On October 21, the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei Hydrogen Industry Coordinated Development Conference and the Launch Meeting of the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei Hydrogen Comprehensive Application Pilot City Cluster were held in Beijing.
Qingdao participated as one of 13 participating cities, officially commencing related pilot work.
The core objective of this national pilot is to promote the integrated development of the entire hydrogen industry chain covering production, storage, transportation, and utilization.
Fuel cell vehicles, green ammonia and methanol, hydrogen-based chemical raw material substitution, hydrogen metallurgy, hydrogen blending combustion, and innovative application scenarios have become the most important pilot directions.
According to earlier notices issued by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the Ministry of Finance, and the National Development and Reform Commission, the other four city clusters selected for this pilot include the Greater Bay Area, Northeast China (including eastern Inner Mongolia)-Yangtze River Delta, Xinjiang-Chengdu-Chongqing Economic Circle, and the Yellow River Jizi Bend-Central Plains region.
Qingdao's "binding" with the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei city cluster this time is undoubtedly a major boon for Qingdao's hydrogen industry.
In Qingdao's "10+1" innovative industrial system focused on key layout and development, hydrogen energy has been incorporated into the "green energy" emerging industries.
During the pilot period, Qingdao will focus on the construction of the "Qingdao-Beijing" hydrogen logistics corridor as its core, leveraging its advantages as a port logistics hub and its complete hydrogen industry chain manufacturing capabilities.
It will undertake tasks such as production of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles and core components, vehicle promotion and operation, and clean low-carbon hydrogen supply, while actively expanding innovative applications of hydrogen energy in areas such as two-wheelers, continuously enriching the comprehensive hydrogen application ecosystem.
Moving from "Technically Feasible" to "Commercially Viable"
The new national pilot in the hydrogen sector reflects a shift in industrial development thinking compared to previous efforts.
Hydrogen is widely regarded as the "ultimate clean energy of the 21st century," with high energy density and producing only water during combustion or electrochemical reactions, achieving truly zero carbon emissions.
Although China's hydrogen industry chain has basically taken shape, it is still some distance from true commercialization.
A relevant official from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology stated in interpreting this round of pilot work that domestic hydrogen applications still face issues such as limited scenarios, insufficient green hydrogen, high prices, and difficulties in storage, transportation, and refueling.
Business models have not yet formed, and market demand remains to be unlocked, requiring sustained efforts and targeted support at the national level.
Qingdao Hydrogen Energy Industrial Park.
The specific pilot details reflect new approaches in both scenario setting and incentive methods: in terms of scenarios, specific tasks and indicators for each link of the industry from upstream to downstream have been further refined, pushing the hydrogen industry from single transportation demonstrations toward full-chain commercialization.
In terms of incentives, the focus has shifted from vehicle purchase subsidies to operational incentives, hydrogen price support, standards improvement, and route demonstrations.
Compared to subsidizing vehicle purchases, supporting operations and hydrogen usage better encourages enterprises to focus on vehicle utilization rates, unit hydrogen consumption, station utilization rates, and full lifecycle costs.
According to the deployment, the goal of this pilot is that by 2030, hydrogen energy will achieve large-scale application in multiple sectors across city clusters, with the average terminal hydrogen price dropping below 25 yuan per kilogram, striving to reach around 15 yuan per kilogram in some advantageous regions.
The national fuel cell vehicle fleet will double compared to 2025, striving to reach 100,000 units.
Pioneering Large-Scale Trunk Line Logistics Operations
Qingdao's selection for this national pilot and its "binding" with the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei city cluster is based on the complete industrial chain it has built in recent years.
In the upstream segment, Qingdao is rich in industrial by-product hydrogen resources, with annual output of approximately 200,000 tons, providing ample and low-cost hydrogen supply guarantees for large-scale vehicle operations.
The hydrogen refueling station layout continues to improve, with Qingdao Refining and Chemical having built a carbon-neutral hydrogen refueling station with daily production of 1,500-2,000 kilograms of high-purity hydrogen, and Qingdao Port having built China's first fully qualified port hydrogen refueling station with a daily refueling capacity of 1,000 kilograms.
Additionally, Qingdao has abundant offshore wind energy reserves and mature development conditions, providing stable green power support for large-scale renewable hydrogen production.
The hydrogen refueling station at Qianwan Port of Shandong Port Qingdao Port has achieved fully qualified and fully licensed operations.
In the manufacturing segment, Qingdao has formed a complete industrial chain covering catalysts, compressors, electrolyzers, stacks, vehicle manufacturing, and hydrogen refueling facilities.
Kangpuruisi's liquid-driven hydrogen compressors cover the full pressure range from 20 MPa to 90 MPa.
Huawang (Qingdao) Hydrogen Technology Group has technical accumulation in air-cooled fuel cell stack design, membrane electrode and catalyst selection, and system integration.
Hanlan Hydrogen fuel cell stacks are widely used in hydrogen power generation, drones, and two-wheelers.
Qingdao Yangqing Group provides distributed methanol reforming hydrogen production solutions and has built China's first distributed methanol-to-hydrogen integrated demonstration station.
These mean Qingdao can provide stable industrial chain support for pilot operations.
For Qingdao, the core task of participating in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei city cluster hydrogen comprehensive application pilot is to accelerate the exploration of large-scale, commercialized operation models for hydrogen fuel cell vehicle trunk line logistics by building the "Qingdao-Beijing" hydrogen logistics corridor.
Data shows that freight demand from Qingdao to Beijing is strong, with approximately 2,000 trucks passing daily, of which about 75% are medium and heavy trucks and 25% are light trucks, providing a good scenario foundation for hydrogen fuel cell vehicle substitution.
Qingdao will focus on two core scenarios: hydrogen highways/corridors and cold chain logistics.
First, with heavy trucks as the core transport force, it will plan demonstration operation routes based on the national trunk highway network, focusing on carrying industrial goods and other cargo between Qingdao and Beijing.
Second, focusing on inter-city transport needs for temperature-controlled goods such as fresh agricultural products, pharmaceutical products, and prepared dishes, it will build a cold chain transport network centered on hydrogen refrigerated trucks, relying on Qingdao's local cold chain storage hubs and surrounding city cold chain distribution centers.
At the same time, Qingdao will use the pilot as an opportunity to further promote the development of the hydrogen industry chain.
On the manufacturing side, it will promote large-scale vehicle installation and application of key fuel cell vehicle components such as membrane electrodes, catalysts, bipolar plates, stacks, fuel cell systems, and hydrogen circulation systems.
In hydrogen production, hydrogen storage and transportation, it plans to build a hydrogen pipeline from Dongjiakou Chemical New Materials Industrial Park to the hydrogen refueling station in the Hydrogen Energy Industrial Park for high-purity hydrogen pipeline transportation, reducing intermediate transfer links and lowering the average terminal hydrogen price.
Creating Distinctive Innovative Application Scenarios
In this round of pilot, the national government also encourages cities to actively explore innovative hydrogen application scenarios.
In Qingdao, hydrogen two-wheelers will be one of the key focus directions.
In the West Coast New Area, a fleet of green shared hydrogen bicycles travels through the streets.
They look no different from ordinary electric bikes, but inside they have a completely different "heart" — a hydrogen fuel cell.
With one hydrogen refill, the range can reach 100 kilometers.
As the operator, Huawang (Qingdao) Hydrogen Technology Group has currently deployed over 1,500 hydrogen shared bicycles in the West Coast New Area, with over 40,000 registered users and over 200,000 ride orders.
The per-kilometer operating cost has basically reached parity with lithium battery two-wheelers, forming a sustainable operating model.
"Huawang Zhixing" hydrogen shared bicycles.
Based on this, Qingdao will promote hydrogen shared bicycles throughout the city, providing a replicable model for hydrogen short-distance travel in northern cities.
At the same time, Qingdao will support Huawang (Qingdao) Hydrogen Technology Group in accelerating the promotion of hydrogen low-altitude drones, hydrogen delivery two-wheelers, hydrogen passenger aircraft, and hydrogen unmanned transport vessels.
In addition, hydrogen application at ports is also one of the innovative application scenarios Qingdao is focusing on exploring.
Last year, China's first hydrogen-electric tugboat "Hydrogen Electric Tug 1," designed by Qingdao Port, was officially put into operation.
The vessel adopted a skid-mounted station-pipeline hydrogen transmission-ship refueling model, completing China's first coastal vessel hydrogen refueling and having now operated safely for one year, pushing port hydrogen application from land to water.
In the future, Qingdao will further deepen hydrogen vessel demonstrations, based on the operating experience of "Hydrogen Electric Tug 1," optimize refueling models, and explore research and pilot applications of hydrogen in ocean-going and inland river vessels.
At the same time, it will upgrade the full port hydrogen scenario, expand the application scale of hydrogen container trucks, hydrogen-electric coupled rail-mounted gantry cranes, and hydrogen-powered AGVs, and explore solid-state hydrogen storage and green hydrogen-ammonia-methanol applications at ports.
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