The front-page headline of Shanxi Workers’ Daily highlights Pengfei’s hydrogen‑energy technology: “This is the birthplace of ‘future energy’ manufacturing.”

One afternoon in mid-July, accompanying Liang Hongwei, the workshop director of the hydrogen‑production process at Shanxi Pengfei Group’s hydrogen plant, the reporter moved among rows of towering, imposing chemical equipment, each new sight challenging and reshaping their understanding.

This automated, open-air production facility comprises three main sections: the plant building, the process unit area, and the filling station. Within the process unit area, rows of reactors—painted in a variety of colors—stand imposingly, with not a single maintenance worker in sight.

“Our workshop covers just over 6,000 square meters—slightly smaller than a standard soccer field—and serves as the upstream link in the hydrogen energy industry chain. The feedstock entering the facility is coke oven gas, a byproduct of the coking process at the coking plant, while the output is high-purity hydrogen,” Liang Hongwei explained to the reporter in detail.

Hydrogen energy, hailed as the “energy of the future,” is a clean and highly efficient secondary energy source often referred to as the “ultimate energy of the 21st century.” It not only represents the optimal alternative to fossil fuels but also stands as a key strategic priority for China’s emerging and future industries within the broader context of peaking carbon emissions and achieving carbon neutrality.

In recent years, Shanxi Pengfei Group has positioned the hydrogen energy industry as a key priority for accelerating the development of new‑type productive forces, striving to build the Pengwan Hydrogen Port Hydrogen Energy Industrial Park—the world’s largest in scale, with the most comprehensive industrial chain and cutting‑edge processes and equipment. To date, it has established a full‑chain hydrogen energy development system encompassing “production–storage–transportation–refueling–application–research.”

“Coke oven gas contains 60% hydrogen, 20% methane, and 10% carbon monoxide. To produce high-purity hydrogen (with a purity of 99.9999%), it must undergo five processing steps: purification, reforming, water–gas shift, PSA decarbonization, and PSA hydrogen purification. The resulting hydrogen is then compressed, filled into cylinders, and delivered to hydrogen refueling stations, where it powers hydrogen‑fuel‑cell heavy‑duty trucks, hydrogen‑powered buses, hydrogen‑powered minibuses, hydrogen‑powered coaches, and hydrogen‑powered loaders,” explained Chang Cheng, General Manager of the Coking System at Pengfei Group.

Since its establishment in January 2022, the in-house hydrogen‑production workshop, thanks to the dedicated efforts of its 40 employees—whose average age is under 30—has carried out more than 1,000 process‑optimization initiatives spanning technology, equipment, instrumentation, and safety. It has also proposed 24 innovative technical‑upgrade projects and was awarded the National Workers’ Vanguard title for 2024. “Achieving these results has not been easy,” said Wang Lei, the plant’s production director. “Toxicity, hazardous conditions, high temperatures, high pressure, flammability, and explosiveness are all hallmarks of this workshop. Ensuring safe production while simultaneously pursuing energy savings and efficiency gains remains our top priority.”

It is understood that immediately upon the establishment of the hydrogen‑production workshop, employees underwent a three‑month training program. Subsequently, they participated throughout the entire process—installation and commissioning of production equipment, as well as end-to-end monitoring of operations. Furthermore, 30 of them, in line with the Group’s “specialization of skills and industrialization of expertise” initiative, took the entrance examination for upgrading their qualifications to a bachelor’s degree, thereby laying a solid foundation in talent, theory, and practice to ensure safe production. As a prime example of these employees, Liang Hongwei has earned a correspondence‑based bachelor’s degree from Taiyuan University of Technology, along with certifications as a chemical‑safety manager and a special‑equipment administrator.

In late June 2022, prior to the commissioning of the hydrogen‑production process workshop following completion of equipment installation, ensuring that the core production unit—the high‑temperature, high‑pressure reformer (oxidation process)—would achieve successful startup and maintain safe, stable operation on its first oxygen feed posed a significant challenge. To address this, Pengfei Group assembled a task force comprising technical personnel from the coking plant, the hydrogen‑production plant, the methanol plant, and the heat‑source plant. After extensive deliberation, they ultimately adopted a solution proposed by workshop staff: during feed introduction, they implemented strict control over the oxygen self‑regulating valve and added an additional venting self‑regulating valve to the existing oxygen pipeline, enabling real-time adjustment of oxygen flow in response to pressure and temperature fluctuations at the feed site. This approach not only ensured the successful first‑time feed‑in during the June 2022 production run but also safeguarded both the on‑site equipment and personnel—a rare achievement in the chemical industry—and earned a national utility model patent.

Employees of the hydrogen‑production workshop also participated in the development, led by the Group Company and jointly undertaken with design institute engineers and university researchers, of two group standards for hydrogen production from coke oven gas: “Safety Technical Requirements for the High‑Purity Hydrogen Production Process via Coke Oven Gas Conversion” and “Energy Consumption Limits and Calculation Methods per Unit Product for High‑Purity Hydrogen Production from Coke Oven Gas Conversion,” thereby filling a gap in domestic industry standards.

“Over the past two-plus years since its establishment, the workshop has achieved first‑time success in everything from initial trial runs to producing high‑purity hydrogen that meets stringent quality standards, with continuous, stable operation lasting more than a year. This has contributed both wisdom and effort to advancing new‑type productive forces, realizing the ‘dual carbon’ goals, and accelerating the development of Pengfei’s hydrogen‑energy‑powered smart logistics system and its specialized town dedicated to hydrogen energy,” commented Chang Cheng when evaluating the hydrogen‑production process workshop.