China has launched its first cross-regional “hydrogen corridor”, connecting the southwestern city of Chongqing to Qinzhou in the south. The 1,150km route includes four refuelling stations and can support heavy-duty trucks powered by hydrogen fuel cells, according to Xinhua News.
Xinhua News notes that the corridor runs through areas rich in by-product hydrogen. This is extracted from waste gases emitted during industrial processes, such as the making of coking coal, ammonia and methanol. The method is relatively cheap, but carries the risk of locking in carbon emissions if not paired with decarbonisation measures, as Dialogue Earth has reported. As of May 2024, only 1% of China’s hydrogen is produced from renewable sources.
China set a national goal in 2022 to deploy 50,000 fuel cell vehicles by 2025, but the lack of hydrogen refueling stations is limiting development, People’s Daily reported. Several pilot projects have been launched to open up the industrial value chain, from producing the hydrogen, to transporting it, and building refuelling infrastructure.
Last April, for example, Hubei province began operating a 300km hydrogen freight route between Wuhan and Yichang, with 30 trucks and two refuelling stations. And in the same month, two hydrogen trucks completed a 1,500km journey from Beijing to Shanghai, supported by seven stations – China’s longest hydrogen transport test to date.
Despite this growing momentum, hydrogen trucking in China still faces significant challenges, including high costs. The price for one 49-tonne hydrogen-powered truck has fallen from RMB 1.5 million (USD 208,000) in 2021 to around RMB 900,000 (USD 125,000) in 2024, according to Yicai. Still, that is double the cost of a conventional diesel truck.
Wang Shengke, head of Orange Hydrogen Research, told Yicai that because the pace of the price decline may slow, continued policy support is crucial to spur adoption in the near term.
Read Dialogue Earth’s previous report on by-product hydrogen in China.