China’s petrochemical company, SINOPEC, announced on its account on the country’s messaging and social media platform WeChat, that they will build the country’s first hydrogen pipeline.
The pipeline, which will start from the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region in the north of the country, will pass through Hibey province and reach the capital Beijing.
It is noted that the pipeline, which will exceed 400 kilometers in length, will initially carry 100 thousand tons of hydrogen per year, and in the long run, the capacity of the line will be increased to 500 thousand tons per year, while the fossil fuels used in the cities of Beijing, Tienjin and Hibey province will be replaced with hydrogen.
The statement did not share information about when the construction of the pipeline will start and how long it will take to complete.
In a statement made last week by China’s National Energy Administration, it was stated that the length of the country’s crude oil pipelines reached 28,000 kilometers and the length of the natural gas pipelines reached 120,000 kilometers.
In the statement, it was also noted that 65,000 kilometers of natural gas pipelines and 2 thousand kilometers of crude oil pipelines will be added until 2035.
China, where the population and industrial production are concentrated in big cities, is one of the countries with the highest air pollution problem in the world.
In recent years, the government has been trying to reduce air pollution with some measures such as moving industrial zones from Beijing to surrounding cities, encouraging the use of natural gas instead of coal for heating, and tightening emission standards in factories.