“Hydrogen energy may become a 10 trillion yuan industry in the future.” Ouyang Minggao, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, said at the 2023 World Hydrogen Energy Technology Conference recently that my country’s hydrogen energy technology development has achieved partial breakthroughs, showing the characteristics of staged progress.
Hydrogen energy is a kind of secondary energy with rich sources, green and low carbon, and wide application. It is gradually becoming one of the important carriers of global energy transformation and development. At present, the development of my country’s hydrogen energy industry has ushered in a window period.
A number of industrial clusters emerged
North, Shandong. The country’s first high-speed hydrogen refueling station and the first port hydrogen refueling station have been built successively. The daily hydrogen supply capacity of 25 hydrogen refueling stations exceeds 20 tons, and the total number of fuel cell vehicles promoted has exceeded 1,000. Soon, the overall goal of the demonstration project will be to build 1 hydrogen energy expressway, 2 hydrogen energy ports, 3 science popularization bases, 4 hydrogen energy parks, 5 hydrogen energy communities, etc.
Nanhai District, Foshan City, located in the hinterland of the Pearl River Delta in the south, has gathered more than 150 hydrogen energy enterprises and institutions, covering the entire hydrogen energy industry chain, forming an industrial cluster with an investment scale of over 60 billion yuan.
“Demonstration application projects promote the construction of the industrial system.” Chen Wenmiao, chief scientist of the National Fuel Cell Technology Innovation Center, said that through demonstration projects such as “Hydrogen into Thousands of Households”, the application fields of hydrogen energy will be gradually expanded, the use scenarios will be expanded, and hydrogen energy will be increased. usage, ultimately reducing costs.
In the face of the booming development of the hydrogen energy industry, my country has continued to promote the comprehensive application of hydrogen energy in transportation, construction, energy storage and other fields through five demonstration city clusters and a number of demonstration projects such as “Hydrogen into Thousands of Families”, driving the development of hydrogen energy manufacturing. The coordinated development of the entire industry chain of production, storage, transportation, and utilization has also promoted the optimal layout of the region.
According to industry experts, major breakthroughs have been made in the integration of proton exchange membrane and fuel cell systems for vehicles in my country, and the related industrial chain has been established; the high-power fuel cell system for heavy trucks has become a high-tech highlight of hydrogen energy products and has an international leading level; A relatively complete hydrogen energy and fuel cell technology chain and industrial chain have been established, and the competitiveness of fuel cell vehicle products has also been significantly enhanced. The main performance indicators of commercial vehicles such as hydrogen consumption, continuous mileage, and start-up performance have continued to be optimized.
As of the end of April, the cumulative promotion of hydrogen fuel cells in my country was close to 14,000, of which more than 13,000 were commercial vehicles. Full coverage of heavy operations and long-distance bulk commodity transportation.
The construction of hydrogenation infrastructure is developing rapidly. At present, more than 350 hydrogen refueling stations have been built nationwide, ranking first in the world.
“my country’s hydrogen energy industry is showing broad development prospects.” Xu Niansha, president of the China Machinery Industry Federation, said that the construction of petrochemical, coal chemical, hydrogen smelting and hydrogen energy storage fields has been accelerating. A number of hydrogen energy industry clusters are emerging, the application fields are in the ascendant, and the industrial chain, supply chain, and innovation chain are constantly improving.
Li Guohui, deputy general manager of China Petroleum Pipeline Bureau Engineering Co., Ltd., showed a future planning map of the national hydrogen energy backbone network of “West-to-East Hydrogen Transmission”. “By 2050, basically all hydrogen will be transported through pipelines. We have built a large hydrogen energy pipeline network in the north with a total length of 5,000 to 6,000 kilometers connecting many places. The plan also includes Yangtze River Delta, Pearl River Delta, Sichuan and Chongqing regions.”
Storage and transportation is still a weak link
Ningxia, a pilot project base of a natural gas hydrogenation carbon reduction project. Researchers are busy analyzing the delamination of hydrogen-doped natural gas pipelines, testing different ratios of blending.
Nearly thousands of miles away in Henan, from Jiyuan to Luoyang, there is a 25-kilometer-long pure hydrogen pipeline. It is currently the hydrogen pipeline with the largest diameter, highest pressure, and highest throughput in China. It has been in operation for 8 years. Year.
“Pure hydrogen or hydrogen-doped pipeline transportation is the last mile to open up hydrogen production and hydrogen use.” Li Guohui said that the distribution of hydrogen energy resources in my country is very uneven. Hydrogen energy resources are mainly distributed in refining and chemical enterprises, and wind power generation and natural gas resources are abundant. Northwest, Northeast, Midwest and other regions. The consumer market is mainly concentrated in the eastern region. In the near future, the main service area of hydrogen energy storage and transportation is short-distance transportation, and the demand for medium and long-distance storage and transportation will be greater in the future.
Ouyang Minggao said that storage and transportation is still a weak link in the entire technology chain of hydrogen energy. Although there are various technological innovations, disruptive technologies that can really be implemented have not yet appeared.
“At present, my country has built three pure hydrogen pipelines of a certain scale, less than 100 kilometers, almost all of which are for the purpose of refining and chemical hydrogen. For the practice of long-distance mixed transportation of natural gas with hydrogen, there are only a few hydrogen-doped pipelines. Platform test.” Li Guohui said.
“By 2050, if our hydrogen energy storage and transportation scale reaches 70 million tons, more than half of them will need to be transported by pipelines, that is, 35 million tons, which is equivalent to the scale of our current natural gas pipelines, and the pipeline mileage that may be required Between 150,000 kilometers and 200,000 kilometers.” Li Guohui predicted.
“There is an urgent need to speed up the development of hydrogen storage and transportation equipment.” Li Xiang, a researcher at the China Special Equipment Testing Research Institute, said that my country’s core hydrogen storage and transportation equipment capacity building is lacking, and hydrogen storage and transportation equipment materials, design and manufacturing, safety status monitoring and evaluation, etc. There are many challenges.
In terms of fuel cell vehicle technology that is of public concern, Chen Wenmiao said that the current cost of using fuel cells and hydrogen energy is still relatively high, and related power devices still have the actual situation of “expensive to buy and expensive to use”.
Zhang Jinhua, executive vice chairman and secretary-general of the Society of Automotive Engineers of China, believes that compared with the world‘s leading level, there is still a big gap in my country’s fuel cell vehicle technology as a whole, especially in key core components and materials and devices, such as carbon Paper, catalysts, proton exchange membranes, carbon fiber materials, hydrogenation equipment, and related pipes and valves are highly dependent on external sources. The level of key technologies such as large-scale energy-saving hydrogen production technology, high reliability, especially 70 MPa hydrogenation technology still needs to be improved.
Cross-border cooperation is needed to break down the shortcomings
According to incomplete statistics, more than 30 countries around the world have issued strategies related to hydrogen energy. Major economies such as Europe, the United States, Japan, and South Korea all regard green hydrogen as a long-term development strategy and formulate corresponding policies.
In 2022, my country released the “Medium and Long-Term Plan for the Development of Hydrogen Energy Industry (2021-2035)”. According to the plan, by 2025, my country will initially establish a hydrogen energy supply system based on industrial by-product hydrogen and hydrogen production from renewable energy. By 2030, a relatively complete hydrogen energy industry technology innovation system, clean energy hydrogen production and supply system will be formed. By 2035, a hydrogen energy industry system will be formed, and a multi-element hydrogen energy application ecology covering transportation, energy storage, industry and other fields will be built.
“The development of my country’s hydrogen energy industry is ushering in a window period, which is also the window period for the world‘s hydrogen energy industry.” Experts believe that under the vision of carbon neutrality, green, low-carbon and sustainable development has become a consensus in global development. Hydrogen has become the focus of the development of the hydrogen energy industry.
Li Guohui said that the layout of the hydrogen energy industry has spread all over the country, and 30 provinces have written hydrogen energy into the “14th Five-Year Plan” development plan. However, there are still some areas that need to be improved and perfected at the market level and technical level.
“It is necessary to strengthen technological breakthroughs in weak links and improve the overall technical level of the industry.” Zhang Jinhua said that the cultivation of hydrogen energy and fuel cell industries is a complex and systematic project of great significance. Its technological innovation is difficult and the energy supply system is challenging to reshape. The task is very arduous and requires a high degree of coordination and joint advancement of multiple parties.
“More advanced hydrogen production technology needs to be developed in the future.” Sheffield, chairman of the International Hydrogen Energy Association, said that green hydrogen still faces a series of challenges. For example, the preparation technology threshold of green hydrogen is relatively high and the cost is relatively high. The process and equipment still need to be further optimized, and its return on investment also needs to be optimized.
“Cross-border integration, breaking through the constraints of key technologies.” Chen Wenmiao said that the National Fuel Cell Technology Innovation Center has 16 co-constructed units, including multiple units related to production, learning, research, and use. Through in-depth cooperation and integration, give full play to The resource advantages of the upstream and downstream of the industrial chain jointly promote the rapid development of the fuel cell industry.
“Collaborative innovation and joint development.” Xu Niansha said that the development of hydrogen energy is an inevitable choice to achieve the goal of “double carbon”. The weak points of the board, leading the sustainable and healthy development of the industry with scientific and technological innovation.
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