Jiaxing Iwatani Unleashes a Ground-breaking Industrial Gas Venture

China: Jiaxing Iwatani Industrial Gases, based in China, has completed a nearly four-year-long effort by launching a general industrial gas project in Jiaxing. In response to the rising demand for air separation gases and Hydrogen in the East China region, the first stage of the project saw the construction of a Hydrogen production facility and a second air separation unit (ASU) beginning in October 2019. The Hydrogen plant, with a production capacity of around 1,500Nm3/h (normal cubic metres per hour), went into operation in January 2022, and the ASU did so in May of this year.

Masaki Sonoda, General Manager of Jiaxing Iwatani, commented on the opening by saying that the new ASU has increased the company's LIN output capacity to the greatest in the area. It will help advance fields like fine chemicals and semiconductors that are on the cutting edge. Also have the biggest 11 filling gates in the area.

During the ribbon-cutting event that was part of the opening, Iwatani President Hiroshi Majima spoke about the significance of the project for maintaining links between China and Japan-owned Iwatani. Currently sensing a significant strengthening of the history in the relationships between China and Iwatani.

The Chinese government published the first-ever long-term Hydrogen plan in March 2022, spanning the years 2021–2035. The plan, which was jointly presented by the National Development and Reform Commission and the National Energy Administration, stated that China's goal is to set up a "relatively complete" structure for the development of the Hydrogen energy industry by 2025.

By 2025, the nation's annual Hydrogen generation from renewable energy is anticipated to increase to 100,000 to 200,000 tonnes, play a significant role in the country's new Hydrogen energy consumption, and enable an annual decrease in carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions of between one million and two million tonnes.

China is currently the world's largest producer of Hydrogen (including from non-green sources), and the China Hydrogen Alliance predicts that by 2030, the country would have a demand for 35 million tonnes of Hydrogen. Manufacturing capacity is a further area of attention for China's long-term strategy. China possessed 8% of the world's electrolyser stock as of 2020 and 35% of the world's manufacturing capacity for electrolyser machinery and components. Chinese enterprises planned to increase their capacity for producing electrolysers to 1.5–2.5 GW in 2022 to meet domestic and international demand.

The direction, pace, and scope of China's low-carbon Hydrogen endeavours warrant close attention due to multiple implications, not only for the Chinese economy but also for the course of global Hydrogen industry development.