Core ideas
Environmental protection, calorific value and other characteristics are blessed, policy promotion, and the rapid expansion of hydrogen fuel vehicle scenarios. Hydrogen energy is a clean and decarburized secondary energy source with rich application scenarios, and is also an ideal carrier and medium for renewable energy storage and conversion. In the process of achieving long-term "carbon neutrality", the status of hydrogen energy will become more and more important, and it will play an important role in the decarbonization of traditional industries, transportation, construction and other fields. In this context, we believe that fuel cell vehicles will enter a golden decade of rapid development, and manufacturers of materials and equipment supporting the industrial chain will usher in huge growth opportunities. We have sorted out the main links as follows:
1) Stacks: Localization still requires great efforts. Ballard is relatively leading, the integration ability of domestic manufacturers needs to be enhanced, and there are currently fuel cell system suppliers such as Shanghai Remodeling and Yihuatong in China.
2) Proton exchange membrane: domestic manufacturers' products have been commercialized, and the cost quality needs to be improved. International material giants such as DuPont and so on have a very mature technology, domestic manufacturers have commercial products, but the stability, cost needs to be improved, the main domestic suppliers are Dongyue Group, Hongda Xingye (obtained technical authorization) and so on.
3) Catalyst: It is necessary to reduce costs by improving the catalyst structure. The core pain point of the catalyst is to reduce costs and improve efficiency, and it is still necessary to improve the structure of catalyst alloys.
4) Gas diffusion layer: the domestic substrate is lagging behind, and the level of industrialization needs to be improved. Carbon fiber cloth, non-woven fabric, carbon black paper and carbon fiber paper as a matrix material, the cost accounts for 20% to 25% of the entire fuel cell cost, the current domestic substrate production capacity and cost control capabilities still have a large disadvantage.
5) Bipolar plate: The core difficulty lies in the design, and the domestic layout of metal bipolar plate is extensive. In terms of graphite bipolar plates, The country is relatively backward, but the metal bipolar plates are widely laid out (such as Aetna Technology, etc.), and there is a possibility of overtaking in curves in the future.
6) Sealants, fasteners, air compressors, circulation pumps, etc.: can undertake some traditional processes (such as automobiles), the market is still dominated by overseas enterprises, and the possibility of localization in the future is high.
Hydrogen energy vehicles: "carbon neutral" background or will grow at a high speed
Driven by the policy, environmental protection, calorific value, reserves and other aspects have advantages, hydrogen energy era or advent of the car is one of the most important means of transportation for mankind, the current power source is from the transformation of chemical energy to mechanical energy, the main conversion methods are three: 1) fuel / natural gas vehicles: the use of internal combustion engines to fossil fuel combustion generated energy conversion; 2) lithium trams: the use of batteries and motors to achieve electrochemical energy storage power conversion; 3) hydrogen energy vehicles: utilization The primary battery reaction in the stack realizes the chemical energy conversion of hydrogen storage. We believe that hydrogen solutions offer the following advantages:
Environmentally friendly: the main discharge is water, and there is no problem of pollution and CO2.
Abundant reserves: Hydrogen is the most widely distributed substance in the universe, it constitutes 75% of the mass of the universe, but it mainly comes in the form of a confluent state, and separation and purification require a certain cost.
High calorific value: Except for nuclear fuels, the calorific value of hydrogen is the highest of all fossil fuels, chemical fuels and biofuels; 3 times that of gasoline, nearly 4 times that of ethanol, and 5 to 6 times that of coal.
In the past few years, after the development of technology, the exploration of the initial industrialization and the gradual diffusion of overseas technology, hydrogen energy has also completed the breakthrough of "from 0 to 1" in the development of hydrogen energy in China, the industrial chain has a prototype, and the policy intensity is also increasing. From the technical planning of the branch industry, to the writing of the national government work report, to the official inclusion of hydrogen energy in the draft of the energy law, it shows the policy's affirmation of the maturity of hydrogen energy development and long-term development direction, especially the landing of encouraging policies such as the demonstration and application of hydrogen fuel battery vehicles in 2020, the support for the hydrogen energy industry is more refined and clear, and it also helps the policy support effect to appear faster.
For local government policies, according to the "2020 Hydrogen Application Development White Paper" of CCID Kechuang, more than 20 provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the central government), cities and counties in China have issued about 42 special policies for the hydrogen energy industry, and the proportion of provincial, municipal and county policies is 28.6%, 54.7% and 16.7% respectively. The areas where local policies have been introduced are mainly concentrated in Guangdong, Zhejiang, Jiangsu, Shandong and other regions, and the core focuses on the promotion of hydrogen fuel vehicles (mainly urban buses and logistics vehicles), the research and development of hydrogen fuel cell core technologies, infrastructure such as hydrogen refueling stations, and the construction of hydrogen energy demonstration urban areas. It is expected that with the policy support of the central government and local governments, hydrogen energy development is expected to gradually accelerate in areas with better technical basic conditions and strong economic strength.
Fuel cells: Update new technologies for energy-saving and environmentally friendly power generation
Fuel cell is a chemical device that directly converts the chemical energy of the fuel into electrical energy, also known as electrochemical power generator. It is the fourth power generation technology after hydroelectric, thermal and atomic power generation. Because the fuel cell is through the electrochemical reaction of the Gibbs free energy part of the chemical energy of the fuel into electrical energy, not subject to the Kano cycle effect, so the efficiency is high; in addition, the fuel cell uses fuel and oxygen as raw materials, and there is no mechanical transmission part, so there is no noise pollution, and the harmful gases emitted are very few. It can be seen that from the perspective of saving energy and protecting the ecological environment, fuel cells are the most promising power generation technology.
Fuel cells are high-power, high-specific power and high-specific energy batteries with high economy. Originating in the 19th century, a fuel cell is a power generation device that directly converts fuel and oxidizer into electrical energy through an electrochemical reaction. In the 1970s and 1980s, the global energy crisis and the space arms race greatly promoted the development of fuel cells. Since the 1990s, human beings have paid more and more attention to environmental protection, fuel cells are reliable, simple to operate, clean and efficient, and there are few harmful products of electrochemical reactions, so they have made great progress, the core key technologies have been continuously broken, and the commercial application prospects are broad, and they are also regarded as one of the most promising energy power devices.
Principles of fuel cell power generation
Hydrogen energy fuel cell is the use of chemical elements hydrogen as a fuel clean battery, the basic principle is to inject hydrogen energy into the anode of the fuel cell (that is, the negative electrode), after the action of platinum and other catalysts, react with the electrolyte on the electrode to lose electrons, hydrogen ions through the proton exchange membrane to reach the cathode of the fuel cell (that is, the positive electrode), electrons through the external circuit to the positive electrode of the fuel cell to generate a current.
The fuel cell composition is mainly divided into two parts: membrane electrode assembly (MEA) and bipolar plate, other structural parts include: seals, end plates and collector plates. The stack is a structure composed of multiple single cells, the stack and its monitoring unit (CVM), external packaging, fluid manifold assembly called fuel cell module.
Fuel cell industry chain combing
Fuel cell industry chain: upstream materials, components, systems, downstream vehicle production
The fuel cell vehicle industry chain mainly includes two parts: upstream (fuel cell power system and key components) and downstream (vehicle production). Compared with the traditional automotive industry chain, the fuel cell vehicle industry chain mainly adds fuel cell systems and on-board hydrogen supply systems, of which the fuel cell system is the core structure.
The status of the domestic fuel cell vehicle industry chain: extensive layout, rapid growth in volume
The downstream vehicle industry has a complete range of large categories, and the actual mass production is mainly commercial vehicles. Commercial vehicles are currently the main application areas of Fuel Cell Vehicles in China, and the product categories mainly include large and medium-sized buses, light buses, and light trucks (logistics vehicles). The main participating enterprises include Yutong, Zhongtong, Beiqi Foton, Foshan Feichi, Shanghai Shenwo, Nanjing Jinlong, SAIC Maxus, Dongfeng, Aoxin New Energy, etc. In addition, Sinotruk has launched a hydrogen fuel cell port traction heavy truck. In terms of passenger cars, only SAIC Motor (Roewe 950) was involved in the country earlier, and the companies that recently released fuel cell vehicle passenger car prototypes include Wuhan Grove and Aiways Automobile (methanol fuel cell vehicles), and Great Wall, Guangzhou Automobile, Chery, Geely (methanol fuel cell) and other car companies plan to launch their fuel cell models within 3 to 5 years. However, as of now, fuel cell passenger cars are generally in the research and development verification stage. In terms of product path, China is currently dominated by commercial vehicle products, while Japan and South Korea are mainly passenger cars.
Upstream component industry: the overall realization of major components from scratch, some of which are still blank. The core major components such as fuel cell stacks, fuel cell systems, and vehicle-mounted high-pressure hydrogen supply systems have been realized from scratch. Among them, the areas where the industrial chain is relatively dense are fuel cell stack integration, fuel cell system integration, dc/DC for high-power fuel cell vehicles, hydrogen storage bottles, and aluminum alloys for high-pressure hydrogen storage bottles; the number of enterprises is small, and the areas where the industrial chain is relatively weak include membrane electrodes, bipolar plates, catalysts, and proton films; the areas where the industrial chain is still blank include carbon paper, gas diffusion layer, hydrogen circulation pump, humidifier, carbon fiber hydrogen storage materials, plastic hydrogen storage materials, bottle mouth combination valves, high-pressure pipelines, and pressure reducers. In view of the fact that no humidification fuel cell stack has become a development trend, and China Xinyuan Power and other enterprises have also developed a non-humidified fuel cell stack, the impact of the current industrial emptiness of the humidifier can be ignored.
In actual mass production, there are still many core components and key basic materials that rely on imports. Affected by the still weak domestic industrial basic capacity, if traced back to the level of key basic materials, core basic components, and components, the application of batch products still needs to rely on imports. There are two main reasons for relying on imports, one is that there is still a gap in the domestic industrial chain; the other is that there are suppliers in the country, but the product performance or supplier supporting capacity cannot meet the requirements. In terms of the core components of fuel cell vehicles, China is currently mainly grasping the integration of stacks and stack systems, and the integration of on-board hydrogen storage cylinders.
Production and R&D test equipment is a big shortcoming. Fuel cell trial production and production equipment, such as special coaters, etc., currently have their own research and development in China, but mainly for their own use, and have not yet formed a general product. At present, test equipment mainly relies on imports, such as membrane electrodes, high-pressure hydrogen storage bottles, hydrogen supply valves test equipment mainly from Canada GREENLIGHT company, Japan ESPEC and German CTS company. In addition, the equipment for hydrogen refueling stations, including air compressors, various pipelines and valves, and hydrogen refueling guns, is also mainly dependent on foreign imports. Among them, the station compressor manufacturers mainly include the United States HYDRO-PAC Company, the United States PDC Company, the German Linde Company, the station high-pressure hydrogen storage tank representative production enterprises for the United States AP, the United States CPI company, hydrogen filling machine is mainly supplied by Germany Linde and the United States AP company.
In recent years, industrial agglomeration has accelerated, and several major agglomeration areas have been initially formed, which is conducive to the acceleration and improvement of the industrial chain. As of February 2019, there are nearly 250 fuel cell vehicle-related enterprises in China, of which the growth rate of the number of related enterprises has accelerated in the past three years, and several major industrial agglomeration areas in the Yangtze River Delta, South China and Beijing have been initially formed. In addition, some electric vehicle industries in the central, western and northeastern regions are relatively backward, or industrial by-product hydrogen and photovoltaic hydropower resources are relatively rich, as well as extremely cold climates, which are also important areas for the fuel cell vehicle industry.
Large enterprise groups enter the market to accelerate the construction and agglomeration of industrial chains. Since 2017, large domestic enterprises such as SAIC Motor, Weichai Group, Great Wall Group, and Snowman Co., Ltd. have adjusted their business strategies or increased their business sectors, and rapidly laid out the core components of hydrogen energy and hydrogen fuel cells, of which more than 30 are listed companies. Large enterprise groups enter the fuel cell core parts industry, relying on financial strength and channel advantages, as well as large-scale research and development and industrial investment to accelerate the construction and agglomeration of industrial chains, and accelerate the performance improvement and large-scale production of domestic important components of fuel cell vehicles.
The active promotion of local governments will help to further improve the industrial chain. As of 2020-05, nearly 50 provinces, municipalities and regions across the country have issued relevant plans and policies to encourage the development of local hydrogen energy and hydrogen fuel cell vehicles. Among them, the number of provincial and municipal policies in the Yangtze River Delta and the Pearl River Delta accounts for about 60% of the total number of local policies, and these policies involve subsidies for the construction of hydrogen refueling stations, vehicle promotion and application subsidies, hydrogen energy industry planning, key project research and development, and many other aspects. Many regions encourage the development of hydrogen energy and hydrogen fuel cell vehicles through various forms such as hydrogen energy towns, hydrogen energy industrial parks, and hydrogen energy science and technology parks.
Carding of major components and materials
Hydrogen fuel cells are mainly composed of anodes, cathodes and proton exchange membranes, and the place where the anode hydrogen fuel oxidizes and the place where the cathodic oxidant is reduced contain catalysts that accelerate electrochemical reactions. According to the structural division of hydrogen fuel cells, key materials can be divided into stack materials and hydrogen fuel cell system materials. Among them, the stack materials include five categories: membrane electrode materials, gas diffusion layer materials, bipolar plate materials, sealing ring materials and end plate materials; hydrogen fuel cell system materials include hydrogen storage bottle materials, compressor materials, hydrogen circulation system materials and humidifier materials.
Stacks: A lot of work remains to be done
Major foreign fuel vehicle manufacturers such as Toyota, Honda, Hyundai, etc. mostly develop their own stacks, and Canada's Ballard and Hydrogen Energy Company can provide vehicle stack products separately. At present, there are only a limited number of enterprises in China that can independently develop stacks, and although they have reached the technical requirements for commercial application, they are all in the critical stage of small batch production to industrialization transformation, and there is still a big technical gap compared with foreign countries. Proton exchange membrane: the product has been commercialized, the cost and quality need to be improved In the hydrogen fuel cell membrane electrode material, the proton exchange membrane is the most critical, its role is to react, only let the anode lose electrons of the hydrogen ions (protons) through to reach the cathode, but prevent electrons, hydrogen molecules, water molecules and so on from passing. Perfluorosulfonic acid proton exchange membrane materials have the characteristics of high mechanical strength, strong chemical stability, large current density at low temperatures, high conductivity under high humidity, small proton conduction resistance, etc., which can meet the performance requirements of hydrogen fuel cells on membrane electrodes, and are the mainstream of proton exchange membrane materials, high temperature membranes, composite membranes, and alkaline membranes are the future development direction.
The global suppliers of perfluorosulfonic acid membranes are concentrated in the United States, Japan and Canada. Among them, the most widely used are The Nafion series membrane of DuPont in the United States, the Dow membrane of Dow Chemical Company and the PAIF perfluorocarbonate high-temperature proton exchange membrane of 3M company; Aciplex membranes from AsahiChemical corporation and Flemion membranes from AsahiGlass in Japan; Ballard, Canada BAM membrane. At present, the price of Nafion membrane is generally above 500$/m2, and DOE data shows that 80kW fuel cells require about 11.8m2 of proton exchange membranes, and the cost of proton exchange membrane materials is at least 73.75$/kW.
Mainland China already has the ability to industrialize perfluorosulfonic acid-type proton exchange membranes. Dongyue Group's proton exchange membrane performance is excellent, and the annual production plant with an annual output of 500t has been completed and put into operation. At present, the thickness of Dongyue DF260 film can be 15μm, and the durability is greater than 600h under OCV conditions. Wuhan Polytechnic New Energy Company, Shanghai Shenli Technology Co., Ltd., Xinyuan Power Co., Ltd. and Sanaifu New Material Technology Co., Ltd. all have the production capacity of perfluorosulfonic acid-type proton exchange membranes; in terms of composite membranes, Wuhan Polytechnic New Energy Company has provided test samples to several research units at home and abroad; the Dalian Institute of Chemistry of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Shanghai Jiaotong University have also made breakthroughs in the research field of proton exchange membranes. With the mass production of fuel cells, it is expected that the production cost of proton exchange membranes will be significantly reduced.
Catalyst: Cost reduction needs to be achieved by improving the catalyst structure
Catalysts are one of the key materials of fuel cells, and their working principle is to act on hydrogen gas, prompting electrons to leave the hydrogen atoms. At present, the commonly used commercial catalyst in fuel cells is Pt/C, which is composed of nanoscale Pt particles (3 to 5 nm) and activated carbon with a large specific surface area supporting these Pt particles. Pt was chosen because it has the highest catalytic HOR and ORR performance of any metal material and meets other requirements as an electrode catalytic material (high conductivity, high stability, corrosion resistance, etc.) [14]. However, Pt is a rare metal, expensive (currently Pt-based catalysts account for about 50% of the cost of fuel cell stacks) and extremely low supply have become major obstacles to the commercial application of fuel cell technology.
The main producers of fuel cell catalysts are 3M, Gore and E-TEK in the United States, JohnsonMatthery in the United Kingdom, BASF in Germany, Tanaka and TKK in Japan, and Umicore in Belgium. The Pt content of the Honda FCVClarity fuel cell vehicle catalyst has been reduced to 0.12g/kW, and the Pt content of the Toyota Mirai fuel cell vehicle catalyst is 0.175g/kW. At present, mainland catalyst enterprises have not yet achieved a substantial breakthrough in industrialization. Guiyan Platinum Co., Ltd., Wuhan Himalaya Optoelectronic Technology Co., Ltd., Dalian Institute of Chemicals of the Chinese Academy of Sciences have the ability of small-scale production, and research institutions such as the Changchun Institute of Applied Chemistry of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Tianjin University and Sun Yat-sen University are actively engaged in industrialization research.
Gas diffusion layer: the domestic substrate is lagging behind, and the level of industrialization needs to be improved
The gas diffusion layer is located between the gas flow field layer and the catalytic layer, and its main role is to provide a transmission channel and support the catalyst for the gas involved in the reaction and the generated water, and its performance has a direct impact on the performance of the fuel cell. The gas diffusion layer is composed of carbon cloth/carbon mesh and water repellent PTFE material, which meets the characteristics of high conductivity, high strength, high porosity, corrosion resistance, dense structure and flat surface.
The carbon paper/carbon cloth of the gas diffusion layer is composed of carbon fiber cloth, nonwoven fabric, carbon black paper and carbon fiber paper as the matrix material, and the cost accounts for 20% to 25% of the total fuel cell cost. The gas diffusion layer industry is monopolized by several large international companies. At present, there are only three global material suppliers: Toray (Toray) in Japan, Ballard in Canada and SGL in Germany. Toray currently occupies a large market share, and has more carbon paper related patents, the production of carbon paper has high conductivity, high strength, high gas pass rate, smooth surface and other advantages. However, Toray carbon paper is brittle and therefore cannot be produced continuously, making it difficult to achieve scale and greatly limiting the growth of supply. The mainland is a big demand for carbon fiber paper, however, affected by insufficient supply, the domestic carbon fiber paper market has developed relatively slowly in recent years. Mainland China's research and development of carbon paper is mainly concentrated in Central South University, Wuhan University of Technology and Beijing University of Chemical Technology and other universities, Shanghai Hesen Company has a small batch of carbon paper products supply.
Bipolar plates: The core difficulty lies in the design
Bipolar plates in fuel cells mainly play a role in transporting and distributing fuel, in the stack responsible for isolating the yin and yang pole gas, the current widely used bipolar plate materials are graphite plate, metal plate and composite plate.
Bipolar plates account for approximately 60% of the total fuel cell quality and 13% of the cost. The main functions are to connect the monomer module, separate the reaction gas, collect current, dissipate heat and drain water. The matrix material should have the characteristics of high strength, good compactness, corrosion resistance, electrical conductivity and thermal conductivity, and the choice of material will directly affect the electrical properties and service life of the fuel cell.
Graphite bipolar plate Graphite bipolar plate is currently the most mature, and metal and composite bipolar plates have a large space for development. The mainstream suppliers of graphite bipolar plates are POCO Company of the United States, SHF Company, Graftech Company, FujikuraRubber Company of Japan, KyushuRefractories Company, Bac2 Company of the United Kingdom, Ballard Company of Canada and so on. The graphite bipolar plate manufacturers in the mainland mainly include Guangdong Guohong Hydrogen Energy Technology Co., Ltd., Sinosteel Group Anhui Tianyuan Technology Co., Ltd., Hangzhou Xinneng Graphite Co., Ltd., Jiangsu Shenzhou Carbon Products Co., Ltd., Jiangyin Hujiang Technology Co., Ltd., Zibo Lianqiang Carbon Material Co., Ltd., Shanghai Xili Carbon Co., Ltd., Shanghai Hongfeng Industrial Co., Ltd., Shanghai Hongjun Industrial Co., Ltd. and other enterprises, but the domestic graphite bipolar board lacks durability and engineering verification.
Metal bipolar plate Metal bipolar plate is the most likely to replace the graphite bipolar plate, and the multi-coated structure with modified surface is the main development direction of metal bipolar plate. At present, the main suppliers of metal bipolar plates are Cellimpact in Sweden, Dana in Germany, Grabener in Germany, and treadstone in the United States. There are mainly SAIC Motor Group Co., Ltd., Xinyuan Power Co., Ltd., Shanghai Zhizhen New Energy Equipment Co., Ltd. and other enterprises in China. Composite bipolar plates combine the corrosion resistance of graphite materials with the high strength of metal materials, and are expected to develop in the direction of low cost in the future. The Us and British composite bipolar plates are at the world's advanced level, and the main enterprises are Porvair in the United Kingdom and ORNL in the United States. Mainland related enterprises started late and are still in the R&D trial stage. The main research institutions and enterprises are Aetna Technology, Wuhan University of Technology, Edelman Company, Xinyuan Power Co., Ltd. and Dalian Institute of Chemistry of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.
Sealants: Just getting started as a new product
The integration force and compactness of each component of the fuel cell directly affect the performance of the stack. The sealant is the main bearing and force transmission component inside the stack, and the role is to realize the compact layout and overall sealing of the stack, which directly affects the electrochemical properties of the fuel cell. The sealing gasket is placed between the units of the stack to prevent the leakage of hydrogen and oxygen under the premise of ensuring the passage of hydrogen, oxygen and water. Sealing gaskets can be processed and formed in conjunction with the battery cell in the final stage of fuel cell manufacturing. In 2014, Mitsui Chemicals of Japan trial produced liquid EPT rubber (EPDM rubber) for fuel cell sealing gaskets, which has strong acid and alkali resistance, can be formed in one piece with metal, and has a shorter forming (crosslinking) time than ordinary EPDM rubber. At the "Man and Vehicle Technology Exhibition 2015", Japan's Sumitomo Science and Technology Company exhibited its rubber bonding material for fuel batteries for toyota fuel cell vehicle "Mirai", that is, "sealing gaskets for battery cells".
At present, the country is still in its infancy in this field. On July 21, 2017, the Dalian Institute of Chemicals of the Chinese Academy of Sciences successfully developed a high-precision fluoroelastomer gasket for fuel cells, which opened the prelude to cooperation with BMW. Duke New Materials Co., Ltd. has successfully developed adhesive sealants for hydrogen fuel cell bipolar plate assembly and graphite micropore plugging glue for bipolar plates, and has supplied many hydrogen fuel cell companies at home and abroad.
Fasteners: Undertake the automobile manufacturing process, and the gap with overseas is not large
Fuel vehicle fasteners are an important part of their industry and the most important foundation for the development of the fuel vehicle industry. The number of auto parts assembled at OEMs alone is usually more than 1,500, while the sum of all the parts exceeds 20,000. To some extent, the quality of auto parts determines the reliability and stability of the quality of the entire life cycle of the car.
Air compressor: The market is still monopolized overseas
Air compressors play an important role in hydrogen fuel cell systems and are key components. Different from the traditional industrial air compressor, hydrogen fuel cell air compressor requires high reliability, long life, exhaust oil-free, low noise, lightweight, miniaturization, low cost, fast response and other characteristics. At present, the hydrogen fuel cell air compressor market is basically monopolized by foreign brands (Japan Toyota, the United States UQM, the United States Garrett, etc.), the domestic research on such air compressors started late, poor product reliability, unstable performance, is still in the research and development and small batch trial production stage. Due to the early research and development of foreign hydrogen fuel cell air compressors, high product reliability and stable performance, but the price is expensive, a unit price of 10-30 million, has become one of the bottlenecks in the development of the hydrogen fuel cell industry.
Circulating pumps: Overseas suppliers still dominate the market
Hydrogen circulation pumps are key components of hydrogen fuel cell engines, playing an important role in improving fuel utilization and ensuring hydrogen safety (hydrogen spillage causes unsafe factors in the external environment). For hydrogen circulation pumps, it is necessary to achieve a good seal design (hydrogen is easy to leak), strong water resistance (after the reactor reaction remains with a small amount of water vapor), large flow (to adapt to high-power stacks), stable pressure output (low pressure to high pressure), oil-free (to ensure hydrogen purity), etc., the technical difficulty is much higher than that of traditional gas circulation pumps.
Foreign brands are mainly German Puxu, accounting for about 90% of the domestic market share. Puxu is a German company with products produced in Switzerland and a wholly owned subsidiary in Shanghai, China. The Puxu hydrogen circulation pump adopts a claw type, which is similar to the technical route of Toyota's subsidiary Toyota Automatic Loom and Japanese company Ougra.
At present, there are also individual enterprises in China that supply hydrogen circulation pumps in small batches. The quantity supplied is small, there is no brand, and it cannot be called a product in the strict sense. In terms of technical routes, some enterprises follow the Pushu claw route, some enterprises rely on their own advantages to develop vortex- and some enterprises develop similar to the Roots- If you add R&D prototypes and sample delivery tests, there are about 7-8 companies that intend to share the cake of the hydrogen circulation pump market.
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