Hydrogen energy, the new code of modern energy system

Hydrogen energy is a secondary energy with abundant sources, green and low carbon, and is widely used. It can help large-scale consumption of renewable energy, achieve large-scale peak load balancing of power grid and cross-seasonal and cross-regional energy storage, and accelerate the low-carbon development of industry, construction, transportation and other fields. China has a good hydrogen production basis and large-scale application market, and the development of hydrogen energy has significant advantages. Accelerating the development of hydrogen energy industry is an important way to help our country reach peak carbon neutrality. Recently, the National Development and Reform Commission and the National Energy Administration jointly issued the "Medium and Long-Term Plan for the Development of Hydrogen Energy Industry (2021-2035)". The development and utilization of hydrogen energy is triggering a profound energy revolution, and hydrogen energy has become a new code to crack the energy crisis and build a clean, low-carbon, safe and efficient modern energy system.

1. The energy crisis has opened the way to explore the development and utilization of hydrogen energy

The emergence of hydrogen as an alternative energy source dates back to the 1970s. At that time, the Middle East war triggered the global oil crisis, in order to get rid of the dependence on imported oil, the United States first proposed the concept of "hydrogen economy", that the future hydrogen can replace oil as the main energy to support global transportation. From 1960 to 2000, fuel cells, as an important tool for hydrogen energy utilization, developed rapidly, and the application practice in aerospace, power generation and transportation fully proved the feasibility of hydrogen energy as a secondary energy source. The hydrogen energy industry entered a low period around 2010. But the launch of Toyota's "future" fuel cell car in 2014 sparked another hydrogen boom. Subsequently, many countries have issued strategic lines for hydrogen energy development, mainly around the power generation and transportation fields to promote the development of hydrogen energy and fuel cell industry; In 2020, the EU issued the EU Hydrogen Strategy, which aims to promote the application of hydrogen in industry, transportation, power generation and other fields. In 2020, the United States issued the "Hydrogen Energy Plan Development Plan" and formulated a number of key technical and economic indicators, hoping to become the market leader in the hydrogen energy industry chain. At this point, countries accounting for 75% of the global economy have launched hydrogen energy development policies to actively promote hydrogen energy development.

Compared with developed countries, China's hydrogen energy industry is still in the initial stage of development. In recent years, China's attention to the hydrogen energy industry has been increasing. In March 2019, hydrogen energy was written into the "Government Work Report" for the first time, accelerating the construction of charging, hydrogenation and other facilities in the public sector; In April 2020, the Energy Law of the People's Republic of China (Draft for Comment) intends to include hydrogen energy in the category of energy; In September 2020, five departments, including the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, jointly carried out demonstration applications of fuel cell vehicles, and awarded incentives to eligible urban clusters to carry out industrialization research and demonstration applications of key core technologies of fuel cell vehicles; In October 2021, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and The State Council issued the Opinions on the Complete, Accurate and Comprehensive Implementation of the New Development Concept and the Work of Carbon Peak Carbon Neutrality, and coordinated the development of the full chain of hydrogen energy "production - storage - transport - use"; In March 2022, the National Development and Reform Commission issued the "Medium and Long-term Plan for the Development of Hydrogen Energy Industry (2021-2035)", and hydrogen energy was identified as an important part of the future national energy system and an important carrier for the realization of green and low-carbon transformation by energy terminals, and the hydrogen energy industry was identified as a strategic emerging industry and a key development direction for future industries.

In recent years, China's hydrogen energy industry has developed rapidly, which basically covers the whole chain of hydrogen production - storage - transport - use.

The upstream of the hydrogen energy industry chain is hydrogen production, and China is the world's first hydrogen producing country, with a hydrogen production capacity of about 33 million tons. According to the carbon emission intensity of the production process, hydrogen is divided into "gray hydrogen", "blue hydrogen" and "green hydrogen". Gray hydrogen refers to the hydrogen produced by the combustion of fossil fuels, and there will be a lot of carbon dioxide emissions in the production process. Blue hydrogen is based on gray hydrogen, using carbon capture and storage technology to achieve low carbon hydrogen production; Green hydrogen is produced by electrolysis of water through renewable energy such as solar energy and wind power, and there is no carbon emission in the process of hydrogen production. At present, hydrogen production in China is mainly made from coal, accounting for about 80%. In the future, as the cost of renewable energy generation continues to decrease, the proportion of green hydrogen will increase year by year and is expected to reach 70% in 2050.