Industrial gas major Air Liquide and state-owned energy company Shenergy have opened a joint hydrogen supply centre in Shanghai, which includes China’s first 300-bar Type II hydrogen filling facility.
The Shanghai Hydrogen Energy Supply Basin represents a RMB 180m ($13.8m) investment and aims to support hydrogen mobility and industrial decarbonisation across Shanghai and the Yangtze River Delta.
With an initial filling capacity of 12 tonnes per day, the facility can supply up to 12 hydrogen refuelling stations, enabling over 1,000 daily medium- to heavy-duty truck refuellings.
The facility will also serve industrial users. Hydrogen production will make use of CO2 recycling from Air Liquide’s nearby Shanghai Chemical Industry Park Industrial Gases plant, with biomethane sourced from Shenergy contributing to the mix.
Air Liquide said that the use of 300-bar Type II trailers would allow the delivery of 60% more hydrogen per trip and cut transport emissions compared to 200-bar alternatives.
Shanghai’s hydrogen deployment efforts are part of its goal to reach peak carbon emissions by 2025, ahead of China’s national 2030 target. The project aligns with China’s Medium and Long-Term Hydrogen Industry Development Plan, which targets 50,000 hydrogen fuel cell vehicles and 1,200 refuelling stations by 2025.
As of early 2025, around 5,000 hydrogen fuel cell vehicles and 18 hydrogen refuelling stations were operational in the region.
Shi Pingyang, Vice-President of Shenergy, said the company sees hydrogen as a key part of China’s energy transition. “We will continue to contribute to achieving China’s carbon peaking and carbon neutrality goals and realising a sustainable, green transformation.”
While China is the world’s largest producer of hydrogen, with an annual output of approximately 33 million tonnes in 2020, two-thirds of it comes from coal gasification rather than low-carbon sources. Efforts to decarbonise the sector face scaling challenges, with hydrogen refuelling infrastructure unevenly distributed and many stations underused due to a lack of vehicles.
