A healthier energy mix
Text/Poplar
In another 24 hours, oil prices will rise again, and the price of No. 92 gasoline will continue to approach 9 yuan, while No. 98 gasoline has already entered the 10 yuan era. At the same time, pure electric vehicles, which are supplemented by gasoline vehicles, have not become a "safe haven" option.
Affected by the rising cost of batteries, more than 90% of pure electric vehicles in China have announced price increases, Tesla Model Y prices have increased by more than 30,000, and even the ideal ONE of extended-range vehicles has also announced a price increase of 11,800 yuan.
This gives a clear picture of the fragility of the existing automotive energy mix. Under the crisis, we are once again focusing on hydrogen energy vehicles. On March 23, the National Development and Reform Commission and the National Energy Administration jointly issued the Medium and Long-term Plan for the Development of the Hydrogen Energy Industry (2021-2035) (hereinafter referred to as the "Planning").
The "Plan" proposes to support the development of hydrogen fuel cell technology, and it is planned that by 2025, the number of fuel cell vehicles will be about 50,000. In addition, the "Planning" also clarified for the first time that hydrogen energy is an important part of the future national energy system, and renewable energy hydrogen production is the main development direction. It can be seen that the country has high hopes for hydrogen fuel cell technology to supplement the existing driving mode, and looks forward to vigorously developing the hydrogen energy industry to make the existing energy system healthier.
The automotive industry also actively responds to the call of the "Planning", at the 2022 China Electric Vehicle 100 Forum, Hyundai Motor Group (China) President Li Heyuan proposed to "strengthen the popularity of hydrogen fuel passenger cars, improve the acceptance of hydrogen energy in society, so that upstream and downstream enterprises in the industrial chain can reduce costs through economies of scale and create a virtuous cycle structure in which enterprises spontaneously participate in the market." ”
Why vigorously develop hydrogen energy at this point in time? What is the current status of hydrogen fuel cell development in the Chinese market at this stage? How should hydrogen fuel cells move forward? This article will explore these topics one by one.
Hydrogen energy helps optimize the energy structure
The "Planning" clearly states that hydrogen energy is a secondary energy source with rich sources, green and low carbon, and widely used, and is an important part of the mainland's future diversified energy system. The description of hydrogen energy here is timely and explains the reasons for the mainland's vigorous development of hydrogen energy.
Different from fossil energy, hydrogen energy and electric energy are secondary energy, the current mainland hydrogen production of more than 30 million tons / year, but like electric energy, mainly rely on fossil energy to produce hydrogen. Relying on coal power generation and coal-to-hydrogen production will produce higher carbon emissions, and if the proportion of upstream power generation and hydrogen primary energy is not optimized, only electric vehicles will be vigorously developed, and the goal of carbon neutrality will still be difficult.
The "Plan" encourages hydrogen production through renewable energy, and the mainland has a vast land area, and there are large-scale demonstration areas for wind power, hydropower and photovoltaics. However, due to the large environmental impact of renewable energy power generation, the fluctuation of power generation is also relatively large, so the generation of light and wind is generated, and it is necessary to rely on energy storage at the power generation end to further balance the peaks and valleys and improve the utilization rate of power generation.
Batteries and electrolyzed water hydrogen are two mature energy storage solutions, relatively speaking, batteries are very dependent on the upstream mineral supply chain, and the rapid development of electric vehicles, battery prices are high. Relatively speaking, hydrogen and hydrogen storage have less impact on energy fluctuations, and the cost is stable and controllable, which is a better way to store energy.
Neighboring South Korea and Japan, both plan to support renewable energy hydrogen production to get rid of dependence on fossil energy, Hyundai Motor and Toyota Motor are also taking advantage of the policy to become the leader in hydrogen fuel cell technology at this stage. Hyundai Motor's FCEV product line covers commercial vans, buses, passenger cars, and especially the hydrogen fuel cell SUV Hyundai NEXO has delivered more than 20,000 units worldwide.
At present, a number of demonstration projects for hydrogen production have been built in Zhangjiakou and other places, and the industry prospects are very broad, but as far as the automobile industry is concerned, it is still relatively weak. SAIC Motor invested earlier in the field of FCEVs, investing in hydrogen jet technology specializing in the research and development of hydrogen fuel cell systems, and SAIC Maxus also released the fuel cell MPV SAIC Maxus EUNIQ 7.
As Zhang Xiaoqiang, executive vice president of the China Center for International Economic Exchanges, said, compared with the international leading level, the core technology and equipment of the mainland hydrogen energy industry are still at the level of "running".
Solve the problem of eggs or chickens first
The development of hydrogen energy depends heavily on the development of downstream FCEVs, and the development of FCEVs depends very much on the preparation of hydrogen energy and infrastructure construction. The "Planning" will put hydrogen fuel in place and vigorously develop clean energy to produce hydrogen, which is actually to solve the "chicken and egg", and then the entire automobile industry needs to complete the "egg and chicken" together.
In order to promote the development of core technologies of FCEVs, the Plan points out that it is necessary to "actively carry out international cooperation in hydrogen energy technology innovation" in order to influence the energy structure through the development of FCEVs.
In fact, international cars with leading hydrogen fuel cell technology also have such demands. The development of FCEV is systems engineering, whether it is Hyundai Motor or Toyota Motor, they have realized the need to use a more open attitude, let more enterprises participate, and make the plate bigger together.
At present, Hyundai Motor's hydrogen energy industry layout in the Chinese market is the most active. In March 2021, Hyundai Motor Group established the first overseas large-scale hydrogen fuel cell system plant in Guangzhou, which is also the first large-scale hydrogen fuel cell system production plant in China. The plant is expected to be operational in December 2022, with an initial plant planned to produce 6,500 hydrogen fuel cell systems per year.
At the same time, Hyundai Motor has also introduced the hydrogen fuel SUV Hyundai NEXO to China in the form of an imported car, which is currently the only hydrogen fuel cell SUV model that can be bought in the Chinese market and can be licensed.
The significance of the landing of hydrogen fuel cell passenger vehicles is higher than that of commercial vehicles, because passenger cars are closer to consumers, which is more convenient to promote consumers to gradually eliminate misunderstanding of hydrogen fuel cell technology and enhance social acceptance of hydrogen fuel cells. At present, the biggest obstacle to the development of hydrogen fuel cell technology comes from safety trust, south Korea has also had a public protest against hydrogen fuel cells, through the promotion of FCEV passenger cars, can gradually eliminate misunderstandings and establish trust in hydrogen energy.
According to Hyundai Motor Group's global model data, Hyundai NEXO is equipped with a total of three 70Mpa high-pressure hydrogen storage cylinders, which can store 6.33kg of gaseous hydrogen, which uses a plastic inner tank with higher volume density, and a carbon fiber fully wound shell, equipped with a pressure relief valve and a special coating to withstand the flame, reaching the vehicle standard level durability. In fact, hydrogen fuel cells are excellent in terms of safety and economy.
Li Hequan, president of Hyundai Motor Group (China), also proposed to formulate hydrogen energy safety standards in advance and strengthen cooperation in international standards and industrial chains. At the same time, Li Hequan also called on colleagues in the domestic automotive industry to jointly promote the implementation of hydrogen standards for vehicles, the further refinement of fuel cell durability test standards, and the improvement of safety detection methods for hydrogen cylinders, so as to safely promote hydrogen energy so that consumers can be more assured.
The advantages of FCEV are the high energy replenishment efficiency and the purification of the air instead of polluting the air. Hyundai NEXO takes only 5 minutes to refuel and the NEDC has a cruising range of up to 800km. Since the FCEV is to absorb the air purification during the driving process, capture the oxygen in the air, electrochemical reactions in the fuel cell stack to generate electricity, and drive the car with electricity, the product of the entire reaction is only water, so not only zero emissions, but also purified the air.
The core technology of FCEV vehicles is hydrogen fuel cell reactors and hydrogen storage cylinders, both of which Hyundai Motor is a leading role, able to introduce NEXO models into the Chinese market, while building HTWO's world-class hydrogen technology factory in China, which will play a huge value in helping to achieve the goal of 50,000 FCEVs in 2025 proposed in the "Plan".
Hyundai Motor is very enthusiastic about the development of hydrogen energy vehicles in the Chinese market, in addition to the introduction of products and technologies, Hyundai China also actively participates in the formulation of hydrogen energy and hydrogen fuel cell related standards, and also incubates outstanding startups in China's hydrogen energy industry through the form of industrial funds to jointly promote the prosperity of the entire hydrogen energy industry chain.
Li Heyuan, President of Hyundai Motor Group (China), said at the 2022 China Electric Vehicle 100 Forum, "China, as the world's largest producer of hydrogen energy, already has leading the global market experience in the field of pure electric vehicles, so it is expected to lead the future transformation of hydrogen energy society." "This may be the reason why Hyundai is betting on the Chinese market."
Steady development, FCEV and BEV for a long time in parallel
The "Planning" puts forward the principle of "prudent application, demonstration first" for the development of hydrogen energy. FCEV is more technically difficult and relies more on infrastructure construction in landing, so the Great Leap Forward development is irrational, and in the short and medium term, BEV and FCEV will develop in synergy and work together towards carbon neutrality goals.
BEV's charging pile construction and FCEV's hydrogen refueling station construction are just the opposite, charging pile laying speed is fast, but the maintenance cost is high, and the service capacity of single charging station is limited, commercial promotion basically does not have scale efficiency, and pile dealers are loss-making at this stage.
FCEV, on the other hand, is slower to lay hydrogen refueling stations due to transportation and storage costs. However, the hydrogen refueling station is very stable after laying, the maintenance cost is low, the service capacity of a single station is strong, the overall is about equal to the gas station, and it has scale efficiency in commercial promotion.
The two ways of replenishment are innate CP, which means that the long-term parallel development of FCEVs and BEVs is the optimal solution for the moment. In particular, BEV and FCEV are essentially pure electric drives, which can be developed in the technology of motors and electronic controls, and can improve the efficiency of research and development.
This piece of Hyundai Motor is the forerunner, Hyundai Motor has shown us a stable and orderly development of hydrogen energy through its own development.
Hyundai Motor launched the E-GMP pure electric platform in the field of pure electric vehicles, and built the IONIQ series models based on this platform, which received good feedback in the North American and European markets. At the same time, Hyundai Motor has long bet on FCEV and put forward the "Hydrogen Energy Vision 2040" to cover the FCEV product line to passenger cars, buses, commercial vehicles and other fields.
Hyundai Motor's development of FCEVs is also gradual, in accordance with the "Hydrogen Vision 2040", FECV will first be promoted in the field of commercial vehicles, and gradually increase the market sales of FCEV passenger car NEXO, while Hyundai also plans to promote FCEVs to large ships, air travel and other fields.
The path of Hyundai Automobile is of great reference significance, the route of commercial vehicles is relatively fixed, the input-output ratio is higher for the early promotion, the construction of hydrogen refueling stations in the main network is prioritized, and the popularization of FCEVs is gradually promoted. At the same time, we adhere to the two legs of BEV and FCEV to achieve coordinated technological development and complementary commercialization.
Write at the end:
Hydrogen can actually be understood as another form of existence of "electricity", helping instantaneous electricity, expanding the dimension of time, so that electricity can be stored with low pollution and high efficiency. At the same time, hydrogen, as the strongest element of "sense of existence" on the earth, is rich in reserves and easy to obtain.
Vigorously developing hydrogen energy can avoid energy price turbulence caused by unstable factors. At the same time, the synergy of FCEVs and BEVs in the technical route and the complementarity of the construction of the energy replenishment system mean that the two technologies will eventually coexist for a long time and together constitute a carbon-neutral green economy.
In this process, the need to be guided by demand, Hyundai Motor in the Chinese market to take the lead in the introduction of FCEV model NEXO, as well as the construction of HTWO world-class hydrogen energy technology factory, greatly stimulated the vitality of China's hydrogen energy market, which is like a magnificent symphony blowing the prelude, and the follow-up Huazhang is waiting for forces from all walks of life to play together.