Hydrogen Quality Nationwide Campaign Conducts Comprehensive Hydrogen Station Testing
On September 14, the National Key R&D Program project titled “Integrated Application Demonstration of Key NQI Technologies for Hydrogen Refueling Stations” (the “NQI Project”) joined forces with the “Hydrogen Quality Nationwide Campaign” to conduct comprehensive testing at the Zhengzhou Jinma Hydrogen Energy Hualu Road Hydrogen Refueling Station. The work used China’s first zero-carbon mobile hydrogen quality testing vehicle, independently developed by the China Hydrogen Alliance Research Institute, together with rapid hydrogen dispensing performance testing equipment and other systems.
The testing covered online analysis of hydrogen quality at the dispenser outlet, dispensing performance, and metering performance. It provided integrated, on-site verification across the three dimensions of quality, dispensing, and metering.
Hydrogen Quality Nationwide Campaign
The Hydrogen Quality Nationwide Campaign was launched by the China Hydrogen Alliance together with the China National Institute of Standardization, the National Institute of Measurement and Testing Technology, and other organizations. It aims to strengthen hydrogen quality assurance throughout production, storage, transportation, and use; accelerate the development of foundational services for hydrogen quality testing, certification, and application; and survey hydrogen quality at domestic refueling stations. The resulting data will support industry-standard development and quality control and help raise the overall quality of China’s hydrogen supply system.
NQI Project
Led by Guohua Investment’s hydrogen energy company, the NQI Project focuses on performance-testing technologies and equipment development for key hydrogen refueling station systems.
This joint effort is a concrete example of an industry initiative and a national key project working together to improve hydrogen refueling station quality. The industry campaign provides application scenarios, while the project provides testing equipment; together, they advance quality assurance capabilities at hydrogen refueling stations.
The zero-carbon mobile hydrogen quality testing vehicle is flexible and mobile and enables rapid on-site testing, including online analysis of multiple impurities in hydrogen. The rapid hydrogen dispensing performance testing system is an outcome of the NQI Project and China’s first hydrogen refueling station testing system to pass third-party testing. It offers a broad testing scope, high testing pressure, and fully automated one-touch operation. During the on-site work, the mobile laboratory and rapid testing system operated together to complete online hydrogen quality analysis as well as dispensing and metering performance tests. The Zhengzhou Jinma Hydrogen Energy Hualu Road Hydrogen Refueling Station is Henan Province’s largest station by both hydrogen dispensing and storage capacity. It is a Grade III fixed hydrogen refueling station with a dispensing capacity of 4,000 kg per day, sufficient to serve 200 hydrogen-powered heavy trucks. Its customers include hydrogen-powered dump trucks, tractor-trailers, refrigerated logistics vehicles, sanitation vehicles, light trucks, and concrete mixer trucks. Testing at this station verified the equipment’s suitability for a typical high-flow commercial setting and provided a reference for quality control at similar stations.
Hydrogen-powered transportation is now moving rapidly toward large-scale deployment. According to the China Hydrogen Energy Development Report 2026, hydrogen refueling infrastructure is increasingly capable of supporting end-use applications, and more than 590 hydrogen refueling stations had been built nationwide by the end of 2025. As core infrastructure, hydrogen refueling stations require robust quality assurance to support safe operations and the standardized development of the industry. When launching its quality-strengthening initiative for industrial chains, the State Administration for Market Regulation established a forward-looking project to improve the quality of hydrogen fuel cells and hydrogen storage and transportation equipment. Zhou Liang, Deputy Director General of its Special Equipment Safety Supervision Bureau, stated that efforts should address weaknesses in the quality infrastructure that constrain the entire hydrogen production, storage, transportation, and use chain and should build chain-wide standards, specifications, and testing technologies focused on equipment safety, testing methods, and metrology.
This coordinated testing has generated practical data for deploying on-site hydrogen refueling station testing technologies and improving the quality assurance system for hydrogen infrastructure. It will help ensure the safe and reliable operation of hydrogen refueling stations and support the standardized development of hydrogen-powered transportation.
Text and images sourced from the China Hydrogen Alliance and other publicly available online channels
Editor: Zhuang Wanzhe
Supervising Editor: Lu Changjia
