Auto & Transportation

A few days ago, the "2021 Pujiang Innovation Forum-Global Technology Transfer Conference Hydrogen Energy Summit" was held in Shanghai. The Yangtze River Delta will build a hydrogen corridor to accelerate the realization of "carbon peak and carbon neutrality." Industry experts revealed that the domestic independent research and development of hydrogen generators is close to the international advanced level, and the technical cost is likely to drop significantly. In the future, my country's hydrogen fuel cell vehicles and fuel vehicles will have more advantages.

Hydrogen Corridor in the Yangtze River Delta

Hydrogen energy technology is an important development direction of Shanghai's "14th Five-Year Plan". Among them, hydrogen production, hydrogen storage, and hydrogen transportation will be the key targets of the Shanghai Science and Technology Innovation Center. Xie Wenlan, deputy director of the Shanghai Municipal Science and Technology Commission, said: "Hydrogen is the best choice for large-scale and deep decarbonization in transportation, industry, and construction. The development of the hydrogen energy industry has increasingly become a global consensus."

At this innovation forum, the China Society of Automotive Engineers proposed: to promote the coordinated development of hydrogen refueling infrastructure and hydrogen fuel cell vehicles as the goal, and to construct inter-city and network hydrogen refueling infrastructure in the Yangtze River Delta city cluster. As the focus, take into account the construction of hydrogen refueling infrastructure in key cities to meet the hydrogen refueling needs of intercity traffic as the starting point, and moderately advance the construction of hydrogen corridors.

The construction and development of the hydrogen corridor will be divided into three stages: the first stage is the short-term development plan (2019-2021), based on the existing hydrogen energy industry foundation in the Yangtze River Delta, demonstration and promotion of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles. At the same time, the industry-leading cities led by Shanghai will be turned into the core point of the hydrogen corridor, and the construction of 4 high-speed hydrogen demonstration lines will be the first to start. The leading cities include Shanghai, Suzhou, Nantong, Ningbo, Jiaxing, Huzhou, etc., which have been determined to actively develop the hydrogen energy and fuel cell vehicle industry.

In the initial stage of the hydrogen corridor development, the pioneer cities will combine actual development with specific planning, starting from the promotion of fuel cell vehicles, the hydrogen refueling demand of demonstration and promotion routes, and considering the hydrogen supply situation, prioritizing construction and fuel in the fields of public transportation, logistics, and rental. The battery car promotes hydrogen refueling facilities that are compatible with the phased goals. At the same time, the development of intercity expressway connection stations, with Shanghai as the key city, radiating surrounding cities, forming a belt-shaped hydrogen energy corridor in the Yangtze River Delta, and initially forming a hydrogen energy high-speed corridor demonstration.

The second phase is the mid-term development plan (2022-2025), vigorously promote the application and development of fuel cell vehicles, further improve the level of key hydrogen energy technology, promote the construction of more than 10 hydrogen highways between key cities, and expand the operation of fuel cell vehicles At the same time, it will realize the rapid growth of the hydrogen energy industry, form an influential hydrogen energy industry cluster, and create a distinctive hydrogen corridor innovative development model. In the mid-term development of the hydrogen corridor, while expanding the hot-spot city planning, combined with the promotion plan of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles in key cities, it will be widely deployed in cities, intercity expressways and surrounding areas.

The third stage is the long-term development plan (2026-2030). The hydrogen corridor should cover all cities in the Yangtze River Delta and more than 20 major highways, forming an internationally influential fuel cell vehicle application area, and fully driving the national fuel cell vehicle industry The development of the future promotes the transformation of clean energy and power in the future society.

Hydrogen energy construction is fully accelerated

According to Song Xuefeng, vice president of Shenergy Group, Shenergy will promote infrastructure construction from the perspective of hydrogen source and hydrogen refueling station layout, and plans to build a "Shanghai Fuel Cell Hydrogen Source Guarantee Base", which will use landfill biomass natural gas to produce low cost Green Hydrogen also owns 17 hydrogen refueling stations among the hydrogen refueling stations planned in Shanghai.

Academician Yi Baolian of the Chinese Academy of Engineering pointed out that the hydrogen vehicle industry should focus on downgrading costs and developing hydrogen fuel cell systems to reduce hydrogenation costs and improve catalyst efficiency. At present, Dalian Institute of Physics and Chemistry has developed a third-generation hydrogen generator, and the energy consumption of PEM water electrolysis technology has reached the international advanced level.

"Poor availability of hydrogen, high cost, material dependence on imports, imperfect laws and regulations, and restrictions on mass application are all major pain points in the hydrogen fuel cell industry. The most difficult of these is to reduce costs." SAIC Hydrogen Technology General Manager Lu Bingbing predicts that hydrogen fuel cell vehicles will usher in the first round of inflection points in 2025 and the second round of inflection points in 2030.

Lu Bingbing said that after the implementation of the subsidy policy, the layout of hydrogen refueling stations will be gradually improved, hydrogen production channels will increase, and a series of corporate leaders will emerge in subdivisions. In the next two years, catalysts, carbon paper, and proton exchange membranes will be realized. Localized, by 2025, the hydrogen fuel cell vehicles of JH Technology will have the strength to compete with fuel vehicles.

More blossoms in Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei and Hainan's hydrogen energy industry

On May 21, Zhongguancun held the Hydrogen Energy Development Forum. Yang Fuyuan, the person in charge of the "Key Technology Research and Application Demonstration Project for Hydrogen Energy Travel", introduced the six types of hydrogen fuel currently serving the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics and Paralympics. The battery bus has completed the vehicle test, and the hydrogen refueling station has been officially put into operation. The first batch of "zero carbon emission" hydrogen vehicles delivered in June will officially start green travel.

During the Beijing Winter Olympics, 212 "100% domestically produced" hydrogen fuel cell buses will provide hydrogen refueling services through 5 "100% green hydrogen" hydrogen refueling stations. The total carbon emission reduction is expected to reach 30 tons. In the demonstration project, the production, storage, transportation, refilling and utilization of hydrogen energy are organized by Yihuatong, and hydrogen refueling stations are arranged in Daxing, Changping, Yanqing, Zhangjiakou and other places along the route. Yihuatong’s latest generation of independent hydrogen fuel cell engines has a 100% localization rate of parts.

In addition to the Yangtze River Delta and the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, the Hainan Free Trade Port has also joined the hydrogen energy strategy. On May 17, the General Office of the Hainan Provincial People's Government issued the "Three-year Action Plan for the New Investment Policy of Hainan Free Trade Port (2021-2023)". The "Plan" proposes that Hainan will accelerate the development of new energy vehicles and smart automobile manufacturing industries, and promote the construction of an international technological innovation platform. Build a hydrogen energy industrial system with refining and chemical enterprises' by-product hydrogen purification and purification as the starting resource.

The minutes of the institutional survey disclosed by Haima Automobile show that Haima Automobile plans to build the first integrated water hydrogen production and high-pressure hydrogen refueling station in Hainan before the end of 2021, and put it into operation. In the future, the company plans to build a large hydrogen refueling station in the east (Qionghai), west (Danzhou), South (Sanya), North (Haikou), and Zhong (Qiongzhong) of Hainan Island.