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    Cummins, Sinopec building PEM Electroyzers to produce Hydrogen in China

    Dec. 28, 2021
    The PEM plant will build 500 MW of electrolyzers annually once it’s completed in 2023
    Image credit Cummins
    Cummins Electrolyzers 61cb723794bc4

    By Rod Walton, EnergyTech Senior Editor

    On-site power equipment manufacturer Cummins Inc., which already is pursuing future hydrogen development projects in the U.S. and around the world, also will invest $47 million to build an electrolyzer manufacturing plant in China.

    Cummins and China Petrochemical Corp. (Sinopec Group) formed a 50-50 joint venture announced this month. Cummins Enze, the company’s operation in Guangdong Province, will help fund location of a plant to produce proton exchange membrane electrolyzers.

    The PEM plant will build 500 MW of electrolyzers annually once it’s completed in 2023, according to the companies. The PEM electrolyzers—which create hydrogen through a process separating water’s components—will serve small-scale hydrogen production for H2 fueling systems for on-site power, as well as utility-scale power generation plants capable of 100 MW and beyond.

    “China’s embrace of green hydrogen is a breakthrough for the planet,” Amy Davis, president of New Power at Cummins, said, adding, “Cummins and Sinopec joining together to realize the potential for green hydrogen is a huge leap forward.”

    To be truly “green hydrogen,” the H2 must be produced from electrolyzers powered by low or no-carbon resources such as wind or solar-generated electricity. Hydrogen does not emit carbon dioxide when burned but it cannot be mined naturally, and is only created at scale through steam reforming of methane or by electrolysis.

    Sinopec already creates 3.5 million tons of hydrogen annually, close to 14 percent of China’s total H2 generation. Cummins’ global hydrogen achievements include 2,000 fuel-cells and 600 electrolyzers deployed.  

    “Green hydrogen is the ultimate technology of the hydrogen energy industry in the future,” said Zhou Yuxuan, general manage of Enze Fund and chairman of the joint venture. “Both gray (heavier carbon) and blue hydrogen technologies (gray hydrogen with carbon capture technologies added) are just a transition. We will use Sinopec’s current industry resources and lay out the green hydrogen industry chain to achieve greater progress.”

    The PEM electrolyzer manufacturing plant will be located in Foshan, which has a mature H2 energy industry supply chain. 

    Last year, Cummins forecast it will generate $400 million in annual revenue through its hydrogen efforts by 2025.

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    (Rod Walton, senior editor for EnergyTech, is a 14-year veteran of covering the energy industry both as a newspaper and trade journalist. He can reached at [email protected]).

    About the Author

    Rod Walton, EnergyTech Managing Editor | Senior Editor

    For EnergyTech editorial inquiries, please contact Managing Editor Rod Walton at [email protected].

    Rod Walton has spent 15 years covering the energy industry as a newspaper and trade journalist. He formerly was energy writer and business editor at the Tulsa World. Later, he spent six years covering the electricity power sector for Pennwell and Clarion Events. He joined Endeavor and EnergyTech in November 2021.

    Walton earned his Bachelors degree in journalism from the University of Oklahoma. His career stops include the Moore American, Bartlesville Examiner-Enterprise, Wagoner Tribune and Tulsa World. 

    EnergyTech is focused on the mission critical and large-scale energy users and their sustainability and resiliency goals. These include the commercial and industrial sectors, as well as the military, universities, data centers and microgrids. The C&I sectors together account for close to 30 percent of greenhouse gas emissions in the U.S.

    He was named Managing Editor for Microgrid Knowledge and EnergyTech starting July 1, 2023

    Many large-scale energy users such as Fortune 500 companies, and mission-critical users such as military bases, universities, healthcare facilities, public safety and data centers, shifting their energy priorities to reach net-zero carbon goals within the coming decades. These include plans for renewable energy power purchase agreements, but also on-site resiliency projects such as microgrids, combined heat and power, rooftop solar, energy storage, digitalization and building efficiency upgrades.

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