Hydrogen energy, humanity's "only ultimate energy"?

In 2021, "carbon peak" and "carbon neutrality" were written into the government work report for the first time as China's strategic goals at the two sessions, demonstrating China's determination to adhere to the path of low-carbon development.

In the context of accelerating the transformation of the energy industry, hydrogen energy with zero pollution, high energy, rich resources, wide range of uses and other advantages, once again ushered in a "boom", many people even regard hydrogen energy as the key to the future of green energy.

According to the data of China Hydrogen Energy Alliance, in 2018, China's hydrogen production was about 21 million tons, accounting for 2.7% of the total terminal energy. It is expected that by 2030 and 2050, the demand will reach 35 million tons and 60 million tons, respectively, and the terminal energy will account for more than 5% and 10%, respectively. The bright future of hydrogen energy seems to be at hand.

However, since the Russians put hydrogen in the first place in the periodic table in 1869, people have never stopped the research and use of hydrogen, but the ultimate ideal of hydrogen energy is still only in the imagination.

Is hydrogen, which has been called the "only ultimate energy source" of mankind, really that powerful? At the current node, from the perspective of the industrial chain, what are the opportunities and pain points of hydrogen energy development?

1. From zero to one, is hydrogen really that strong?

The major nodes in the process of human industrialization are always accompanied by the large-scale use of energy.

First, it started with coal, and then with the progress of exploration and exploitation technology and the energy revolution, fossil energy such as crude oil and natural gas with higher energy density and less pollutant emissions gradually began to replace coal.

But in the process of energy combustion and conversion, carbon dioxide emissions always follow.

In recent years, more and more attention has been paid to energy and environmental issues. In the context of carbon neutrality, how to choose cleaner energy has become a real problem faced by all countries.

Compared with traditional coal and fossil energy, hydrogen energy has almost zero carbon emissions during the conversion process.

In addition, hydrogen energy also has many advantages:

Good combustion performance: hydrogen has a wide flammable range when mixed with air, and the combustion speed is fast.

Abundant: Hydrogen is the most widely distributed substance in the universe, it constitutes 75% of the mass of the universe, but mainly in the form of a combined state, separation and purification requires a certain cost.

High calorific value: in addition to nuclear fuel, the calorific value of hydrogen is the highest in all fossil fuels, chemical fuels and biofuels; Three times the gasoline, nearly four times the ethanol, and five to six times the coal.

A variety of forms: can be gaseous, liquid or solid metal hydrides appear, can adapt to a variety of storage and transportation and application environment of different requirements.

The hydrogen production method using coal, natural gas and other fossil energy as raw materials is relatively mature, but the hydrogen production process produces carbon dioxide emissions, and the hydrogen generated is called "gray hydrogen", which is not a clean energy in the real sense.

In addition to hydrogen production from fossil fuels, hydrogen production from electrolytic water is another important way, which is often referred to as "green hydrogen" in the industry, with green environmental protection, flexible production, high purity (usually more than 99.7%) and high value oxygen as a by-product.

However, at present, electrolytic water hydrogen production accounts for 4% of the global hydrogen production scale, and less than 1% in China. Mainly because production costs are too high.

The unit energy consumption of hydrogen production by electrolytic water is about 4-5 KWH/cubic hydrogen, and the electricity price accounts for more than 70% of the total cost. If existing electricity is used for production, the cost of hydrogen production is about 30-40 yuan/kg. When the electricity price is lower than 0.3 yuan/KWH, the hydrogen production from electrolytic water has a better economy.

At the same time, at this stage, the domestic thermal power is relatively large, and it will still face the problem of carbon emissions.

However, in the future, with the parity of renewable energy generation online, the cost of hydrogen production by electrolytic water will continue to decline, and hydrogen production by electrolytic water will become the mainstream way to produce green hydrogen in the future.

3. Core focus of transformation and upgrading

Storage and transportation of hydrogen is a difficult point in the hydrogen supply chain and an important reason for the high terminal price of hydrogen.

Hydrogen is the first element in the periodic table, the gas state is very small density, but also grumpy, the slightest mistake, it will explode in situ in minutes to show you.