China's National Energy Administration has published the China Green Fuels Development Report (2026), the country's first public report consolidating the state of its green fuels sector, covering green methanol, green ammonia, green aviation fuel, bioethanol, biodiesel and biogas. The report was compiled by NEA's Energy Conservation and Science & Technology Equipment Department together with the China Industry Development Promotion Association, the power planning arm of the National Institute of Clean-and-Low-Carbon Energy, and the petroleum and chemical industry planning institute.
China's Domestic Capacity, by the Numbers
As of end-2025, the report states China had built total green fuel capacity of roughly 8 million tonnes of oil equivalent per year. Broken down by category: green methanol capacity of approximately 380,000 tonnes per year across six projects, which the report states represents about 60.3% of global green methanol capacity; green ammonia capacity of approximately 700,000 tonnes per year across three projects, concentrated in China's northeast; green aviation fuel capacity of approximately 1.7 million tonnes per year, all using HEFA (waste oil hydroprocessing) technology; bioethanol capacity of approximately 5.3 million tonnes per year; biodiesel capacity of approximately 3 million tonnes per year; and biogas capacity of approximately 10 billion cubic metres per year across 146 projects.
Notable Claim on Green Fuel Bunkering
The report states that Dalian Port has achieved the world's first shipboard bunkering of green ammonia fuel. The same section separately reports that China's B24 biodiesel bunkering volume reached approximately 150,000 tonnes in 2025 at ports including Zhoushan and Guangzhou, and that green methanol bunkering exceeded 10,000 tonnes at ports including Shanghai, Qingdao and Tianjin, giving those two fuels more supporting detail than the ammonia claim receives.
The Report's Own Assessment of Remaining Challenges
Notably, the report states its own sector's limitations plainly rather than only presenting achievements. It identifies three specific challenges: production costs remain 1.5 to 2 times higher than conventional fossil fuels, which the report says is suppressing market demand; international market uncertainty, since some countries and regions are reportedly slowing their green transition pace, creating risk that international demand may fall short of expectations; and technology and equipment gaps, specifically citing biomass gasification, flexible hydrogen-ammonia-methanol synthesis, and CO2 hydrogenation catalysis as areas still needing breakthroughs.
Why a First-of-Its-Kind Report Matters on Its Own Terms
Beyond the specific figures, the report's existence is itself a data point: NEA describes it as China's first public consolidation of green fuel development, policy framework and standards, explicitly tied to the 2026 Government Work Report's first-ever deployment plan for green fuel development and a December 2025 Central Economic Work Conference statement calling for cultivating hydrogen and green fuels as new growth areas. Publishing a comprehensive sector report is a standard precursor to more detailed implementation policy in China's regulatory practice, suggesting more specific green fuel measures are likely to follow during the 15th Five-Year Plan period, which this report identifies as China's green fuel "cultivation and development phase."
Source: China Green Fuels Development Report (2026), 5 August 2026.
