Xinhua News Agency highlights Pengfei: Striving to become a globally leading smart clean-energy enterprise.

On January 5, the Xinhua News Agency’s mobile app highlighted Pengfei’s development trajectory, publishing an article titled “Pengfei Group: Striving to Become a World-Leading Smart Clean Energy Enterprise.”

At present, the global energy sector is undergoing profound transformation, with the transition from traditional to new energy accelerating and conventional fossil‑fuel companies stepping up their shift toward clean energy. Since the introduction of the new energy security strategy of “Four Revolutions and One Cooperation,” Shanxi Pengfei Group (hereinafter referred to as Pengfei Group) has proactively embarked on transformation, extended its industrial value chain, promoted the clean and smart development of the coal industry, vigorously developed the hydrogen‑energy value chain, and deployed smart logistics, steadily advancing toward digitalization, circularity, and green practices.

Pengfei Group is headquartered in Xiaoyi City, Shanxi Province, and ranks among China’s Top 500 enterprises and the nation’s Top 100 private companies. Over the past three decades, the Group has continuously refined its industrial portfolio, spanning raw coal mining, premium coal washing and beneficiation, coke production, modern coal chemical engineering, automobile manufacturing, smart logistics, high-end real estate, cultural tourism and hospitality, waste‑material recycling, and the full hydrogen‑energy value chain.

Enhance the park’s digital and intelligent capabilities.

To promote the safe and sustainable operation of coal mining and coal‑chemical enterprises, Pengfei Group is committed to enhancing intrinsic safety in production, leveraging an intelligent visual management platform to minimize safety risks arising from unauthorized instructions and unsafe work practices. The intelligent visual management platform leverages video surveillance systems to perform AI‑driven recognition of people, objects, behaviors, and environmental conditions in video streams. By seamlessly integrating with a data‑middleware platform, it proactively pushes alert notifications to the information‑access terminals of management personnel, supporting enterprise‑level safety and asset control, as well as process‑control applications, thereby reducing costs and enhancing operational efficiency.

The intelligent visual management platform centrally aggregates smart video analytics data, existing high‑point surveillance footage, business system data, and other production‑management‑related information, then analyzes and presents it comprehensively in real time, breaking down data silos and providing a single‑screen overview of the enterprise’s safety‑production management status. In addition, integrated with a mobile app, it enables efficient cross‑system collaboration, delivering automated alerts, automatic notifications, and automated performance assessments to create a closed‑loop business process. At the safety‑regulation level, it covers all on‑site and underground production scenarios, enabling real‑time monitoring of operational risks and hazards. At the production‑and‑operation level, it employs visual analytics to detect abnormal conditions in conveyor belts, providing continuous real‑time oversight, and monitors coal residues left in the cargo compartments of outbound transport vehicles, thereby curbing unauthorized or accidental coal loss and enhancing the quality and efficiency of production management. At the business‑management level, it integrates office automation systems, bulk‑material management systems, and data‑middleware platforms, breaking down data silos and boosting cross‑system coordination and efficiency.

Developing a comprehensive hydrogen energy industrial chain.

In recent years, Pengfei Group has positioned the development of a full hydrogen‑energy industrial chain as a strategic priority to drive the clean transformation of its industries. The company has steadily expanded the hydrogen‑energy value chain and pursued continuous technological breakthroughs, achieving remarkable results. In December 2023, at the Shanxi Province Conference on Promoting New‑Type Industrialization and Revitalizing and Upgrading Manufacturing, Pengfei Group was designated as the “chain leader” enterprise for the hydrogen‑energy industrial chain, a key pillar of Shanxi’s industrial ecosystem. In the field of hydrogen production, in July 2022, Pengfei Group’s 20,000‑ton‑per‑year coke‑oven gas‑to‑hydrogen project was completed and put into operation; in August 2023, China’s first green‑hydrogen electrolysis project—integrated with a coking dry quenching waste‑heat power‑generation system and capable of producing 3 × 500 Nm³/h of hydrogen—was officially commissioned at Pengfei Group. At present, Pengfei Group is vigorously developing renewable‑energy‑based water‑electrolysis hydrogen‑production projects, advancing the green development of hydrogen energy from the very source.

In terms of applications, in early 2022, through its controlling stake in Dongfeng Special Vehicle Co., Ltd., Pengfei Group obtained commercial‑vehicle manufacturing qualifications. In November 2022, the first batch of 100 hydrogen‑powered heavy trucks was put into service; in 2023, hydrogen‑fuel‑cell buses, mid‑size hydrogen buses, hydrogen‑powered loaders, hydrogen‑powered public buses, and second‑generation hydrogen‑powered heavy trucks were successively commissioned. By March 2024, an additional 500 hydrogen‑electric shared bicycles are expected to be deployed, with the fleet potentially reaching 3,000 units by year’s end.

In terms of technological breakthroughs, Pengfei Group has established multi‑party collaborations with leading domestic and international enterprises, continuously tackling critical bottlenecks in fuel cells, hydrogen storage, and transportation. First, it has deepened strategic partnerships with companies such as Shanghai Hydrogen Morning, Shanghai Kunhua, and Zhejiang Lanneng, jointly developing the hydrogen‑energy equipment manufacturing industry—including fuel cell stacks, fuel cells, and hydrogen storage systems—and collaborating with firms like Re-Fire and Jiehydro to advance the development and commercialization of hydrogen‑powered vehicles. Second, it has partnered with institutions including Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Taiyuan University of Technology, and North China University of Technology to co‑establish a Joint Laboratory for Advanced Manufacturing Technologies of Fuel Cell Vehicles and the Shanxi Provincial Key Laboratory for Advanced Carbon‑Based Electrode Materials, while undertaking research projects such as the R&D and production of Type IV high‑pressure hydrogen storage vessels. Third, the Shanxi Province Hydrogen Energy Technology Transfer Base and the Shanxi Province Pilot Test Base for Key Technologies Across the Entire Hydrogen Industry Chain have both received approval from the Shanxi Provincial Department of Science and Technology.

Looking ahead, Pengfei Group will focus on building a comprehensive hydrogen‑energy industrial chain that integrates hydrogen production, storage and transportation, refueling, end‑use applications, R&D, and equipment manufacturing, while further expanding the range of hydrogen‑energy use cases. The company is vigorously planning and deploying the “Hydrogen to Every Home – Hydrogen Energy Town” technology demonstration project, actively promoting multi‑sectoral applications of hydrogen energy, and striving to develop a hydrogen‑energy industry worth hundreds of billions of yuan.

Developing Low-Carbon Smart Transportation

Pengfei Group boasts a professional container handling and transportation team, offering end-to-end, door-to-door container services. To date, the company has the capacity to load 60 trainsets per month and continues to expand its container forwarding business, advancing toward greater specialization and industrialization in container transport while steadily enhancing its profitability.

Zheng Peng, Chairman of the Board and President of Pengfei Group, stated that the self‑owned container rail‑transport project marks the Group’s entry into a modern, green logistics phase, transitioning from “low‑carbon” to “zero‑carbon” operations. Pengfei is among the earliest enterprises in Shanxi Province—and indeed nationwide—to achieve “zero‑carbon” loading and “zero‑carbon” transportation, thereby contributing to environmental protection, carbon‑emission reduction, and the realization of China’s dual‑carbon goals. In the realm of smart logistics, Pengfei Group has established a “Ten‑Thousand‑Truck Logistics” operating platform and built a nationwide “Zero‑Carbon Smart Logistics Technology” management and operation platform; both platforms entered trial‑run phases in 2023. The zero‑carbon smart logistics platform will provide end‑to‑end services across the entire logistics lifecycle—covering vehicle ownership, cargo sourcing, efficient dispatching, energy supply, payment upon delivery, and vehicle disposal—for logistics companies and individual operators joining the platform, effectively creating a ride‑hailing‑style marketplace for bulk materials.