Hydrogen fuel cells: An overdue energy change

Every "decarbonization" of energy will change the development process of human civilization, and every energy conversion is accompanied by the revival or rise of a major country.

The Industrial Revolution began in Britain in the 19th century, when the switch from wood to coal led to the rise of an empire on which the sun never set. In the 20th century, the substitution of oil and gas for coal opened the prelude to the electric age, during which the United States became the world's first industrial power and economy, laying the groundwork for world domination. The new energy revolution in the 21st century is unstoppable, and China also has the opportunity to catch up with photovoltaic and new energy vehicles.

But the battle for new energy is far from over. "Carbon neutrality" has triggered a new round of energy and material revolution, which has become one of the few big opportunities for overtaking at this stage. A new energy promotion competition around carbon neutrality has begun. China proposed "carbon peak by 2030, carbon neutrality by 2060" at the United Nations General Assembly, Europe plans to write "carbon neutrality by 2050" into the bill, and the United States has returned to the Paris Agreement since the first day Biden took office, promising to "make the United States carbon neutral by 2050."

This new energy revolution in China has been going for decades, and now every step is clearly connected: from vigorously developing photovoltaic to building UHV networks, and then to supporting new energy vehicles, an energy blueprint is displayed in front of us. However, when stitching this energy map, two potential problems are gradually exposed: one is a large number of renewable energy abandonment, and the other is the difficult endurance problem of new energy vehicles.

As a result, "hydrogen" can once again be placed in high hopes. At the recent China Development Forum, Xue Qikun, president of Southern University of Science and Technology and academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, said: "According to the physical laws of thermodynamics, any energy use process will cause waste and pollution such as carbon dioxide. Therefore, we still need to return to our original intention, starting from the most basic Einstein's nuclear fusion, returning to the sun, and using hydrogen, the simplest element in the human universe on Earth, to develop the cleanest, most efficient and longest term solar photovoltaic hydrogen energy technology."

The first year of China's hydrogen energy industry is actually earlier in 2019. The commercialization of hydrogen energy has always been controversial. In the eyes of proponents, hydrogen fuel cells have more than 100 times the energy density of lithium batteries, and when burned, nothing is left but water; In the opposition camp, Musk has assured investors that "fuel cells have no future," and Volkswagen Group CEO Herbert Diess has told the media: You will not see any passenger cars powered by hydrogen.

But hydrogen isn't all bad. Even in the field of passenger car applications where the voice is concentrated, hydrogen fuel cells can avoid the direct confrontation with lithium batteries, choose to break through in the long-life and high-power markets, and become a fuel alternative for commercial vehicles such as logistics, heavy trucks, and buses. In addition, in other applications such as fixed power supplies and drones, the advantages of hydrogen fuel cells are unmatched. In fact, in the voice of doubt, hydrogen energy is still cutting into the new energy industry chain by absorbing and rejecting electricity and extending the life of lithium batteries, while actively exploring the new energy world outside the grid.

But how easy is it to build an energy network from scratch? The hydrogen energy industry chain is longer, more complex and more expensive than the lithium battery industry chain, making it difficult to be applied on a large scale so far. The construction of the hydrogen network is bound to be a protracted battle. Fortunately, there are currently two powerful forces that are promoting the formation and expansion of the industrial chain from two directions: in the upstream, macro policies are guiding hydrogen energy; Downstream, governments and enterprises are working together to explore application scenarios.

Today, the development pattern of "electric-lithium batteries" has been clear, and the prospect of "hydrogen-hydrogen fuel cells" is still unclear. At this stage, becoming the "substitute" role of the power grid and lithium batteries is the direction that hydrogen can clearly go. But in the greater unknown fields of application, what kind of pattern will hydrogen energy have in the future? It takes a lot of imagination.

First, big opportunities for carbon reduction

In 2019, "hydrogen energy" was written into the Chinese government work report for the first time, and the report proposed to "promote the construction of charging, hydrogenation and other facilities."