Hydrogen fuel cells: how to differentiate from lithium batteries

Polar Daily Original

Author | Cao Yang

Edit | Luan Crane

"High efficiency, small pollution, low noise, long endurance, fast charging..." In the context of the "double carbon" strategic goal, the development prospects of hydrogen energy are good, and it has also become one of the most ideal sources of automobile power with the above advantages.

According to the International Hydrogen Energy Commission, hydrogen energy will take on 18% of the world's energy demand in 2050, which is expected to create a market of more than $2.5 trillion, and fuel cell vehicles will account for 20-25% of the world's vehicles.

"The development of hydrogen energy, the 'double carbon' strategy is on the one hand, on the other hand, it has strategic significance for energy security. Finding a differentiated scenario with lithium batteries and avoiding direct competition with them can not only quickly promote the application of hydrogen fuel cells, but also form a situation of complementary coexistence with pure electric vehicles. Chen Hong, general manager of Shenzhen Hydrogen Rui Fuel Cell Technology Co., Ltd., told Jipai Daily.

01

Opportunities drive the industry

In September 2020, the five ministries and commissions issued the "Notice on carrying out the Demonstration Application of Fuel Cell Vehicles", after which nearly 20 urban agglomerations across the country declared hydrogen fuel cell vehicle demonstrations.

With the dust settling on the first three demonstration city clusters in the north, Shanghai and Guangzhou, it also means that the hydrogen fuel cell vehicle industry will enter the fast lane of development.

Chen Hong told Jipai Daily that at present, according to the target of 10,000 vehicles per city in the demonstration urban agglomeration, the three urban agglomerations have a total of 30,000 vehicles, and by 2025, there will be almost 100,000 hydrogen fuel cell vehicles on the market. Under the leadership of the demonstration city cluster, it can not only rapidly increase the popularity of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles, but also further reduce the cost of hydrogen fuel cells.

According to the "Energy-saving and New Energy Vehicle Technology Roadmap 2.0", fuel cell vehicles will reach about 1 million by 2030-2035. It is estimated that by 2025, there will be about 1,000 hydrogen refueling stations on the mainland, and the number of hydrogen fuel cells will exceed 100,000. This will increase to 11 million units by 2060.

With buses and urban logistics vehicles as the entry field, it is gradually promoted to medium and heavy trucks with large load capacity and long distance, tractors, port trailers and passenger cars. In the policy document "Notice on carrying out the Demonstration Application of Fuel Cell Vehicles" issued by the five ministries and commissions, it is once again clear that the focus is on promoting the demonstration application of medium- and long-distance, medium- and heavy-duty fuel cell commercial vehicles.

The Institute of High Industry Expects that by 2022, the mainland hydrogen fuel cell industry chain is expected to fully realize localization supply.

Xiang Hua, an expert in the hydrogen energy industry, said in an interview with the media, "The main application scenarios of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles for hydrogen energy, with the successive landing of hydrogen energy industry planning in various places, will accelerate the commercial road of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles and add new catalysts for industrial development." ”

02

Differentiated applications of hydrogen fuel cells

Public information shows that at this stage in the mainland, whether it is in the field of commercial vehicles or passenger cars, traditional fuel and lithium batteries are still the main sources of power, but these two sources of power have their own drawbacks.

For example, the pollution of traditional fuel vehicles is not conducive to achieving goals such as "carbon peaking" and "carbon neutrality". Lithium batteries have a short mileage and are seriously affected by temperature, making it difficult to use for long-distance or heavy transport. Compared with the above situation, hydrogen fuel cells have the advantages of high energy conversion efficiency and complete pollution-free.

In addition, hydrogen fuel cells also have the advantages of not being affected by temperature, longer cruising range, and fast refueling speed, which is one of the main technical paths for the development of new energy vehicles in mainland China.

Zhou Hongbo, chairman of Zhejiang Hydrogen Road Technology Co., Ltd., said in the roundtable dialogue on "whether hydrogen energy is an outlet or a trap" that hydrogen fuel cells, avoiding the scene where lithium batteries have core competitive advantages, differentiated applications, can get faster

Chen Hong expressed the same view on this, and he said that the differentiated application is mainly manifested in the following scenarios or fields:

Based on the advantages of hydrogen energy "not afraid of cold", it can first be promoted in low temperature and cold areas. The second is the heavy-duty field. For example, Chen Hong said that the lithium battery itself is too heavy, taking a 18-ton truck as an example, the lithium battery may occupy three or four tons

Again, the lithium battery electric vehicle has a good range of 500 kilometers, but its charging takes at least 1-2 hours. Hydrogen fuel cells have a long endurance and fast charging, which can make them have a good performance for lithium battery electric vehicles in long-distance transportation

In addition, diesel generators in ports, marine applications, alternative data centers and communication backup power supplies are all pure electric supplements to lithium batteries in specific application scenarios.

Chen Hong added that the unique closure of the port is more suitable for the construction of hydrogen refueling stations, and heavy vehicles or forklifts do not need to find hydrogen refueling stations in this environment, which makes it easier to promote hydrogen fuel vehicles. High-power marine use can make the advantages of hydrogen fuel cells with long endurance and energy saving to the extreme.

Chen Hong revealed that at present, Xiongtao Hydrogen, an engine company under Xiongtao Co., Ltd., is still developing a hydrogen-lithium mixing technology. "This technology is similar to our current oil-electric hybrid, using Xiongtao's unique high-rate lithium battery technology to make lithium batteries and hydrogen engines sufficient."

As Chen Hong analyzed, according to the "Energy-saving and New Energy Vehicle Technology Roadmap (Version 2.0)" released by the Society of Automotive Engineers of China, the mainland will develop hydrogen fuel cell commercial vehicles as a breakthrough in the entire hydrogen fuel cell industry, with buses and urban logistics vehicles as the entry field, focusing on the promotion of medium and large buses and logistics vehicles in areas rich in renewable energy hydrogen production and industrial by-product hydrogen, and gradually promoting them to medium and heavy trucks, tractors, port trailers and passenger cars with large load capacity and long distance.

03

Technology and cost reduction are in urgent need of breakthroughs

However, although the fuel cell industry is currently developing rapidly in the mainland, it is mainly based on vehicle assembly and demonstration operation, and there are fewer core technologies such as stacks, membrane electrodes, and bipolar plates in the industrial chain. In addition, the current high cost of hydrogen fuel cells, lack of supporting facilities, technology is not mature and other pain points are still worthy of our attention and face.

Chen Hong told Polarity that the fuel cell stack is the core of the entire hydrogen engine, and the membrane electrode is the core of the stack. However, at this stage, the mainland is still highly dependent on imports in the production of core materials for membrane electrodes, such as proton exchange membranes, catalysts, carbon paper, etc. Although there are also domestic enterprises doing it and have made certain achievements, there is still a lack of data support, and there are risks in batch use.

Galaxy Securities Research Institute pointed out that from the fuel cell power system integration, environmental adaptability, reliability and life, cost control, hydrogen storage and other technical indicators, the domestic level and the international level gap is larger. At present, the mainland independent research and development and the introduction of foreign mature technology manufacturers coexist, but the material performance and production of key components need to be improved urgently.

The high dependence on imports is also an important reason for the high cost.

In Chen Hong's view, the future cost of fuel cells will decline is certain. The first is through technological progress and process improvement, and the second is the scale effect. With the increase in the number of hydrogen refueling stations, the improvement of hydrogen production technology and the large-scale application of various renewable energy hydrogen production, the purchase cost and use cost of hydrogen energy engines will be greatly reduced.

"Of course, capital's focus on hydrogen energy will also lead to cost reduction." Chen Hong analyzed that capital is easier to pull through the industrial chain, and they can pull the upstream and downstream industrial chain linkage cost reduction through investment.

According to the prediction of Academician Ouyang Minggao at the Third Future Energy Conference, the cost of fuel cell systems is expected to drop from the current 5000 yuan / kW to about 600 yuan / kW between 2030 and 2035, a decrease of 88%.

In addition, there are also voices of doubt about the "safety" of hydrogen fuel cells in applications such as heavy trucks. However, Chen Hong's attitude towards this is completely different.

Chen Hong told Jipai Daily that hydrogen energy is actually safer than fuel vehicles and natural gas. The risk of its occurrence must meet the three conditions of confined space, adequate mixing of air and air in confined space and encountering an open flame. But in a real-world scenario, it is difficult to meet at the same time.

Chen Hong said that although at present, there are still technical barriers in hydrogen fuel cell technology in the mainland, at the moment of the rapid development of hydrogen fuel cells in the mainland, it can be predicted that in the next 3-5 years, these problems can basically be broken through demonstration.

*Captions and illustrations are from Visual China.

*Disclaimer: In no event shall the information herein or the opinions expressed herein constitute investment advice to any person.