BEIJING -- The China Petrochemical Corporation (Sinopec Group), the country's largest oil refiner, said on Tuesday that it started the construction of a 20,000 tons-per-year green hydrogen plant in Northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region.

With an investment of nearly 3 billion yuan ($470 million), the project in Kuqa City includes five parts, including photovoltaic power generation, power transformation, electrolytic hydrogen production, hydrogen storage, and hydrogen transportation.

A solar station with an installed capacity of 300 megawatts and an average annual power generation capacity of 618 million kilowatt-hours would be constructed to support hydrogen production.

The green hydrogen project is expected to operate in June 2023 to replace the grey hydrogen, and could help reduce 485,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions every year, said Sinopec Group.

The green hydrogen project would create a new development path for green hydrogen refining and set an example for the refiners to realize carbon emission reduction by tapping the potential of green hydrogen on a large scale, said Ma Yongsheng, chairman of Sinopec Group.

Major equipment, machinery, and materials used in the project are all made in China, which is of great significance to promote the rapid development of the domestic hydrogen production equipment industry, Ma said.

Sinopec Group plans to build 1,000 oil-hydrogen and hydrogen filling stations by 2025 as part of efforts to build itself into a world-leading clean energy company.