plans to expand its presence in China’s growing low-carbon hydrogen market by developing a truck and bus refuelling network in Shanghai and the Yangzte River Delta under a joint venture with local state-owned energy company Shenergy.

The two firms aim to install up to ten refuelling stations over the next five years, scaling up to 30 by 2030—enough to supply about 3,000 fuel-cell trucks or buses every day.

“It is expected that hydrogen will scale up significantly and make up at least 5pc of China’s energy system by 2030. We see opportunities across the hydrogen value chain in China,” says Jason Wong, executive chairman of Shell China.

30 – Target number of refuelling stations by 2030

The refuelling stations will use “low-emission industrial byproduct hydrogen” from the local chemical industry in the short term. The two companies will explore opportunities in the production and supply of green hydrogen to the stations in the long term.

At the start of this year, Shell started up a 20MW electrolyser powered by onshore wind in Zhangjiakou in Hebei province. The electrolyser, Shell’s largest to date, is part of a joint venture between Shell China and local firm Zhangjiakou City Transport Construction Investment Holding Group. That venture also includes plans for refuelling stations in Zhangjiakou. The two companies have plans to scale up electrolyser capacity to 60MW in the next two years.

Shenergy Group aims to develop a full value chain that covers production, storage, transportation, refuelling and utilisation of hydrogen, says group chairman Huang Dinan.

China, already the world’s biggest producer of hydrogen, aims for output of 100,000-200,000t/yr of green hydrogen by 2025, according to state planner the National Development and Reform Commission and the country’s National Energy Administration.

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Author: Stuart Penson