Coal-to-hydrogen (CTG) output continues to rise and my country has achieved large-scale production

Coal-to-hydrogen (CTG), also known as coal-to-hydrogen, refers to a process that uses coal as a reducing agent and water vapor as an oxidant to convert coal into carbon monoxide and hydrogen at high temperatures, and then undergoes purification, purification and other steps to produce hydrogen. Coal-to-hydrogen has the advantages of low production cost, high technological maturity, and is suitable for large-scale production. It is widely used in distributed power generation, petrochemicals, aerospace and other fields. According to different processes, hydrogen production from coal can be divided into two categories: coal gasification hydrogen production and catalytic reforming hydrogen production.

Coal is the main raw material for coal-based hydrogen production, accounting for nearly 40% of its production costs. Coal is a fossil raw material with extremely high carbon content and is also the main energy supply in my country. According to data from the National Bureau of Statistics, my country’s industrial raw coal output above designated size will reach 4.07 billion tons in 2021, a year-on-year increase of 4.7%. my country is rich in coal resource reserves, and Shanxi, Henan, Inner Mongolia, Sichuan, Xinjiang, Yunnan, Gansu and other places are the main coal producing areas. The price of coal is 30.0% of the price of natural gas. Sufficient supply of raw materials and stable prices lay the foundation for the development of the coal-to-hydrogen industry.

According to the “2023-2028 China Coal to Hydrogen (CTG) Industry Market In-depth Research and Development Prospects Forecast Report released by the Industrial Research Center ” shows that northwest, north and east China are my country’s main coal-based hydrogen production areas, with the northwest accounting for nearly 30% of my country’s total output. According to statistics from the China Hydrogen Energy Alliance, my country’s coal-based hydrogen production will reach 21.24 million tons in 2021, accounting for 63.5% of the total hydrogen production. In recent years, driven by national environmental protection policies, coal-to-hydrogen production has become a clean and efficient hydrogen production route, and its technological maturity has been continuously improved. Hydrogen produced by this process has been widely used in many fields.

Hydrogen is an important secondary energy source with the advantages of high calorific value, good combustion performance, convenient transportation, high utilization rate, energy conservation and environmental protection. The country has issued many policies to support the development of the hydrogen energy industry. In March 2022, the National Development and Reform Commission and the National Energy Administration jointly issued the “Medium- and Long-term Plan for the Development of Hydrogen Energy Industry (2021-2035)”, which clearly proposed to continue to improve the level of key core technologies of hydrogen energy and rationally layout hydrogen production facilities. Driven by national policies, the prosperity of the coal-to-hydrogen industry will continue to increase.

​​Zhejiang Petrochemical, National Energy, Anqing Shuguang Chemical, China Shipping Refining and Chemicals, etc. are the leading enterprises in coal-based hydrogen production in my country. At present, my country has become the only country in the world that uses coal to produce hydrogen on a large scale. In September 2022, the world’s largest coal-based hydrogen production pressure swing adsorption device project was officially put into operation in Shaanxi, my country.

Industry analysts said that coal-based hydrogen production is the mainstream hydrogen production method. Compared with other hydrogen production methods, coal-based hydrogen production has raw materials. With the advantages of low cost and high technological maturity, large-scale production has been achieved in my country. Driven by national environmental protection policies, the coal-to-hydrogen industry is gradually developing in a low-carbon direction. It is expected that in the future, driven by technological innovation, the development speed of my country’s coal-based hydrogen production industry will continue to accelerate.