The world's largest project producing green hydrogen broke ground in Ordos, north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region on Thursday, according to China Petroleum & Chemical Corporation, or Sinopec.

Green hydrogen is "green" because it is produced from renewables, such as solar and wind resources, without emitting carbon dioxide.

Ordos is a place rich in solar and wind resources. The project marks Sinopec's second green hydrogen project, following the one in Kuqa City, northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, the construction of which began in 2021. Eighty percent of that project has been completed.

Once operational, the new project is expected to produce 30,000 tonnes of green hydrogen and 240,000 tonnes of green oxygen annually, Sinopec said.

The new project is being implemented by Sinopec Star Petroleum Co. Ltd., an affiliate of Sinopec that invests in new energy.

The green hydrogen and green oxygen produced in the project will be transported via pipelines to the coal-deep processing project, replacing the existing coal-to-hydrogen, so as to promote the clean and low-carbonization of coal-powered chemical products, Xu Zhendong, executive director of the Inner Mongolia branch of Sinopec Star Petroleum, told China Media Group. 

Upon completion, the project can reduce carbon dioxide emissions by about 1.43 million tonnes per year, which is equivalent to planting 825,000 trees, he added.

China is the largest producer of hydrogen today, though most of it is currently produced from coal.

By 2025, the country aims to produce 100,000 to 200,000 tonnes of hydrogen through renewables and cut carbon dioxide emissions by 1 million to 2 million tonnes, per year.