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.

The middle reaches of the hydrogen energy industry chain is hydrogen storage and transportation, and high-pressure gas storage and transportation technology has been commercialized, which is the most extensive hydrogen energy storage and transportation mode. Long tube trailer transport flexibility is high, suitable for short distance, small volume hydrogen transport; Liquid hydrogen storage and solid hydrogen storage do not need pressure vessels, convenient transportation, is the future direction to achieve large-scale hydrogen energy storage and transportation.

Hydrogen as an industrial raw material can be widely used in petroleum, chemical industry, metallurgy, electronics, medical and other fields, in addition, hydrogen can also be converted into electricity and heat energy through hydrogen fuel cells or hydrogen internal combustion engines, which can cover all aspects of social production and life. By 2060, China's hydrogen energy demand is expected to reach 130 million tons, of which industrial demand dominates, accounting for about 60%, and the transportation field will expand year by year to 31%.

2. The development and utilization of hydrogen energy is triggering a profound energy revolution

Hydrogen energy has broad application prospects in many fields such as transportation, industry, construction and electric power.

In the field of transportation, road long-distance transportation, rail, aviation and shipping regard hydrogen energy as one of the important fuels to reduce carbon emissions. At this stage, China is mainly dominated by hydrogen fuel cell buses and heavy trucks, with more than 6,000 vehicles. In terms of corresponding supporting infrastructure, China has built more than 250 hydrogen refueling stations, accounting for about 40% of the global number, ranking first in the world. According to data released by the Beijing Winter Olympic Organizing Committee, the demonstration operation of more than 1,000 hydrogen fuel cell vehicles in this Winter Olympic Games, and equipped with more than 30 hydrogen refueling stations, is the world's largest fuel cell vehicle demonstration application.

At present, the largest proportion of hydrogen energy application in China is in the industrial field. In addition to the properties of energy fuel, hydrogen energy is also an important industrial raw material. Hydrogen can replace coke and natural gas as a reducing agent, which can eliminate most of the carbon emissions from iron and steel making. The use of renewable energy electricity electrolysis water to produce hydrogen, and then synthesis of ammonia, methanol and other chemical products, is conducive to greatly reducing carbon emission in the chemical industry.

The fusion of hydrogen energy and building is a new concept of green building that has emerged in recent years. The construction field needs to consume a lot of electricity and heat energy, and has been listed as the three "energy-consuming" in China with the transportation field and the industrial field. The pure power generation efficiency using hydrogen fuel cells is only about 50%, while the combined efficiency through cogeneration can reach 85% - while hydrogen fuel cells generate electricity for buildings, waste heat can be recycled for heating and hot water. In terms of hydrogen transportation to the building terminal, it is possible to mix hydrogen into natural gas at a ratio of less than 20% with the help of a relatively complete household natural gas network and transport it to thousands of households. It is estimated that 10% of global building heating and 8% of building energy supply will be supplied by hydrogen in 2050, which can reduce the emission of 700 million tons of CO2 per year.

In the field of power, due to the instability of renewable energy, hydrogen energy can become a new form of energy storage through the conversion of electric-hydrogen-electricity. In the low period of electricity consumption, the use of surplus renewable energy electricity electrolysis water to produce hydrogen, and stored in the form of high pressure gas, low temperature liquid, organic liquid or solid materials; During the peak of electricity consumption, the stored hydrogen is then generated by fuel cells or hydrogen turbines and incorporated into the public grid. The storage scale of hydrogen energy storage is larger, up to one million kilowatts, the storage time is longer, and seasonal storage can be achieved according to the output differences of solar energy, wind energy, water resources, etc. In August 2019, China's first megawatt-level hydrogen energy storage project landed in Lu 'an, Anhui Province, and successfully realized grid-connected power generation in 2022.

3. At the same time, the electric-hydrogen coupling will also play an important role in the construction of a modern energy system in China.

From a clean and low-carbon point of view, large-scale electrification is a strong starting point for carbon reduction in many fields in China, such as electric vehicles in the field of transportation to replace fuel vehicles, and electric heating in the field of construction to replace traditional boiler heating. However, there are still sectors that are difficult to achieve through direct electrification, the most difficult sectors include steel, chemicals, road transport, shipping and aviation. Hydrogen energy has the dual properties of energy fuel and industrial raw material, and can play an important role in the above-mentioned areas that are difficult to deeply decarbonize.

From the perspective of safety and efficiency, firstly, hydrogen energy can promote the development of a higher share of renewable energy and effectively reduce China's dependence on oil and gas imports; Secondly, hydrogen energy can carry out chemical energy storage and transportation, realize the time-space transfer of energy, and promote the regional balance of energy supply and consumption in China; In addition, with the reduction of the cost of renewable energy, the economy of green electricity and green hydrogen energy will be improved, and will be widely accepted and used by the public; As an energy hub, hydrogen energy and electric energy are more easily coupled with thermal energy, cold energy, fuel and other energy sources, and jointly establish an interconnected modern energy network, forming a highly resilient energy supply system, and improving the efficiency, economy and security of the energy supply system.

China's hydrogen energy industry is still facing challenges

Low cost and low emission green hydrogen production is one of the important challenges facing the hydrogen energy industry. On the premise of no new carbon emissions, solving the source of hydrogen is the premise of the development of hydrogen industry. Fossil energy hydrogen production and industrial by-product hydrogen production processes are mature, low cost, and will remain the main hydrogen source in the short term. However, the reserves of fossil energy are limited, and there are still carbon emission problems in the process of hydrogen production. Hydrogen production from industrial by-product is limited and the supply radiation distance is short.

In the long run, hydrogen production from electrolytic water is easy to combine with renewable energy, has greater scale potential, is more clean and sustainable, and is the most potential green hydrogen supply method. At present, China's alkaline electrolysis technology has been close to the international level, is the mainstream technology in the field of commercial electrolysis, but the future cost reduction space is limited. At present, the cost of hydrogen production by proton exchange membrane electrolysis is high, and the degree of localization of key devices is increasing year by year. Solid oxide electrolysis is close to commercialization in the world, but it is still in the catch-up stage in China.

China's hydrogen energy industry chain supply system is not complete, and there is still a gap from large-scale commercial application. More than 200 hydrogen refueling stations have been built in China, mainly 35MPa gas refueling stations, and the proportion of 70MPa high pressure gas refueling stations with larger hydrogen storage capacity is small. The construction and operation experience of liquid hydrogen hydrogenation station and hydrogen production and hydrogenation integrated station is insufficient. At present, the transportation of hydrogen is mainly driven by high-pressure gas long tube trailer, and pipeline transportation is still a weak point. At present, there are about 400 kilometers of hydrogen pipelines, and only about 100 kilometers of pipelines are in use. Pipeline transportation is also faced with the hydrogen embrittlement phenomenon of pipes, resulting in hydrogen escape, and it is still necessary to further improve the chemical and mechanical properties of pipeline materials in the future. Liquid hydrogen storage technology and metal hydride hydrogen storage technology have made great progress, but the balance between hydrogen storage density, safety and cost has not been solved, and there is still a certain gap from large-scale commercial application.

The specialized policy system and the multi-sectoral and multi-field coordination and cooperation mechanism are not yet perfect. The Medium and Long-Term Plan for the Development of Hydrogen Energy Industry (2021-2035) is the first national hydrogen energy development plan, but the special planning and policy system still need to be improved, and the future needs to further clarify the direction, goals and priorities of industrial development. The hydrogen energy industry chain involves a variety of technologies and industry fields, and there are still problems such as insufficient cross-field cooperation and imperfect cross-departmental coordination mechanism. For example, the construction of hydrogen refueling stations requires multi-departmental cooperation such as capital, technology, infrastructure and hazardous chemicals control, and there are currently problems such as unclear competent authorities, difficult approval, and hydrogen properties are still only hazardous chemicals, which has formed a greater constraint on industrial development.

4. We believe that technology, platform and talent are the growth points to support the development of China's hydrogen energy industry.

First of all, we must continue to improve the level of key core technologies. Technological innovation is the core of hydrogen energy industry development. In the future, China will continue to promote the research and development of key core technologies in all aspects of green and low carbon energy production, storage, transportation and application. Accelerate the technological innovation of proton exchange membrane fuel cells, develop key materials, improve the main performance indicators and mass production capacity, and continue to improve the reliability, stability, and durability of fuel cells. Efforts will be made to promote the research and development and manufacturing of core components and key equipment. Accelerate the improvement of renewable energy hydrogen conversion efficiency and the scale of hydrogen production by a single unit, and break through the key core technologies of hydrogen energy infrastructure. Continue to carry out research on the basic laws of hydrogen energy safety. We will continue to promote the demonstration application and industrialization of advanced hydrogen energy technologies, key equipment and major products, and build a high-quality development technology system for the hydrogen energy industry.

Second, we should strive to build a support platform for industrial innovation. The development of the hydrogen energy industry needs to focus on key areas and key links, and build a multi-level and diversified innovation platform. Support universities, research institutes and enterprises to accelerate the construction of key laboratories and cutting-edge cross-cutting research platforms, and carry out basic research on hydrogen energy application and cutting-edge technology research. At the beginning of 2022, the National Development and Reform Commission and the Ministry of Education issued the "Reply to the Feasibility Study Report on the National Energy Storage Technology Industry-Education Integration Innovation Platform Project of North China Electric Power University", and the National Energy Storage Technology Industry-Education integration innovation platform project of North China Electric Power University was officially approved, becoming the first batch of "hanging" universities. Subsequently, the Hydrogen Energy Technology Innovation Center of North China Electric Power University was officially established. The innovation platform and innovation center focus on technical research in the fields of electrochemical energy storage, hydrogen energy and its application technology in the power grid, and actively promote the development of the national hydrogen energy industry.

Third, it is necessary to promote the construction of hydrogen energy professionals. The technical level and scale of hydrogen energy industry continue to make breakthroughs, but the hydrogen energy industry is facing a large gap in the talent team, especially the serious shortage of high-level innovative talents. Recently, the major of "Hydrogen energy science and engineering" declared by North China Electric Power University has been officially included in the undergraduate major directory of ordinary colleges and universities, and the discipline of "hydrogen energy science and engineering" has been included in a new interdisciplinary discipline. The discipline will be driven by power engineering and engineering thermophysics, chemical engineering and other disciplines, organic integration of hydrogen production, hydrogen storage and transportation, hydrogen safety, hydrogen power and other hydrogen module courses, to carry out a full range of interdisciplinary basic and applied research, will achieve the safe transformation of China's energy structure, as well as the development of China's hydrogen energy industry and energy industry to provide favorable talent support.