Recently, Baowu Qingneng (Yangjiang) Green Hydrogen Industrial Park was officially launched. This project has attracted attention not only for its total investment of 11.09 billion yuan and planned annual production of 80000 tons of green hydrogen, but also for the simultaneous construction of three hydrogen transmission pipelines, becoming a key node in the development history of China's green hydrogen industry.

The project is invested and constructed by China Baowu Clean Energy Co., Ltd. The overall plan covers green hydrogen production, extended utilization of green ammonia and green alcohols, manufacturing of hydrogen production equipment, solid-state hydrogen storage materials, and innovative research and development center. Among them, the three hydrogen transmission pipelines from Yangjiang to Zhanjiang, the Pearl River Delta, and Hong Kong will build a large-scale green hydrogen transmission network in the Greater Bay Area for the first time. This also marks the official landing of China's first integrated project of "offshore wind power direct hydrogen production+pipeline export", and green hydrogen has entered a new cycle of industrial gas supply from the demonstration and verification stage.

For the valve industry, this is not the launch of a single energy project, but a clear and accelerating demand curve for high-end equipment.

In the hydrogen energy industry chain, hydrogen transmission pipelines are widely regarded as one of the links with the highest technical barriers and the most stringent system safety requirements. Hydrogen molecules have small volume, strong permeability, and are highly prone to material hydrogen embrittlement in high-pressure environments, posing multiple extreme challenges for valves such as selecting hydrogen embrittlement resistant materials, designing ultra-high level seals, and zero leakage structures. Therefore, hydrogen transmission pipelines have become the most concentrated application scenario for high-end valves.

The three hydrogen transmission lines planned for the Yangjiang project serve the green hydrogen substitution of Zhanjiang Steel, the industrial hydrogen demand in the Pearl River Delta, and the future hydrogen energy city construction in Hong Kong. This means that China's first batch of large-scale, long-distance hydrogen transmission pipelines has officially entered the construction stage. The corresponding valve requirements cover multiple high-end sub categories such as high-pressure and fully welded ball valves, low-temperature shut-off valves, pressure regulating valves, station emergency shut-off valves (ESD), ultra-high pressure hydrogen storage valves, and online hydrogen leakage monitoring valve groups. Based on industry experience, the valve market size is expected to exceed 1 billion yuan by simply stacking the hydrogen pipeline body with the station system, and this is still only the first stage of the project.

With the synchronous promotion of hydrogen production equipment base, the demand for process valves will also show a "cluster explosion". The project plans to construct a 1.5GW offshore wind power direct connected hydrogen production system, and the megawatt scale electrolyzed water device will operate on a large scale, which means that a large number of electrolytic cells, gas-liquid separation, purification, drying, and compression systems will be put into use simultaneously. Correspondingly, special corrosion-resistant valves for the inlet and outlet of electrolytic cells, oxygen hydrogen separation safety shut-off valves, high-purity diaphragm valves, high-temperature regulating valves, and compressor anti surge valves will become standard configurations in hydrogen production systems. These types of valves generally require oil-free, pollution-free, ultra-high sealing, long service life, and low maintenance, which is accelerating the extension of domestic high-end process valves from the traditional petrochemical field to the hydrogen energy equipment system.

What is even more forward-looking is that the solid hydrogen storage material base synchronously laid out by the project has opened up a new subdivision track for special material valves. Solid state hydrogen storage involves high-temperature hydrogen absorption and desorption reactions, powder material transportation, and inert gas protection systems, which require valves to have composite requirements of high temperature resistance, wear resistance, adaptability to powder media, and high reliability isolation. High temperature wear-resistant butterfly valves, powder specific switching valves, inert gas isolation valves and other products will be the first to form demand in this previously almost blank field in China.

Against the backdrop of accelerated industrial landing, whether valve enterprises can enter this emerging supply chain depends on three clear entry paths: first, to proactively connect with the design and EPC leading units of hydrogen transmission pipelines and hydrogen production units, and participate in the formulation of technical specifications; The second is to establish a certification system for "hydrogen specific valves" and pass key tests such as hydrogen embrittlement, sealing life, and Class VI leakage level; The third is to build localized services and intelligent operation and maintenance capabilities to lock in long-term orders with full lifecycle services. Currently, there are still limited domestic enterprises with complete hydrogen valve technology and certification capabilities, and technical barriers are rapidly transforming into profit barriers.

From a more macro industrial perspective, hydrogen energy infrastructure is replicating the development path of natural gas pipelines in the past. Twenty years ago, the "West East Gas Pipeline" project promoted the comprehensive rise of domestically produced high-pressure pipeline valves; Today, the green hydrogen transportation network is opening up a new track with higher starting points, higher barriers to entry, and higher concentration.

The significance of the Baowu Qingneng (Yangjiang) project lies not only in producing 80000 tons of green hydrogen annually, but also in the official implementation of China's first green hydrogen pipeline network blueprint. With the full commencement of hydrogen transmission pipelines, the competition for domestic substitution of high-end hydrogen valves has just begun. For the valve industry, this is a window of time that cannot be missed, and the trend is already clearly visible.