The development of hydrogen fuel vehicles is gradually “fast lane”, and new breakthroughs have also been made in the research and development of related technologies

With the increasing pressure on environmental protection, hydrogen energy has high hopes as a clean, efficient and safe secondary energy. Especially in the past two years, both national and local governments have frequently mentioned “hydrogen energy” in relevant plans and policies, and car companies and related supply chain companies have also accelerated their investment in this area, and have achieved success in core technologies. must break through.

According to the “Technical Roadmap for Energy Saving and New Energy Vehicles” released by my country in 2016, the scale of China’s fuel cell vehicles will reach 1 million by 2030. Judging from the current development status of the entire industry, it may not be difficult to achieve this goal, but it is not that simple. Especially in the process of commercialization, there are still many practical problems, such as transportation and storage safety, and supporting construction of hydrogen refueling stations. , vehicle ownership costs, etc.

The development of hydrogen fuel vehicles is gradually “fast lane”

With the increasing pressure of environmental protection and the intensification of market competition, in addition to electrification, more and more companies have begun to focus on hydrogen fuel vehicles.

Among them, Toyota, as an early entrant and strong promoter in the field of hydrogen fuel vehicles, has launched its Mirai hydrogen fuel cell vehicle on the market for 5 years and has sold more than 10,000 vehicles worldwide. Recently, the company announced that it will build a future community powered by hydrogen fuel near Mount Fuji in Japan, called “Woven City”.

Like Toyota, Daimler began working on hydrogen fuel cell vehicles as early as the 1990s, with related products including Mercedes-Benz buses, Fuso trucks and the F-Cell SUV. However, the relevant person in charge of the company said that in the future, the focus will shift from passenger cars to heavy trucks and public transportation, and the production capacity of hydrogen fuel trucks will be increased in the second half of 2020.

In addition, Hyundai Motor has made rapid progress in hydrogen fuel vehicles in recent years, and presented it as the theme of major exhibitions. Data show that from January to October 2019, Hyundai sold a total of 3,207 hydrogen fuel cell vehicles, a year-on-year increase of 576%. In addition, BMW, Renault and other international car companies are also increasing related processes.

In the Chinese market, governments at all levels in provinces, municipalities, and regions have successively issued long-term plans for hydrogen fuel cell vehicles, and major auto companies have also launched active deployments in hydrogen energy vehicles. It is understood that Great Wall Motors has developed all core technologies in terms of fuel cells and hydrogen storage systems and is ready to put them into production facilities. Geely also released the first hydrogen fuel cell bus F12 in May 2019. The vehicle adopts cutting-edge hydrogen fuel cell technology. Through actual operation tests, it can be fully filled with hydrogen to meet the operating needs of one day. With the efforts of many parties, new data from the China Automobile Association shows that in 2019, my country’s fuel cell vehicle production and sales completed 2,833 and 2,737 vehicles, an increase of 85.5% and 79.2% year-on-year, respectively.

Breakthrough: It’s time for technological breakthroughs

With the rapid development and advancement of domestic hydrogen fuel cell vehicles, new breakthroughs have also been made in the research and development of related technologies.

It is understood that Yihuatong, which has been deeply involved in the field of hydrogen fuel cells for many years, released a new generation of hydrogen fuel cell engine YHTG60SS in early December last year. The power density of the new product exceeds 500W/kg, and it has achieved 100% localization of core components. It has laid a solid foundation for the further expansion of the follow-up market.

In addition, a key technology in hydrogen fuel cells, perfluorinated proton membrane, has also made a breakthrough with the efforts of Dongyue Group, not only achieving technical breakthroughs, but also passing various tests. It is understood that Dongyue Group is currently building a corresponding large-scale production line, and is expected to meet the demand for perfluorinated proton membranes for domestic fuel cell vehicles by 2025.

However, it cannot be avoided that despite major technological breakthroughs, there are still many limitations in the commercialization of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles. To achieve the goal of over one million, there are still a series of challenges that need to be overcome.

Challenge: How to be more secure? How to be more economical?

As we all know, the promotion of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles involves not only a car, but a set of complete and mature system support. For each link in this system, there is no ready-made experience for the industry and related enterprises to learn from.

First of all, it is also crucial that security issues cannot be avoided. As a fuel with a high calorific value, if hydrogen cannot properly handle the energy contained in it, it is likely to cause irreversible accidents. Therefore, before discussing how to scale hydrogen fuel cell vehicles, we must first ensure the safety of hydrogen energy transportation and storage. There are currently four known hydrogen storage methods, namely, high-pressure gaseous hydrogen storage, low-temperature liquid hydrogen storage, solid-state hydrogen storage and organic liquid hydrogen storage. The latter two methods have low hydrogen storage density and are prone to produce impurities and side reactions. , so the first two methods are mainly used at present.

Secondly, the supporting aspects of hydrogen refueling stations are also a major obstacle affecting the promotion of hydrogen energy vehicles. At present, limited by the construction cost of 10 million yuan per hydrogen refueling station, only 39 hydrogen refueling stations have been put into use nationwide in my country, and about 100 hydrogen refueling stations have not been put into use or are under construction, mainly for hydrogen Fuel cell energy supplement for large passenger cars. In California, one of the current main battlefields for hydrogen fuel cell vehicles, according to data from the U.S. Department of Energy, at the end of 2018, there were already 40 hydrogen refueling stations in the region, more than 7,000 for California (data in August 2019). ) hydrogen fuel cell vehicle power supply. In contrast, China’s current hydrogen fuel cell vehicle market is mainly concentrated in the fields of public transportation and commercial vehicles. If hydrogen fuel cell vehicles can be “savagely grown” like electric vehicles, how to reduce the cost of hydrogen refueling stations and build them on a large scale? and openness will become an important issue.

The third is the cost of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles. At present, the main cost of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles is concentrated in the fuel cell system, accounting for about 65% of the cost of the whole vehicle. It’s a big obstacle on the way to popularization.

Aside from the selling price, from the perspective of hydrogenation cost alone, calculated at 0.3 yuan/kWh, the current hydrogen refueling station takes into account equipment losses, and the comprehensive hydrogenation cost is about 30 yuan/kg , and if you choose the way of external hydrogen supply, the comprehensive hydrogenation cost is between 23.3 yuan/kg and 36.7 yuan/kg (depending on factors such as transportation distance, transportation method, etc.), although it has certain advantages compared to fuel vehicles, but Compared with pure electric vehicles, there is still a significant gap, which is one of the reasons why the planned hydrogen fuel cell vehicle will achieve one million ownership in 2035. Only when the cost of use is low enough, hydrogen fuel cell vehicles will have certain competition. force.

Of course, the imagination space for hydrogen energy is far more than that. Store renewable energy in the form of hydrogen energy, further enrich the hydrogen energy industry chain, gradually reduce the proportion of fossil energy participation, and optimize the storage and transportation of hydrogen to separate hydrogen production from hydrogen refueling stations, thereby reducing the construction of hydrogen refueling stations. The cost and convenience of large-scale construction of hydrogen refueling stations is what our ideal carbon-free society looks like. As mentioned above, this is a whole new system. On the way to realize our vision, there are bound to be many difficulties, but Only by taking the first step can we meet the blue sky.