en.Wedoany.com Reported - Located in a salt layer 1,418 meters underground in Pingdingshan, Henan Province, with a capacity of 1.5 million standard cubic meters, Asia's first large-scale deep salt cavern hydrogen storage project has been officially put into operation. This project is hailed as "China's first salt cavern hydrogen storage facility." As the core pressurization equipment for the project, two 22MPa diaphragm-type hydrogen compressors independently developed by Sinopec Machinery completed the gas injection task smoothly, with all operational indicators exceeding design standards, verifying the reliability of domestically produced hydrogen equipment in deep salt cavern hydrogen storage scenarios.
Hydrogen molecules are extremely small and prone to leakage, imposing stringent requirements on compressor sealing, medium purity, and long-term stable operation. The diaphragm-type hydrogen compressor put into use this time relies on a metal diaphragm to isolate hydraulic oil from hydrogen, making it a core critical piece of equipment for ensuring zero pollution and zero leakage of the stored hydrogen medium. To address challenges such as low volumetric efficiency, short diaphragm lifespan, and unstable operation in similar domestic products, Sinopec Machinery has overcome core technologies including efficient diaphragm cavity profiles, long-life sealing under high-speed conditions, and high-efficiency oil replenishment and overflow systems. This has resulted in a design methodology for efficient, large-displacement diaphragm compressors, characterized by high working medium purity, good sealing performance, suitability for high-pressure ratio conditions, high single-unit displacement, and reliable and stable operation.
Sinopec Machinery's large-displacement diaphragm-type hydrogen compressor has previously been deployed in a 50,000 standard cubic meter horizontal tunnel-type rock cavern hydrogen energy storage system and was selected as one of the first (sets) major technical equipment in the energy sector by the fourth batch of the National Energy Administration. This series of products has been applied on a large scale in multiple 10,000-cubic-meter-level hydrogen supply centers across China, operating stably over the long term under complex hydrogen supply conditions. This has accumulated extensive engineering application experience in high-pressure, high-purity hydrogen pressurization, laying a solid technical and service foundation for the equipment development and on-site operation and maintenance of this salt cavern hydrogen storage project.
The full-process practical testing of this project, from design to operation, has demonstrated the performance of the diaphragm-type hydrogen compressor, establishing a reference model for the application of domestically produced hydrogen equipment in national-level projects.
