On January 17, Shanghai Ji Chong Hydrogen Energy Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Ji Chong Hydrogen Energy"), a supplier of hydrogen fuel cell stack solutions, announced the completion of a series of financing of hundreds of millions of yuan, which will be mainly used for R&D capacity building, capacity construction, team expansion and product batch applications.
The leading investors in this round of financing are Henan Zhanxin Hydrogen Energy Phase II Industrial Investment Partnership, and the investors include Shandong Jiangyi Venture Capital Co., Ltd., Jiaxing Jianxin Chenyue Equity Investment Partnership, Yunze Capital, Shanghai Blue Hydrogen Enterprise Management Consulting Partnership, etc.
It is understood that Ji Chong Hydrogen Energy completed the angel round of financing in April 2019, the investor is Zhongke Chuangxing and Reshaping Technology; in November 2020, it completed the Pre-A round of financing, the leading investor is Mizuki Yide Investment, and the investors include Henan Zhanxin, Zhangjiagang Yuefeng Jinchuang and Shandong Jiangyi, and the financial adviser is Da eucalyptus Capital.
Founded at the end of 2018, Ji Chong Hydrogen Energy is a technology company focusing on the research and development and industrialization of hydrogen fuel cell stacks with independent intellectual property rights, and its main products are metal bipolar plate stack MH170.
From a technical point of view, compared with the current relatively mature lithium battery vehicles, the bottleneck is relatively clear lithium battery vehicles, the advantages of hydrogen fuel vehicles are very obvious, such as long mileage, short hydrogenation time, large load capacity, good environmental adaptability and so on. This enables it to occupy a unique position in the new energy automobile industry, and forms a relationship with lithium battery vehicles to "learn from each other's strengths", especially in the fields of logistics, buses, long-distance buses, heavy trucks, etc. Hydrogen fuel cell vehicles have stronger adaptability.
It is understood that the metal bipolar plate stack technical route in the industry generally believes that it has the advantages of light weight, small size, small heat capacity, good gas resistance, high structural strength, low mass production cost, simple process, and few processes, but the core materials also rely heavily on imports.
In order to realize the localization of metal bipolar plate stacks, Ji Chong Hydrogen Energy tried to overcome the core technical difficulties, and cooperated with several upstream suppliers through joint development, equity participation, acquisition, self-construction of pilot bases, etc., to complete the integration of the metal plate industry chain, and formed strategic cooperation with a number of membrane electrode suppliers.
In May 2020, Ji Chong Hydrogen Energy launched the super power metal bipolar plate hydrogen fuel cell stack MH170, which has a rated power of 160 kilowatts, which is the largest single reactor power in the field of hydrogen fuel cells at this stage, and the volume specific power density of the bare pile is 4.7 kW/L, which can achieve low temperature storage of minus 40 degrees Celsius and unassisted low temperature start of minus 39 degrees Celsius. At the same time, the product can better cope with the life problem of metal bipolar plate stacks and adapt to complex environmental requirements.
Fu Yu, chairman of Ji Chong Hydrogen Energy, said: "At present, domestic hydrogen fuel cells can technically cover most of the car use scenarios, and the next thing the industry has to do is to continuously verify and optimize the technology, while further reducing costs through mass production, and driving the localization of key materials and components." Finally, the autonomous and controllable of the entire industrial chain is realized, and the life and reliability requirements of each application scenario are met, so that hydrogen fuel cell vehicles can also be economical under subsidy-free conditions. ”
To this end, Ji Chong Hydrogen Energy has established a mature metal bipolar plate and stack production line in Zhangjiagang - Jiangsu Ji Chong, with an annual production capacity of 200 MW. In addition, Ji Chong Hydrogen Energy has also reached a tripartite cooperation with Jiping New Energy and Bocui Cycle to solve the cost problem caused by precious metal platinum as a catalyst, form a closed loop of the industrial chain, and reduce the mass production cost of hydrogen fuel cell stacks by about 20%.