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Recently, the "International Hydrogen Technology and Industry Development Report 2026" (hereinafter referred to as the "Report") compiled by the research team of the Hydrogen Industry Promotion Association of China's Industrial Development was officially released. The Report states that the hydrogen industry in major countries and regions around the world is currently in a critical stage of transitioning from demonstration and exploration to large-scale development. As of December 2025, 66 countries and regions including China, Japan, and the United States have released hydrogen strategies. During the same period, the global low-carbon hydrogen production capacity has exceeded 1.1 million tons per year, with green hydrogen production capacity reaching approximately 430,000 tons per year. China is a major contributor, accounting for over 65% and showing a strong growth momentum. 

Currently, hydrogen energy has evolved from a single energy transformation carrier to a key variable reshaping the global energy competition landscape. From the development of hydrogen production technologies, electrolysis using water as the raw material has become the main direction for the global development of low-carbon hydrogen. The increase in installed capacity of electrolyzers and technological innovation are advancing simultaneously. Besides the mainstream alkaline (ALK) electrolyzers and proton exchange membrane (PEM) electrolyzers, technologies such as photocatalytic hydrogen production, biomass hydrogen production, and direct hydrogen production from seawater are also accelerating their development. China leads the world in the installed capacity of electrolyzers, accounting for approximately 50%. Additionally, China has launched ALK electrolyzers with a maximum hydrogen production capacity of 5,000 standard cubic meters per hour per unit and PEM electrolyzers with a maximum hydrogen production capacity of 1,000 standard cubic meters per hour per unit. 

From the perspective of the development of hydrogen storage and transportation technologies, new breakthroughs have been made in gas, liquid and solid hydrogen storage technologies. In the field of gas storage, 50 megapascal pressure long pipeline trailers in Europe and the United States have achieved commercial use, with a single vehicle's hydrogen storage capacity reaching approximately 900 kilograms. At the same time, the total mileage of hydrogen pipelines worldwide has exceeded 5,000 kilometers, and the proportion of hydrogen blending in natural gas pipelines has reached up to 30%. In the field of liquid hydrogen storage, global liquid hydrogen production capacity exceeds 500 tons per day, with the United States accounting for 67% of the total. The largest organic liquid hydrogen storage project in the world has an annual hydrogen storage capacity of 1,800 tons. In the field of solid hydrogen storage, chemical hydrogen storage mainly uses metal hydrides, and several countries have successively achieved the implementation of production lines. 

From the perspective of hydrogen application promotion, the demand in traditional application fields such as refining, synthetic ammonia, and methanol continues to grow, and the demand in emerging application scenarios such as transportation and energy is rapidly released, forming a synergistic effect. The report points out that in the transportation sector, fuel cell vehicles, as the leading field for promoting the hydrogen industry in various countries, have reached a consensus that the promotion focus is on commercial vehicles. As of December 2025, the global number of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles reached approximately 120,000, and at the same time, about 1,300 hydrogen refueling stations were built globally. In the chemical industry, the process of low-carbon hydrogen substitution in the industrial sector is accelerating, and integrated projects such as green hydrogen synthesis ammonia and methanol have become industry hotspots. 

Zhang Yu, the vice president and secretary-general of the Hydrogen Branch of the China Industry Development Promotion Association, introduced that currently, the development models of hydrogen energy industries in various countries exhibit distinct differences. Among them, Japan and South Korea have leading fuel cell technologies and are vigorously promoting the large-scale application of fuel cell technology in transportation and energy sectors. The European Union has established a hydrogen certification system and is committed to becoming the global rule-maker for hydrogen trade, with policy-driven measures as the core, and actively promoting the large-scale application of green hydrogen. The United States, on the other hand, adheres to technology as the priority, with its technologies such as hydrogen liquefaction and hydrogen gas turbines being globally leading. 

In contrast, China, with its globally most complete new energy industrial system and leading renewable energy installed capacity, has integrated the entire industrial chain from hydrogen production, storage and transportation to application. It has also made breakthrough progress in areas such as electrolyzer manufacturing and commercial vehicle applications. As a result, China has become the undisputed "scale leader" in the global hydrogen energy industry. Wei Suo, the vice president of the China Industry Development Promotion Association and the president of the Hydrogen Energy Branch, said that China has become an important driver and leader in the global hydrogen energy industry. With the support of national policies, the main technologies, key materials, components and equipment manufacturing in the hydrogen energy industry have basically achieved domestic production. The hydrogen energy industry has entered the stage of "innovation and technology improvement - demonstration application - scale reduction and cost reduction - market expansion", presenting a vigorous development trend. 

However, in terms of soft power dimensions such as the durability of basic materials, core technologies of key equipment, storage and transportation infrastructure, and the formulation of international standards, our country is still in a catching-up stage. At the same time, there is a significant mismatch between China's vast manufacturing capacity and its weak storage and transportation network, as well as between the rapidly expanding green hydrogen projects and the international certification system. If this structural contradiction cannot be effectively resolved, it will restrict China from upgrading from its scale advantage to a genuine industrial advantage. 

It should be noted that there is still room for improvement in areas such as basic research and key materials in our country. The current key tasks of the hydrogen energy industry are to promote the large-scale cost reduction of green hydrogen, broaden the paths for realizing the environmental value of hydrogen energy, and expand diversified application scenarios. Wei Suo emphasized that only by accelerating the breakthrough of these bottlenecks can we promote the transformation of China's hydrogen energy industry from a scale advantage to a core industry advantage, providing solid support for the construction of a new energy system and the green and low-carbon transformation.