China Petrochemical Corp., the world’s biggest hydrogen refueling station operator, recently finished a 1,500-kilometer test using hydrogen trucks, marking the world's longest uninterrupted journey driven by heavy-load hydrogen vehicles.

Two 490,000-ton hydrogen-powered trucks built by Zhengzhou Yutong Group arrived in Shanghai on April 11 after a 1,500-kilometer journey from Beijing, China Petrochemical, better known as Sinopec, said yesterday. The trucks started out on April 9 and passed through the municipality of Tianjin as well as the provinces of Hebei, Shandong and Jiangsu, filling up at seven hydrogen refueling stations enroute.

The trucks are equipped with 180-kilowatt fuel-cell systems developed by Chinese hydrogen fuel cell developer Refire Group, with a range of 600 km. They carried environmentally friendly products produced by Sinopec unit Yuetai Technology, such as coolants for hydrogen cells and exhaust fume treatments for diesel vehicles.

Before this, the longest distance traveled by hydrogen trucks was 350 km, an industry insider told Yicai. The lack of hydrogen refueling stations and the short range of fuel cells limited the use of hydrogen trucks to short-distance logistics such as in industrial parks and ports.

This is a landmark test as it is the first time at home and abroad that heavy-load hydrogen trucks have completed a distance as long as 1,500 km, the person said. It demonstrates that using hydrogen trucks for long-distance logistics is possible, but that the network of hydrogen refueling stations needs to be improved and the cost of hydrogen further reduced.

The hydrogen sector has been a focus of government support in recent months. Last month, the National Energy Administration said it will draw up more policies to facilitate the hydrogen energy sector’s high-quality development, to advance technological innovation and industrial growth as well as to implement related demonstration projects. Using renewable energy sources to produce hydrogen should be a priority for development and hydrogen application scenarios need to be expanded, it added.

Sinopec operates 128 hydrogen refueling station and 11 hydrogen supply centers across the country.