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At present, the vast majority of fuel cell vehicles use proton exchange membrane technology, and the quality of the proton exchange membrane directly affects the battery performance, life and vehicle cost. Recently, China's first fully autonomous controllable 300,000 square meters of proton exchange membrane production line was officially put into operation, realizing the localization of hydrogen fuel cell core components, which means that China has independent production capacity in the field of proton exchange membrane high-end products, which will promote China's fuel cell core material industry to make great strides forward.
(Wen 丨 Reporter Zhu Yan Zhongrui)
As the core component of hydrogen fuel cells, proton exchange membranes are like the central processing unit of a computer, and their quality directly affects battery performance, life and cost. In the early days, the proton exchange membrane used in China was almost all imported, 1 square meter was equivalent to more than 20 grams, and the price was comparable to the same weight of gold. Now, the stalemate has been broken.
Recently, China's first fully autonomous controllable 300,000 square meters proton exchange membrane production line was put into operation in Wuhan, which is also the most technologically advanced and the largest one-time film forming production line in the field. "The project breaks the long-term monopoly of the market by foreign manufacturers, and can meet the membrane demand of 20,000 hydrogen fuel cell vehicles at the same time after reaching production, and can also be used for fixed power stations, standby power supplies, unmanned aircraft and other application scenarios." Liu Zhen, general manager of Wuhan Green Motion of state power investment hydrogen energy company, introduced.
Realizing the localization and mass production of key fuel cell materials and components will help greatly reduce the cost of the vehicle. The reporter learned that with the above projects as the representative, the localization force is accelerating the breakthrough.
While the performance is better, the price is halved compared with similar foreign products
At present, the vast majority of fuel cell vehicles use proton exchange membrane technology, but it is not easy to balance high performance, long life and low cost. Where is the difficulty of independent production and large-scale application?
Liu Zhen told reporters that the existing proton exchange membrane is mostly synthesized by perfluorinated polymer materials, which have good stability and long life, but it is very difficult to develop and produce, which in turn leads to high cost and expensive price. "In contrast, domestic related research started late, the accumulation of technology is weak, the industrial chain support was once unsound and immature, especially the high-quality key raw materials and process equipment supporting capacity is weak." If it is mass production, the specialization requirements for process technology and equipment are higher, coupled with large upfront investment and long return cycle, many enterprises often lack power, and it is more difficult to produce large-scale production with stable performance. ”
It is understood that the first production line has achieved a number of breakthroughs. For example, by adopting advanced high-precision coating technology and heat treatment technology, Liu Zhen can realize the fine control of the coating thickness of the proton exchange film. Advanced online testing and process testing instruments, online monitoring of thickness, defects and defects of proton exchange film and real-time feedback adjustment, can effectively improve the consistency of mass production, thereby greatly improving yield rate and reducing product costs.
"In addition to higher uniformity, products have more options in width sizes and can produce proton exchange membranes with thicknesses ranging from 8 microns to 20 microns. This is our own product, in terms of proton conductivity, gas permeability, mechanical strength and other aspects are comparable or better than similar foreign products, but the price is only about half. Liu Zhen said.
Zhang Qingjie, academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and president of Wuhan University of Technology, said bluntly that the cost of proton exchange membrane has an important impact on the development of hydrogen fuel cells, and the production of this production line means that China has independent production capacity in the field of high-end products of proton exchange membranes, which will promote China's fuel cell core material industry to make great strides forward.
The industrial chain can not be more and not strong,
Autonomy is not the repetition of low-quality production capacity
On this basis, the industry needs more breakthroughs. "The localization of key fuel cell materials and components can greatly reduce the cost of fuel cell engines, thereby reducing the price of the whole vehicle." Earlier in an interview with reporters, Yi Baolian, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, said that China has long had a layout in terms of vehicles and systems, but there are relatively few parts and components enterprises, especially the core components, materials and their supporting processes are relatively lagging behind. "Such as air compressors, hydrogen circulation pumps and other equipment, although there are domestic enterprises involved, but most of the key components still rely on imports, invisibly increase costs."
Many people confirmed that at present, there is basically no "card neck" problem in hydrogen production links such as electrolysis of water and hydrogen purification, but the localization rate in the middle and lower reaches of the industrial chain still needs to be improved. "To be precise, many devices are not completely impossible, but the reliability and stability of mass production are challenged." For example, there is still a lot of room for improvement in terms of precision regulation, fast response, stable output and failure rate. Autonomy is not a repetitive construction of low-quality production capacity, but to develop in the direction of high quality. Wang Haifeng, chairman of Zhejiang Fengyuan Hydrogen Energy Technology Co., Ltd., said.
The relevant person of the Ministry of Science and Technology and Innovation of the State Power Investment also said that in recent years, the localization process has accelerated, but the problem of "card neck" of key materials and components of hydrogen fuel cells has not been completely solved, such as carbon paper and other key materials have not yet been localized, and the reliability and durability of stacks and systems have not been fully verified. "Hydrogen fuel cell technical standards and detection systems are not perfect enough. Industrial development tends to be homogeneous, which is concentrated in the industrial chain enterprises are not strong. ”
Lu Chenyu, deputy secretary-general of the National Fuel Cell and Flow Battery Standardization Committee, said that in the early stage of industrial development, the research and development investment in core equipment and key materials was relatively lacking. Either the real strength and innovation of the enterprise, lack of a bigger and better platform and financial support; or the large enterprises with strong funds, often pay more attention to the application of the investment, the degree of attention to materials and components is not enough, the investment is insufficient.
Some technologies achieve leading,
Full realization of localization of mass production can be expected
According to the above-mentioned sources, including Wuhan, will also build industrial bases in North China, East China, Northeast China and other regions, and plans to form an automated production line with an annual output of 10,000 sets of fuel cell stacks and key material components such as catalysts, membrane electrodes, and bipolar plates. In addition to proton exchange membranes, the company will also promote the research and development of key materials and components such as catalysts, membrane electrodes, and bipolar plates, and reach the international advanced level in terms of power level, power density, environmental adaptability, and durability.
"In fact, some localization technology levels have reached or even exceeded foreign commercial products, and the next step is to form a large-scale independent production technology." Therefore, it is urgent to strengthen the technical transformation of the core components of the above key materials, accelerate the formation of batch preparation technology with completely independent intellectual property rights, establish product production lines, and fully realize the localization of the core components of key materials. Yi Baolian said.
This view was endorsed by Lu Chenyu. "It is undeniable that our localization process is remarkable, and some proton exchange membranes and catalysts have achieved small batch applications. However, from the overall point of view, foreign products still occupy a larger market. Improve the ability of stack and system design, the requirements for related core materials and components are more refined; the ability and accuracy of production and test equipment are further improved; and how to fully consider how to feedback the data obtained in practice into the process of research and development and engineering, and gradually optimize - these are all shortcomings that need to be filled urgently. ”
The above-mentioned person proposed that while promoting the transformation and application of technology, a collaborative innovation mechanism and a cooperation and exchange platform can be built, and multi-party cooperation between scientific research institutions, colleges and universities, and enterprises can be strengthened, and enterprises can be encouraged to carry out "first-mover" research results. At the same time, we will build a policy guarantee system, formulate medium- and long-term development plans for hydrogen fuel cell technology and equipment, and do a good job in the top-level design of the system.
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Produced by | China Energy News (ID:cnenergy)
Editor 丨Li Huiying
Trainee Editor | Li Zemin