China Names Hydrogen a “Future Industry”

China has officially declared hydrogen a strategic “industry of the future,” signalling a full industrial-policy push to scale up hydrogen production, infrastructure, and downstream uses. The decision — part of the Communist Party of China Central Committee’s 20th Congress directive — kickstarts binding quotas, national-provincial coordination and major state-company demand. With its hydrogen economy now valued at over US $1.6 trillion and still rising, China is positioning for global leadership in hydrogen technologies and supply chains.

Chinese companies are also strongly investing in hydrogen activities outside their borders, as indicated by some recent announcements:

In Kenya, Kenya Electricity Generating Company (KenGen) and China’s Kaishan Group have inked a steam-supply agreement to build a geothermal-powered green ammonia facility. The plant is designed to produce hundreds of thousands of tonnes of green ammonia aimed for local fertilizer production. This project exemplifies the decoupling of hydrogen/ammonia manufacturing from intermittent renewables by using baseload geothermal power.

On the technology front, the Finnish firm ROTOBOOST is working with China’s largest steel group Baowu Group via thermo-catalytic decomposition (TCD) of methane: splitting natural gas into hydrogen and solid carbon without direct CO₂ emissions. This addresses key decarbonisation challenges in hard-to-abate sectors like steel and aluminium, while monetising the solid carbon by-product.

Learn more and read the news about Kenya’s green ammonia plan or here and the plans of the Finnish firm.