In the last few days of 2021, brand new hydrogen energy buses are parked in the station hall of the bus station, waiting to drive on the streets of Lingang.
This is the latest batch of hydrogen energy buses put into operation in the Lingang New Area. On the surface, these buses are no different from general buses, but they are buses that use hydrogen energy as a power, and hydrogen and oxygen produce electrochemical reactions to generate kinetic energy to discharge water, achieving zero pollution and zero emissions.
As early as October 2021, hydrogen energy buses have been opened in the Lingang New Area of the Shanghai Free Trade Zone, which is lingang 7 road and Lingang 7 road B line between the Lingang industrial park and the nicheng community, blue bay community and other living areas, which is the first hydrogen energy bus line in Lingang. In the future, there will be more bus lines that use green hydrogen energy buses like Lingang 7 and B.
In the whole of Shanghai, such buses that use hydrogen energy and drive on the road are also considered to be precedents.
As the first batch of hydrogen fuel cell vehicle demonstration cities in China and the first city to issue local hydrogen energy vehicle subsidy policies, Shanghai is undoubtedly at the forefront of the promotion and application of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles in China. And Lingang, why can it take the lead in opening a hydrogen energy bus in Shanghai? In the development of Shanghai's hydrogen energy industry, the Lingang New Area, which is positioned as a "pilot zone, a comprehensive demonstration zone and an industrial leading zone", will be the first to try in Shanghai's hydrogen energy industry and play an industry-leading role?
In the view of Li Xiangcong, deputy director of the high-tech department of the Lingang Management Committee, Lingang has four major advantages in the development of hydrogen energy industry: "the basic advantages of the industrial chain, the advantages of application scenarios, the advantages of institutional innovation breakthroughs, and the advantages of comprehensive port trade protection." ”
Such a statement has been recognized by many Lingang hydrogen energy companies, including Shanghai Hydrogen Chen, which was incubated from the scientific research team of Shanghai Jiao Tong University, and Cummins, a Fortune 500 company whose hydrogen energy business has landed in Lingang.
In September 2021, Cummins Hydrogen China Headquarters landed in Lingang, and built Cummins Hydrogen Energy China Headquarters, New Energy R&D Center and Manufacturing Base in Lingang, with a project value of 10 billion yuan.
Cummins was founded in 1919, focusing on diesel and natural gas engines and other power equipment manufacturing, Cummins vice president Peng Lixin said in an interview, Cummins chose Lingang because of the formation of an excellent fuel cell industry cluster here, including the initial industrialization of the scale of stacks, bipolar plates, membrane electrodes and other core components of the industrial chain. He also said that Lingang has implementable hydrogen energy application scenarios.
Recently, Gan Yong, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, said when participating in the "2021 Hydrogen Energy Industry Summit Forum" that heavy trucks will take the lead in entering the era of hydrogen energy heavy trucks.
For a long time, hydrogen production, hydrogen transportation and hydrogenation have been one of the main constraints on the development of the domestic hydrogen energy industry. The cost of hydrogen production and transportation hydrogenation cannot go down, and it is difficult to take a step on the road of marketization.
Gan Yong introduced that hydrogen energy heavy trucks are the easiest areas to open. "Diesel-powered heavy trucks are densely packed in ports, terminals and industrial parks, which can easily cause serious pollution emissions." Nitrogen oxide emissions from diesel vehicles account for nearly 70% of total vehicle emissions, and the amount of diesel needed at a Chinese port every month amounts to hundreds of thousands of tons, and if hydrogen energy replaces these diesels, emissions will be greatly reduced.
On the other hand, Gan Yong said that hydrogen fuel cells have the characteristics of being suitable for long distances and heavy loads, and are suitable for replacing diesel fuel with heavy trucks. Coastal ports are either convenient for planning and building hydrogen energy transmission pipe networks; or they can produce hydrogen through electrolysis of water, or large steel companies and co-production coking enterprises, which are easily obtained.
In Lingang, a large number of heavy trucks shuttle back and forth on the Donghai Bridge every day, warehousing and wharf are concentrated here, providing a wide range of application space for hydrogen energy heavy trucks, becoming the focus of the hydrogen fuel cell vehicle industry scene, and the fixed heavy truck transportation line can also improve the intensification of hydrogen refueling stations.
Rich application scenarios have attracted a large number of high-quality hydrogen energy companies to take root here.
Lingang 7 Road has begun, and the medium-capacity T2 line and T6 line, which are scheduled to open for operation in the first half of 2022, will also be equipped with two sets of hydrogen power systems. Sun Wenzhou, deputy director of the Establishment and Communications Department of the Lingang Management Committee, said that it is expected that by the end of 2022, a total of 118 hydrogen energy buses will be put into operation in Lingang, including bus vehicles, medium transportation volume and customized shuttles, which not only add new bus routes but also cover bus vehicle updates.
During the "14th Five-Year Plan" period, the new area will strive to complete the application of 1500 hydrogen fuel cell vehicles.
■ Lingang medium transport capacity T2
At present, in the context of the state's "double carbon" goal to support the development of hydrogen energy, there is a certain amount of hydrogen energy fever throughout the country, and in the case of the market is not yet mature, many places will develop the industrial chain to integrate upstream and downstream links to reduce costs as one of the solutions.
Peng Lixin introduced that the landing of Cummins in Lingang is a layout of the whole industrial chain, covering the electrolysis of water hydrogen equipment stacks, fuel cell engines and their core components, high-pressure hydrogen storage cylinder systems and other businesses, including the headquarters of Cummins Hydrogen Energy in China and the dual headquarters of the headquarters of the R&D Center of Hydrogen Energy In China, Cummins will take Lingang as the starting point to build the entire value chain of Cummins hydrogen energy in China.
There is no doubt that the batch landing of Cummins hydrogen energy projects in Lingang will forward-looking promote the progress of hydrogen energy technology and the coordinated development of the whole industry chain.
Shanghai Hydrogen Chen, which has already carried out upstream and downstream cooperation with Cummins, is deeply touched by this. Bai Yunfei, general manager of Shanghai Hydrogen Chen, said: "As a big international brand, Cummins has very strict requirements for quality requirements and development and verification processes, and Cummins will be able to play a leading demonstration effect in Lingang. ”
In the field of fuel cells, Hydrogen Chen, which has broken through core technological innovation and has gradually become an industry benchmark enterprise, also plays a strong role in the source of attraction.
Bai Yunfei introduced that the suppliers of Hydrogen Chen in the membrane catalyst and other links are also Lingang enterprises. In the country's only demonstration area with hydrogen energy as the main industry positioning Lingang China-Japan (Shanghai) local development cooperation demonstration zone, here has gathered more than 20 enterprises, the formation of an industrial chain around the stack, bipolar plate, membrane electrode, system, air compressor, hydrogen storage bottle, carbon paper, PEM electrolyzer, testing and other links.
Lingang's construction of a world-class advanced manufacturing cluster will undoubtedly play a role in the agglomeration effect of the industrial chain and reduce costs and increase efficiency for enterprises.
Technical difficulties and high costs have made pure electric vehicles win fuel cell vehicles as a priority option for the development of new energy vehicles.
Today, generations of research have gradually given hope for the future of fuel cell vehicles.
As early as 2005, the hydrogen chen team at that time, as a scientific research team composed of several people in the body department of the Mechanical and Power College of Jiaotong University, had begun to study fuel cell related technologies. But from research to mass-scale production, Hydrogen Chen still has gone through more than a decade of time.
In 2019, the project developed by the research team of Jiaotong University where Hydrogen Chen is located won the special prize of the Shanghai Technological Invention Award. The research results of The Hydrogen Chen team broke through the dependence of the core components of fuel cell vehicles on foreign imports in China, and manufactured fuel cell stacks that belonged to Chinese.
From 2019 to the present, the cost of a single stack of hydrogen morning has gradually dropped from more than 1 million to 300,000, and in the future, with technological progress, large-scale mass production and further agglomeration of industrial elements, the cost is expected to be further reduced.
■ Hydrogen H2150F fuel cell stack
Technological breakthroughs not only rely on the research spirit of scientific researchers, but also inseparable from the high-quality industry-university-research environment to promote the transformation of scientific and technological achievements.
In August last year, the intelligent manufacturing platform as a shareholder of Shanghai Jiaotong University-Lingang Group "Tonglin Zhichuang" industry-university-research fund was officially launched, and merged into Hydrogen Chen, increasing scientific research investment for Hydrogen Chen and promoting the transformation of achievements.
Whether it is investing funds or following up on the needs of technical support, the intelligent manufacturing platform that has been in Lingang for 6 years has been transformed into dozens of project companies, cultivating the "five golden flowers" project in five major fields, including the fuel cell field.
The industry is moving forward, and it is inseparable from the breakthrough innovation of the policy, Li Xiangcong said: "The 'dare to try' given by the state to Lingang provides support for cracking the existing policy bottleneck of hydrogen energy."
At present, hydrogen is also included in the management of dangerous chemicals, which makes hydrogen production can only occur in chemical areas, which greatly increases transportation costs, if it is included in the energy perspective management, the cost of local hydrogen production will be greatly reduced.
Whether the Lingang New Area can first try to implement the new hydrogen management method may be worth looking forward to.
In September, October and November 2021, Lingang successively issued the "Implementation Plan for Building High-quality Hydrogen Energy Demonstration Application Scenarios in Lingang New Area (2021-2025)", "Lingang New Area Hydrogen Fuel Cell Vehicle Industry Development Plan Release", "Several Measures for Accelerating the Development and Demonstration Application of Hydrogen Energy and Fuel Cell Vehicle Industry in Lingang New Area", from overall planning to specific measures, comprehensively support the development of Lingang hydrogen energy, and actively build an international hydrogen energy valley.
In 2020, especially since 2021, the hydrogen energy industry has ushered in a new round of outbreaks to return to the wind. In the new year, in this area in the southeast corner of Shanghai, can the hydrogen energy industry in the Lingang New Area take advantage of the momentum of Qingyun to rise? Please wait and see!