What is the strategic position of artificial hydrogen production and hydrogen industry in China?

The Blue Book of China's Hydrogen Energy Industry Infrastructure Development (2016) has made plans for the medium and long term hydrogenation station construction and the development goals of fuel cell vehicles in China, and it is expected that 100 hydrogenation stations will be built in China by 2020, and 1,000 will be built in 2030. As of February 2018, a total of 31 hydrogen refueling stations have been built or are under construction in China, of which 12 are in operation.

The main facilities of the hydrogen refueling station include hydrogen storage device, compression equipment, filling equipment and station control system. Currently, the construction cost of a hydrogen fueling station ranges from $2 million to $5 million, with the compressor being the most expensive, accounting for about 30% of the total cost (Figure 9). The construction cost of hydrogen refueling stations in China is relatively low, ranging from $2 million to $2.5 million (35 MPa refueling capacity). Therefore, it is necessary to speed up the process of localization of industrial hydrogen compressors, reduce the cost of hydrogenation station construction, and promote the development of hydrogen industry.

The author predicts that the global hydrogen refueling stations will enter a stage of rapid development, and the number of global hydrogen refueling stations will exceed 435 by 2020 and more than 1,000 by 2025. At the same time, the feasibility study of the joint construction of hydrogen refueling stations and gas stations should be strengthened, such as the joint construction model adopted by Germany, Japan and other countries, and the joint construction test of multiple hydrogen refueling stations and gas stations carried out in Yunfu, Guangdong Province, China, in 2017. In the future, it is likely that there will be a "four-station joint construction" model of hydrogen refueling stations, gas stations, filling stations, and charging stations.

02 Development prospect and strategic position of hydrogen energy

Hydrogen energy is recognized as a clean energy, known as the most promising secondary energy in the 21st century. Hydrogen energy will play an important role in solving the problems of energy crisis, global warming and environmental pollution, and will also become a strategic choice to optimize the energy consumption structure and ensure the security of national energy supply. It is predicted that the oil refining industry, new energy vehicles and clean energy power generation will be the largest terminal market for hydrogen energy utilization, of which the amount of industrial hydrogen in the global oil refining industry will account for 90% of the total global industrial hydrogen consumption. With the increasingly strict requirements of fuel environmental protection, refinery hydrofining will require more industrial hydrogen to produce low-sulfur clean fuel, which will greatly stimulate the rapid growth of industrial hydrogen demand.