China's hydrogen industry development ushered in a window period

"Hydrogen energy could be a 10 trillion yuan industry in the future." Ouyang Minggao, academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, said recently at the 2023 World Hydrogen Technology Conference that the development of hydrogen energy technology in China has achieved local breakthroughs, showing phased progress.

Hydrogen energy is a kind of secondary energy with abundant sources, green and low carbon, and is gradually becoming one of the important carriers of global energy transformation and development. At present, the development of China's hydrogen industry has ushered in a window period.

A number of industrial clusters have emerged

North, Shandong. The country's first high-speed hydrogenation station and the first port hydrogenation station have been built, 25 hydrogenation stations have a daily hydrogen supply capacity of more than 20 tons, and the total number of fuel cell vehicles has exceeded 1,000. The "hydrogen into 10,000" science and technology demonstration project is progressing rapidly, and the overall goal of the demonstration project will be to build a hydrogen energy highway, 2 hydrogen energy ports, 3 science popularization bases, 4 hydrogen energy parks, 5 hydrogen energy communities, etc.

Nanhai District of Foshan City, located in the hinterland of the Pearl River Delta in the south, has gathered more than 150 hydrogen energy enterprises and institutions, covering the whole hydrogen energy industry chain, forming an industrial cluster with an investment scale of more than 60 billion yuan.

"Demonstration application projects promote the construction of industrial systems." Chen Wenmiao, chief scientist of the National Fuel Cell Technology Innovation Center, said that through demonstration projects like "hydrogen into 10,000", gradually expand the application field of hydrogen energy, expand the use scenario, increase the use of hydrogen, and eventually reduce the cost.

In the face of the booming development of the hydrogen energy industry, China has continued to promote the comprehensive application of hydrogen energy in transportation, construction, energy storage and other fields through five demonstration city clusters and a number of demonstration projects such as "hydrogen into 10,000", driving the coordinated development of the whole industrial chain of hydrogen energy production, storage, transport and use, and also promoting the regional optimization layout.

According to industry experts, China's vehicle proton exchange membrane, fuel cell system integration has made a major breakthrough, the relevant industry chain has been established; The high-power fuel cell system for heavy trucks has become a high-tech highlight of hydrogen energy products, with the international leading level; A relatively complete hydrogen energy and fuel cell technology chain and industrial chain have been built, and the competitiveness of fuel cell vehicle products has also been significantly enhanced, and major performance indicators such as hydrogen consumption, duration mileage, and startup of commercial vehicles have been continuously optimized.

As of the end of April, the cumulative promotion of hydrogen fuel cells in China was close to 14,000 vehicles, including more than 13,000 commercial vehicles, the promotion scale of commercial vehicles is leading in the world, and it has realized the coverage of heavy operations such as ports, mines, sanitation, urban construction, public transportation, intercity logistics and remote bulk commodity transportation.

Hydrogenation infrastructure construction is developing rapidly. At present, more than 350 hydrogen refueling stations have been built in China, ranking first in the world.

"China's hydrogen industry is showing broad prospects for development." Xu Niansha, president of the China Machinery Industry Federation, said that construction in the fields of petrochemical, coal chemical, hydrogen smelting and hydrogen energy storage has been accelerating. A number of hydrogen energy industrial clusters are emerging, the application field is in the ascends, and the industrial chain, supply chain, and innovation chain are constantly improving.

Li Guohui, deputy general manager of China Petroleum Pipeline Bureau Engineering Co., LTD., showed a map of the future planning of the national hydrogen energy backbone network of "West hydrogen transmission to East". "By 2050, basically all hydrogen will be transported through pipelines, and we have built a northern hydrogen energy network connecting many places with three branches, a total length of 5,000 to 6,000 kilometers; The plan also covers the Yangtze River Delta, Pearl River Delta, Sichuan and Chongqing regions."

Storage and transportation remains a weak link

Ningxia, a natural gas hydrogen blending carbon reduction project pilot project base. Researchers are busy analyzing the stratification of hydrogen-doped natural gas pipelines and testing different proportions of blending.

Nearly a thousand miles away in Henan, from Jiyuan to Luoyang, there is a 25-kilometer long pure hydrogen transmission pipeline, which is the hydrogen pipeline with the largest diameter, highest pressure and highest throughput that has been built in China, and has been in operation for 8 years.

"Pure hydrogen or hydrogen-doped pipeline transportation is the last kilometer to connect hydrogen production and hydrogen use." Li Guohui said that the distribution of hydrogen energy resources in China is very uneven, hydrogen energy resources are mainly distributed in refining and chemical enterprises, scenery power generation and natural gas resources rich in the northwest, northeast, central and western regions. The consumer market is mainly concentrated in the eastern region. In the near future, hydrogen energy storage and transportation mainly serve short-distance transportation in the nearby area, and the future demand for medium and long distance storage and transportation is large.

Ouyang Minggao said that storage and transportation is still the weak link in the hydrogen energy full technology chain, although there are various technological innovations, but the truly disruptive technology that can land has not yet appeared.

"At present, China has built a certain scale of pure hydrogen pipeline up to 3, less than 100 kilometers, almost all for the purpose of refining chemical hydrogen." There are only a few experiments on hydrogen blending platforms for long-distance mixed transport of natural gas." Li Guohui said.

"By 2050, if our hydrogen energy storage and transportation scale reaches 70 million tons, about half of which will need pipelines to transport, that is, 35 million tons, which is equivalent to the scale of our current natural gas pipelines, which may require pipeline mileage between 150,000 kilometers and 200,000 kilometers." Li Guohui predicted.

"It is urgent to speed up the capacity building of hydrogen storage and transportation equipment development." Li Xiang, a researcher at the China Special Equipment Testing and Research Institute, said that China's core hydrogen storage and transportation equipment capacity construction is lacking, and there are many challenges in hydrogen storage and transportation equipment materials, design and manufacturing, safety status monitoring and evaluation.

In terms of fuel cell vehicle technology of public concern, Chen Wenmiao said that the current cost of using fuel cells and hydrogen energy is still high, and the relevant power devices still exist the actual situation of "expensive to buy and expensive to use."

Zhang Jinhua, executive vice president and Secretary general of the China Society of Automotive Engineering, believes that compared with the global leading level, China's fuel cell vehicle technology as a whole still has a large gap, especially in the key core components and material devices, such as carbon paper, catalyst, proton exchange membrane, carbon fiber materials, hydrogenation equipment, related pipe and valve parts and other external dependence is high. The level of key technologies such as large-scale energy saving hydrogen production technology and high reliability, especially 70 mpa hydrogenation technology, still needs to be improved.

It is necessary to work together across the border to overcome shortcomings

According to incomplete statistics, more than 30 countries in the world have issued hydrogen energy-related strategies, and major economies such as Europe, the United States, Japan and South Korea have taken green hydrogen as a long-term development strategy and formulated corresponding policies.

In 2022, China issued the Medium and Long-Term Plan for the Development of Hydrogen energy Industry (2021-2035). According to the plan, by 2025, China will initially establish a hydrogen energy supply system based on industrial by-production hydrogen and renewable energy hydrogen production. By 2030, a relatively complete hydrogen industry technology innovation system, clean energy hydrogen production and supply system will be formed. By 2035, a hydrogen energy industrial system will be formed to build a multi-component hydrogen energy application ecology covering transportation, energy storage, industry and other fields.

"China's hydrogen energy industry has ushered in a window period, which is also a window period for the world's hydrogen energy industry." Experts believe that under the vision of carbon neutrality, green low-carbon and sustainable development has become a consensus of global development, and green hydrogen has become the focus of hydrogen industry development.

Li Guohui said that the hydrogen energy industry layout has been all over the country, and 30 provinces have written hydrogen energy into the "14th Five-Year Plan" development plan. However, there are also some areas that need to be improved and perfected at the market level and technical level.

"We should strengthen technological research in weak links and improve the overall technical level of the industry." Zhang Jinhua said that the cultivation of hydrogen energy and fuel cell industry is a complex system project of great significance, its technical innovation is difficult, the energy supply system reshaping challenges, the task is very difficult, the need for a high degree of coordination and joint promotion of multiple parties.

"More advanced hydrogen production technology needs to be developed in the future." Sheffield, chairman of the International Hydrogen Association, said that at present, green hydrogen is still facing a series of challenges, such as the technical threshold of green hydrogen preparation is relatively high, the cost is relatively high, and the process and equipment for green hydrogen preparation in the future need to be further optimized, while its return on investment also needs to be optimized.

"Cross-border integration, breaking through the constraints of key technologies." Chen Wenmiao said that the National fuel cell Technology Innovation Center has 16 co-construction units, including many related units such as production, education, research and use, through deep collaboration and integration, give full play to the resource advantages of the upstream and downstream of the industrial chain, and jointly promote the rapid development of the fuel cell industry.

"Collaborative innovation, jointly promote development." Xu Niansa said that the development of hydrogen energy is the inevitable choice to achieve the goal of "double carbon", the future should strengthen the depth of cooperation between countries in the field of hydrogen energy, further crack the shortcomings of hydrogen industry technology and equipment, and lead the sustainable and healthy development of the industry with scientific and technological innovation.