Luliang: Chasing the dream of hydrogen energy blue ocean to create an industrial highland_Huanghe News

“People say that Shanxi is beautiful, and the right finger is Lvliang.” From the topographic map of Shanxi, Lvliang is shaped like a spine, supporting the basic outline of the mountains and rivers inside and outside. From the perspective of Shanxi’s economic landscape, Luliang City has become an important engine driving the rapid economic development of the province with a total GDP of 241.89 billion yuan and an impressive achievement of ranking third in the province.
In recent years, Luliang City has actively promoted the green transformation of coal resources, continued to carry out the energy revolution, and strived to achieve a steady improvement in quality while ensuring a reasonable economic growth.

Based on coal, establish first and then break

As a big city with traditional industries, Luliang’s economy is prospered by coal, and traditional fields such as coal, coke, metallurgy and electricity are the main support for Luliang’s economy. Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, Luliang City has produced a total of 1.3 billion tons of raw coal. Especially since 2021, under the background of expanding energy demand, Luliang City has resolutely shouldered the political responsibility for ensuring energy supply, exceeding expectations and completing the political task of ensuring energy supply assigned by the state with high quality. In 2021, the output of raw coal will be 145 million tons. Breakthrough 156 million tons. Relying on its strong resource advantages, Luliang’s economy has still achieved outstanding results against the background of the impact of the epidemic and the continued downturn in the international economy.
With the help of digital technology, Luliang City continues to promote the green transformation of the coal industry. “Since the Pangpanta Coal Mine built the country’s first 5G mine in 2020, Luliang City has continued to input ‘computing power’ underground.” Niu Jianbin, deputy director of the Luliang Municipal Bureau of Industry and Information Technology, told reporters. Up to now, the city has built 8 intelligent coal mines, 142 intelligent mining working faces, 2 filling mines, and 24 mines without coal pillars. 8.7 million tons of outdated production capacity have been closed and withdrawn, and advanced coal production capacity has accounted for 85%. “We have cooperated with Huawei to create a smart coal blending solution, which can solve the problems of complex coal quality information indicators and high coal blending time and cost. It not only saves labor costs, but also improves output efficiency.” Datuhe Coking Gao Jianbin, general manager of the limited liability company, said.
“Coal is the foundation of Luliang’s transformation, and the energy revolution is the goal and direction of Luliang’s economic transformation.” Li Bingfeng said firmly. Luliang City has an annual production capacity of 38 million tons of coke and an annual production capacity of 3.5 billion cubic meters of unconventional natural gas, providing important support for large-scale hydrogen production, and has unique advantages and conditions for developing the hydrogen energy industry. “In the past, our pollution index often exploded, and we had a difficult balance between environmental protection pressure and economic indicators. Hydrogen energy, as a clean energy source, can not only solve environmental problems, but also has very broad development prospects.” Xue Zhiqiang, deputy mayor of Xiaoyi City The deployment of hydrogen energy is regarded as a good recipe for economic development and balance of environmental pollution.
Based on resource advantages, anchor long-term prospects. Luliang City has formulated and implemented the hydrogen energy industry development strategy of “one body, two wings, three ports and four chains”, planning to realize the full chain development of “gas-station-transportation-vehicle”. That is to speed up the creation of hydrogen energy industry clusters and the construction of the northern base of the hydrogen energy industry; focus on relying on the two leading enterprises of Xiaoyi Pengfei and Shanxi Meijin to develop the hydrogen energy industry; Hong Kong; the four major hydrogen production chains that focus on the development of coke oven gas hydrogen production, supplemented by natural gas hydrogen production, electrolytic water hydrogen production, and coal gasification hydrogen production.

Accurate layout extends points into a chain

Entering the coke oven gas hydrogen production plant of Pengfei Group, rows of gas pipelines are neatly arranged, and purification devices, booster equipment, desulfurization, and decarbonization conversion devices are arranged in sequence. Under the automatic operation of these equipment and devices, the coke oven gas from the coking plant has completed a gorgeous turn to hydrogen. The entire factory area is clean and tidy, without the pungent smell of traditional chemical plants, nor the dusty coal mines.
“The purity of the hydrogen we produce can reach 99.99%, and the main raw material used is coke oven gas, which has truly turned waste into treasure.” Chang Cheng, head of Pengfei Group’s high-purity hydrogen project, introduced. The project plans to produce 200,000 tons of hydrogen per year. At present, the first phase of the project has achieved the annual production target of 20,000 tons. While introducing, Chang Cheng pointed to a fence under construction in the factory area. “Here is the water electrolysis hydrogen production project we are building. It mainly uses photovoltaic power generation and CDQ waste heat power generation to electrolyze the desalted water produced by the hydrogen production plant to produce hydrogen. After completion, not only can gray hydrogen and green hydrogen go hand in hand. It can also achieve the goal of zero emission in the whole factory.” Chang Cheng said excitedly. At present, three sets of 500Nm³ water electrolysis hydrogen production equipment for this project have completed the bidding.
The Meijin Huasheng hydrogen production plant in Jiaocheng County is also a lively scene. 20,000 tons of industrial high-purity hydrogen can be produced here every year, and at the same time, 300,000 tons of ethylene glycol and 150,000 tons of LNG are by-products. “At present, the second phase of the project has also started construction. After all are completed and put into production, it can be used by 5,000 buses, 8,000 logistics vehicles or 3,000 heavy trucks, and can reduce vehicle carbon emissions by 264,000 tons per year.” The project explainer listed them one by one. specific data.
At the same time, in the core parts production workshop of Meijin hydrogen-fueled commercial vehicles located in Luliang Economic and Technological Development Zone, hydrogen-powered heavy trucks, fuel-cell buses and hydrogen-powered container logistics vehicles are being equipped with hydrogen fuel-cell engines to complete Final assembly. According to Wang Li, the person in charge of the project, at present, the first phase of the project has achieved an annual production capacity of 2,000 sets of hydrogen fuel commercial vehicle parts. After the project is fully put into production, the annual output will reach 5,000 sets.
“The reason why we chose to settle this project in Luliang is because of the relatively mature basic conditions for hydrogen energy development and good hydrogen energy application scenarios in Luliang City.” Wang Li said that at present, there are two hydrogen production projects in Luliang City. 9 hydrogen refueling stations have been completed and put into operation, and the distribution of coal, coke, metallurgy, and electricity enterprises in Luliang City is concentrated. The raw materials and products of various enterprises are transported by heavy trucks and the transportation routes are relatively fixed, which is convenient for the layout of hydrogen refueling facilities and the formation of commercial hydrogen energy. Vehicle demonstration operation line. According to reports, last year, Meijin Group delivered 120 49-ton tractors to Jiaocheng County. This year, 5 hydrogen-fueled buses will be delivered to the Luliang City Bus Company, and a dedicated hydrogen bus line from Xialouqiao to Xiyadi will be opened in cooperation with the Luliang Municipal Government. It is estimated that by the end of June, the Xialouqiao Hydrogen Refueling Station will be completed and put into operation.
Unlike Meijin, Pengfei Group’s local layout starts with hydrogen refueling facilities. At present, Pengfei Group has built four “four-in-one” comprehensive energy stations in Xiaoyi City that integrate LNG, refueling, hydrogenation, and charging, with a daily hydrogen injection capacity of up to 10 tons.
“Just like ordinary fuel vehicles, the process of hydrogen refueling is to open the hydrogen storage tank cover and insert the air gun to automatically refill.” The staff of Beiyao Hydrogen Refueling Station refueled the heavy trucks that came to refill hydrogen, and introduced Follow the operation method. Each heavy truck carries 4 hydrogen storage bottles, which can be filled with 38-40 kg of hydrogen. The filling time is about 10 minutes, and the full-load operating mileage can reach 300 kilometers.
“We first carry out the demonstration application of hydrogen energy within the group. At the same time, we actively invest in R&D and production, and deploy factories and expand production capacity according to market demand and demonstration application effects.” Zheng Peng, chairman and president of Pengfei Group, told Hydrogen The development and application of energy products have a clear idea. According to reports, in January 2022, Pengfei Group acquired Dongfeng Special Automobile Co., Ltd. and acquired full qualifications for commercial vehicle manufacturing. In September 2022, Kun Yun 200, the world’s first 250kW single-stack hydrogen fuel cell power system jointly developed with Shanghai Kunhua, was officially released. According to the preliminary plan, from 2022 to 2030, an automobile production line of 300,000 vehicles per year will be built in the third phase of Xiaoyi Economic Development Zone, and hydrogen energy equipment manufacturing projects such as electric stacks, hydrogen fuel power systems, and hydrogen supply systems will be built as supporting facilities. At present, the first phase of the new 30,000-unit/year automobile production line has been completed by the Tianjin China Automobile Design Institute. Engineering design has also been completed.

Follow the trend to boost development

At present, the main constraints on the development of hydrogen energy lie in the promotion of applications and the layout and construction of hydrogen refueling stations. Wang Li, the person in charge of the Meijin commercial vehicle project, explained the crux of the problem. Enterprises and governments are actively exploring how to break through the bottleneck and promote the hydrogen energy industry to become bigger and stronger.
It is the common choice of Pengfei and Meijin to carry out demonstration operation within the enterprise. “The transportation of raw materials and products between various factories and mines within our group, employees commuting to and from get off work, and business reception all use our own hydrogen-fueled commercial vehicles.” Chang Cheng, head of the Pengfei Group’s high-purity hydrogen project, introduced. At present, Pengfei has established a hydrogen logistics company and started operations. Last year, the first batch of 100 heavy-duty trucks started demonstration operation, and another 200 vehicles will be ordered this year. Meijin Group has also operated more than 200 31-ton and 49-ton trucks and more than a dozen commuter buses and commercial vehicles between Qingxu and Jiaocheng.
In addition, governments and departments at all levels in Luliang City are actively cooperating with the promotion and application of hydrogen vehicles. In addition to the aforementioned hydrogen energy demonstration bus lines from Xialouqiao to Xiyadi, Luliang City has also planned a number of hydrogen energy heavy truck demonstration application lines such as Xiaoyi-Liulin, Jiaocheng-Zhongyang, Jiaocheng-Xingxian and other Two hydrogen energy commuter vehicles in Lvliang Hotel – SDIC Financial Center in Luliang urban area, and a demonstration application line of hydrogen energy minibus official vehicles in the urban area. Xiaoyi City, as the main body of the construction of a hydrogen energy professional town, plans to promote 500 hydrogen fuel vehicles to the public in 2023, and promote no less than 1,000 vehicles per year starting in 2024. By 2028, all vehicles used for public activities in the society will realize hydrogen Electrochemical. “The government’s support has played a good role in boosting our early promotion and demonstration.” Chang Cheng said sincerely.
Because of the large investment in early research and development and production equipment, and the fact that hydrogen energy vehicles have not yet formed a scale effect in mass production, the cost allocated to each hydrogen energy vehicle is very high, which has also become the basis for early promotion and application. a problem.
Last year, Luliang City invested 100 million yuan to support the demonstration application of hydrogen-powered heavy trucks. The subsidy standard is 140,000 yuan for each 18-ton hydrogen-energy heavy truck; for vehicles over 18 tons, based on 140,000 yuan, the subsidy will be increased by 10,000 yuan for every 1 ton increase in the total vehicle mass limit. In addition, Xiaoyi City, as the main body of the hydrogen energy professional town, will provide the same amount of subsidies in a 1:1 way with Luliang City’s finance.
Chang Cheng calculated an account according to this method: Taking a 49-ton heavy truck as an example, the ex-factory price is 1.35 million yuan, the municipal subsidy is 450,000 yuan, and the financial subsidy of Xiaoyi City is 450,000 yuan. The user only needs to bear 450,000 yuan , and the current LNG vehicle price is basically the same.
Wang Li calculated from the production cost of vehicles. If the number of hydrogen vehicles put into use in Luliang City can reach 10,000, the production cost of each vehicle will be reduced to half of the current level. “Judging from the current market development trend and the government’s promotion efforts, our hydrogen energy vehicles have better prospects than when electric vehicles first started more than ten years ago.” Wang Li is full of confidence in the future development. (Huang Chuanchuan)

Photo: Lvliang Economic and Technological Development Zone, Lvliang Bureau of Industry and Information Technology