Exploring new areas of hydrogen energy vehicle industry

Using hydrogen to generate energy and discharge water, the use of hydrogen energy can theoretically achieve "zero pollution", which is called "ideal energy".

As an explorer, Lu 'an City opens up a new track of hydrogen energy and continues to explore a new field of perfect combination of "ideal energy" and the automotive industry.

Anchor goals to nurture "future" industries

In the Jin 'an district of Lu 'an City, there are a number of unusual buses on the road. These buses do not rely on traditional gasoline, natural gas, nor use lithium batteries, but use hydrogen, an environmentally friendly "ideal energy source."

Not only hydrogen energy buses, in April this year, Anhui Province's first hydrogen energy sanitation demonstration application scenario also landed in Lu 'an City. Developed by Tomorrow Hydrogen Energy in collaboration with Zoomlion Yingfeng Environment and Dongfeng Commercial Vehicles, the sanitation vehicle equipped with Tomorrow Hydrogen Energy 101kW high-performance fuel cell system was officially put into use.

"Hydrogen fuel cells have the advantages of both traditional fuel vehicles and new energy electric vehicles." Wang Chaoyun, chairman of Anhui Tomorrow Hydrogen Technology Co., LTD., told reporters that hydrogen energy vehicles use hydrogen fuel cells to directly convert the chemical energy of hydrogen and oxygen into electrical energy to provide energy. Unlike the current popular lithium batteries, hydrogen fuel cells are actually power generation devices rather than energy storage devices, and the energy of the battery relies on external storage hydrogen.

"The biggest advantage is definitely environmental protection, the only emission of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles is water, which is very friendly to the environment." In addition, the volume power density of the fuel cell reaches 4.0kW/L, which can be comparable to the traditional internal combustion engine, and the environmental adaptability and cycle life are far beyond the current application of lithium battery technology. The speed of refueling is similar to refueling, and it is faster and easier than recharging a lithium battery." Wang Chaoyun said.

The hydrogen energy industry is a new industry. In 2017, Lu 'an City began to plan the layout of this "future" industry, and introduced tomorrow Hydrogen Energy, an enterprise integrating independent fuel cell research and development, production, manufacturing, sales and service.

In April 2019, Lu 'an City took the lead in the province in issuing opinions on vigorously supporting the development of hydrogen fuel cell industry, cultivating, supporting and promoting the hydrogen fuel cell industry as a strategic emerging industry and a leading industry for green revitalization.

After several years of development, Tomorrow hydrogen Energy has independent intellectual property rights in key technical fields such as fuel cell stack, core component membrane electrode, bipolar plate, fuel cell power system, stack and system testing. At present, the company has a variety of reactor products from 30kW to 150kW, and its fuel cell volume specific power exceeds 4.0kW/L, reaching the domestic leading and international advanced level. At the same time, with an annual capacity of 10,000 sets of fuel cell system factory, with the Chinese Academy of Sciences Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, Tongji University and other joint development of metal unipolar plate stamping process, metal bipolar plate laser welding process and other eight processes, and has the corresponding production unit.

"At present, we have more than 30 hydrogen energy buses, engineering vehicles, and sanitation vehicles put into use, and the maximum mileage has exceeded 200,000 kilometers, providing a lot of valuable data for technological development." In addition, the company has also put hydrogen buses into use in Wuhu, Chongqing and other places, and a total of more than 200 hydrogen vehicles are equipped." Wang Chaoyun told reporters that the 200kW grade reactor will also be completed in the second half of the research and development, while the construction of 300kW class hydrogen energy ships in Wuhu.

Try first to speed up the application of hydrogen energy

At the Sinopec Comprehensive gas station in Nanshan New District, Jin 'an District, Lu 'an City, several No. 18 buses are queuing up orderly for refueling. This is the first comprehensive fuel, hydrogen and electricity refueling station in Lu 'an City, where the city's 15 No. 18 buses replenish hydrogen every day.

"In July 2022, this comprehensive refueling station will be completed and put into use. We will fill more than 100 kilograms of hydrogen every day, and a hydrogen bus can travel more than 300 kilometers full of hydrogen." Wu Weihua, deputy general manager of Sinopec Lu 'an Company, introduced to reporters.

In order to develop hydrogen energy vehicles, a series of industries such as hydrogen production, hydrogen transportation and hydrogenation need to be developed urgently, and Lu 'an is at the forefront in this field.

"When Lu 'an City decided to develop the hydrogen energy industry, it laid out the construction of hydrogenation facilities." Tao Dapeng, chief of the Industrial Development Department of Lu 'an Development and Reform Commission, told reporters that in 2018, the city built the first hydrogen refueling station in the province, and a total of two hydrogen refueling stations in the city are in operation and use. In the next step, Lu 'an City will also promote the layout and construction of hydrogen refueling stations according to the industrial supporting needs and the promotion of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles.

In the dead of night, at the Anhui Lu 'an Megawatt-level hydrogen comprehensive utilization demonstration station located in the Jin 'an Economic Development Zone, a PEM hydrogen production system is using low-voltage electrolysis water to produce hydrogen. This is the first megawatt-level hydrogen energy comprehensive utilization demonstration station in China, and is the first comprehensive verification and engineering application of hydrogen energy technology with independent intellectual property rights.

"Using off-peak electricity, we can produce 220 standard cubic meters of hydrogen per hour and 180 kilograms of hydrogen per day. During peak power consumption, we use the stored hydrogen in PEM fuel cells to generate electricity, with a maximum power of 1.3 MW. It is estimated that by converting hydrogen and electricity into each other, one kilowatt hour of electricity can be generated at the peak for every three kilowatt hours. Comprehensive utilization station operation and maintenance personnel Ren Lujun told reporters.

According to the way hydrogen is produced, the industry divides hydrogen into gray hydrogen, blue hydrogen and green hydrogen three types. Gray hydrogen is hydrogen produced from fossil fuels such as natural gas and coal. Blue hydrogen is combined with carbon capture and storage technology in the production of gray hydrogen, which can effectively reduce carbon emissions. The industry is most looking forward to the large-scale use of green hydrogen, that is, the use of solar, wind and other types of renewable energy to generate electricity, and then electrolytic water to produce hydrogen, to achieve the most environmentally friendly production.

There are 6 large reservoirs in Lu 'an, which is rich in water resources and renewable energy such as photovoltaic, wind power and hydropower. Although the current use of ordinary electricity to produce hydrogen can not fully meet the standard of green hydrogen, Lu 'an will continue to increase the development of renewable energy resources, to build a green hydrogen supply system based on local renewable energy.

Consolidate advantages and build industrial highlands

As the explorer of hydrogen energy industry in Anhui province, Lu 'an City has developed hydrogen energy industry for 6 years. The city continues to consolidate its technological and industrial application advantages and build an industrial highland.

"If hydrogen can be produced on site, rather than transported from the chemical park, the cost of use can be reduced by about half." Wang Chaoyun told reporters that with the further improvement of the hydrogen energy industry, the price of hydrogen use will inevitably decline gradually. Wu Weihua also said that Sinopec station methanol hydrogen production project has been put into use in Dalian, the next step of the company intends to build two hydrogen refueling stations in Lu 'an city, and hopes to apply the methanol hydrogen production technology in the station to further reduce the cost of gas.

"The country attaches great importance to the construction of ecological civilization and constantly promotes the construction of a clean, low-carbon, safe and efficient energy system." Hydrogen energy as an "ideal energy", in line with the current green and low-carbon development direction. It is also pointed out in the Medium and long-term Plan for the development of hydrogen energy Industry in Anhui Province that the annual production capacity of fuel cell systems should exceed 30,000 units by 2030, the number of hydrogen refueling stations should exceed 120, and the total output value of the hydrogen energy industry should reach 120 billion yuan. This gives us full confidence to continue to vigorously develop the hydrogen energy industry." Lu 'an development and reform Commission said.

On June 21, at the provincial Conference on the promotion of the construction of new energy automobile industry clusters, Anhui Provincial Party Committee and provincial government set a new energy automobile industry base for Lu 'an City and the positioning of a nationally well-known hydrogen fuel cell independent innovation and industrialization highland.

Lu 'an moved quickly, focusing on the industrial positioning of "one base, one highland", issued the "Lu 'an New energy Automobile Industry Supporting Base Construction Action Plan", including hydrogen energy and fuel cells into the three key areas of development, and will actively promote hydrogen energy and fuel cell independent innovation, hydrogenation facilities construction, national fuel cell vehicle demonstration application city construction and domestic and foreign cooperation. Consolidate the first-mover advantage and leading position in this field, and make contributions to the construction of new energy automobile industry clusters in Anhui Province. (Yuan Ye, Anhui Daily)