Air Liquide will contribute to Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics with its hydrogen equipment and technology
- Asia
- Mobility
- Clean mobility
- Usage
On April 30, 2020, Air Liquide Houpu Hydrogen Equipment Co.,Ltd, a subsidiary of Air Liquide Group, signed a contract with Zhangjiakou Jiaotou Hydrogen and New Energy Technology Co.,Ltd to supply hydrogen equipment to build a hydrogen station in Zhangjiakou city, Hebei province. This station will serve the fuel cell electric vehicles during the Beijing 2022 Olympic Winter Games.
Located in the Economic Development Zone of Zhangjiakou city, this station is one of the first hydrogen industry key projects for the 2022 Winter Olympics. After completion, with a capacity of 1,000 kg/day, it will be able to refuel the planned 2,000 vehicles for the Olympics. According to the terms of the contract, Air Liquide Houpu will supply, install and operate the equipment by the end of August, 2020.
Adhering to the “Green, Low-carbon” commitment of Olympic Games, Zhangjiakou, as one of the competition zones, is accelerating the development of its hydrogen ecosystem. The city plans to complete the construction of the first 10 hydrogen stations before the end of 2020, and another 6 before the end of 2021.
Nicolas Poirot, Air Liquide China CEO, said: “We are delighted to contribute to the Beijing 2022 Carbon Management Plan by leveraging the Air Liquide state-of-art technology in hydrogen. Together with our partners, we will continue to develop a hydrogen energy infrastructure network in China and support its ambitious vision for hydrogen mobility applications."
Air Liquide Houpu is a joint-venture between Air Liquide and Houpu established in China in 2019, focusing on manufacture, sales, research and developing the equipment of hydrogen refueling stations.
Air Liquide in China operates nearly 90 plants and employs more than 4,000 employees today. With a strong presence in the key coastal industrial areas, Air Liquide is now expanding into the center, south and west. Its main business activities include industrial and medical gas operations, Engineering & Construction (designing, manufacturing and installing air separation units/hydrogen facilities), as well as Innovation activities.
Air Liquide’s commitment to hydrogen energy
In the past 50 years, Air Liquide has developed unique expertise enabling it to master the entire hydrogen supply chain, from production and storage to distribution and the development of applications for end users, thus contributing to the widespread use of hydrogen as a clean energy source, for mobility in particular. Air Liquide has designed and installed more than 120 stations around the world to date. Hydrogen is an alternative to meet the challenge of clean transportation and thus contributes to the improvement of air quality. Used in a fuel cell, hydrogen combines with oxygen in the air to produce electricity, emitting only water. It does not generate any pollution at the point of use: zero greenhouse gases, zero particles and zero noise. Hydrogen provides a concrete response to the challenges posed by sustainable mobility and local pollution in urban areas.
Air Liquide low-carbon hydrogen
Air Liquide is making an ambitious commitment to reduce the carbon footprint of its hydrogen production dedicated to energy and mobility applications.
In concrete terms, Air Liquide has made a commitment that 100% of the hydrogen it supplies for these applications will be low carbon by 2030, by combining:
- biomethane reforming;
- the use of renewable energies through water electrolysis;
- the use of technologies for the capture and storage or upgrading of carbon emitted during the process of producing hydrogen from natural gas;
- the utilization of the co-produced hydrogen from industrial processes such as chlorine electrolysis.
The existence of several low-carbon hydrogen production pathways for energy and mobility applications will make it possible to provide the most relevant solutions for a given time and place. That's why it's important for the political and regulatory frameworks to be open and well-balanced enough to allow their emergence.