Sinopec employees examine and repair gas supply valves in Puyang, Henan province. [Photo by Ma Hongshan/For China Daily]

China Petroleum and Chemical Corp, the world's largest refiner by volume, has built a first-of-its-kind pumping station in Foshan, Guangdong province that combines hydrogen-filling and retail sales of conventional fuels, the company announced on Monday.

The service station includes a daily hydrogen-filling capacity of 500 kilograms and is intended mainly for the service of hydrogen-powered buses and trucking fleets.

It takes four minutes to fill the hydrogen tank of a bus with enough fuel to travel 300 kilometers, it said.

China aims to build 1,000 hydrogen pumping stations nationwide to supply one million hydrogen fuel cell vehicles by 2030, and Foshan is a pilot city to develop the hydrogen fuel industry. The southern province has made it a goal to establish 57 such pumping stations by 2030.