河南三城“氢”装上阵 郑州、鄂尔多斯建立“双主责”协同机制Three cities in Henan 'equip' with hydrogen: Zhengzhou and Ordos establish a 'dual main responsibility' coordination mechanism

The list of the country’s five major national hydrogen energy pilot city clusters has recently been finalized, with the 'Bend of the Yellow River - Central Plains' city cluster included. Among them, the three cities in Henan Province—Zhengzhou, Pingdingshan, and Puyang—made the list. This marks another national-level 'entry ticket' for Zhengzhou in the hydrogen energy track following the '14th Five-Year Plan' fuel cell vehicle demonstration. From 'demonstration' to 'pilot,' the large-scale application test officially begins.

The five selected pilot city clusters include two whose main focus is fuel cell vehicles: the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei cluster and the Greater Bay Area; and three whose main focus is the industrial sector: the Northeast–Yangtze River Delta cluster, the Xinjiang–Chengdu-Chongqing twin-city economic circle, and the 'Bend of the Yellow River - Central Plains' cluster. The uniqueness of the 'Bend of the Yellow River - Central Plains' city cluster lies in its 'licenses at both ends.' The city cluster spans six provinces and regions: Henan, Inner Mongolia, Shanxi, Hubei, Shaanxi, and Ningxia. Its upstream areas enjoy exceptional wind and solar resources, making it the nation’s most competitive green hydrogen production base, while the downstream area, backed by Central Plains manufacturing and transport hubs, has an industrial chain led by Yutong as the vehicle leader and supported by core suppliers such as Zhengxing Technology.

One of the innovative mechanisms in this pilot is the establishment of a 'dual main responsibility' coordination mechanism between Zhengzhou and Ordos: Zhengzhou is responsible for the large-scale promotion of fuel cell vehicles, innovation in transportation scenarios, the layout of hydrogen refueling infrastructure, and tackling core technologies; Ordos focuses on industrial scenario applications such as hydrogen metallurgy, green ammonia, hydrogen-blended combustion, and hydrogen-based chemical industry. The two cities complement each other with differentiated roles, connecting the entire chain from 'upstream resources—midstream manufacturing—to downstream applications,' in order to explore a new model of hydrogen energy development nationwide that is cross-provincial, full-chain, replicable, and commercially viable.

Henan's three cities are taking action, complementing each other's advantages to launch a 'combined punch.' Zhengzhou, as the 'leader' and the provincial capital of Henan, promoted a total of 4,256 hydrogen fuel cell vehicles and built 54 hydrogen refueling stations in the previous phase of the '14th Five-Year Plan' fuel cell vehicle demonstration, ranking second nationwide in comprehensive assessment. During the four-year pilot period, Zhengzhou was responsible for promoting 1,250 vehicles and constructing six hydrogen refueling stations, accounting for half of the total task of 2,500 vehicles for the urban cluster, and it has a number of key enterprises such as Yutong, Refire Technology, Zhengxing Technology, and CAS Qingneng, with outstanding features in the industrial chain links of hydrogen refueling equipment, liquefaction equipment, and fuel cell vehicles.

Pingdingshan is a 'warehouse.' It has currently completed and put into operation Asia's first demonstration project for storing hydrogen in salt caverns with a capacity of 1.5 million standard cubic meters. The drilling depth is 1,418 meters, and it utilizes abandoned salt caverns converted into an underground hydrogen storage facility, filling the critical gap in large-scale, low-cost hydrogen energy storage. Puyang is a 'supply station.' Relying on its chemical industry foundation, it can provide a large amount of low-cost industrial by-product hydrogen. There are currently 22 hydrogen production enterprises, forming a complete chain from hydrogen production, storage, and transportation to fuel cells, vehicle manufacturing, and application scenarios. In March this year, Henan Province's first integrated 'direct supply and refueling' energy station officially started operations in Puyang, achieving the full-process direct supply model of 'interconnecting hydrogen production with refueling pumps.'

Liu Xiaoping, Deputy Director of the Digital Economy and Industrial Economy Research Institute of the Henan Academy of Social Sciences, believes that this means Henan is moving from the 'scenario application' of fuel cell vehicles initiated in 2021 to a stage of large-scale and commercial development of the hydrogen industry. Zhengzhou, one of the 'main players' in the urban cluster, will next focus on four key areas: large-scale promotion, low-cost operation, innovative breakthroughs, and full-chain safety, while coordinating with surrounding provinces to accelerate the construction of four cross-provincial hydrogen corridors: Henan-Shanxi-Inner Mongolia, Henan-Shaanxi, Henan-Shandong, and Henan-Hubei-Jiangxi. The goal is to establish an important national hydrogen energy transportation demonstration hub and strive to reduce the terminal hydrogen refueling price to below 25 yuan/kg during the pilot period.

Hydrogen energy both supports the 'dual carbon' goals and opens up a trillion-level industrial blue ocean. With the advancement of pilot urban clusters, stages such as green hydrogen production, hydrogen storage and transportation, fuel cells, and hydrogen refueling infrastructure are expected to scale up rapidly, while the synergistic effects of regional hydrogen industry chains will become increasingly evident.

[Source: Henan Business Daily]

[Editor: Xiao Neng]