Lu Jiangtao, a reporter from China Economic Weekly
As oil prices continue to rise, "selling fuel vehicles for pure electric vehicles" has become one of the hottest topics on the Internet.
However, compared with passenger cars, commercial vehicles that are more sensitive to oil prices, especially heavy trucks that need to run long distances, may have more difficulty switching to pure electric. For long-distance logistics and transportation, time is money, and endurance and charging waiting time are the hard wounds of pure electric trucks.
Is there a clean energy commercial vehicle that saves costs without range anxiety while drastically reducing carbon emissions? Methanol vehicles, a technical route that Geely has been deeply cultivating for 17 years, has recently become the focus of discussion in the industry.
It is understood that Geely has solved the industry problems such as alcohol resistance and durability of methanol engine parts, mastered the core technology of methanol vehicles, formed more than 200 patents, developed more than 20 methanol fuel models, with a cumulative driving mileage of nearly 10 billion kilometers, the highest single vehicle operating mileage of more than 1.2 million kilometers, and has the world's first main engine plant to achieve mass production of methanol vehicles.
Methanol vehicles have obvious advantages
When it comes to reducing carbon emissions in the field of transportation, domestic consumers are already familiar with the two technical routes of pure electric and hydrogen fuel cells, but they are relatively unfamiliar with methanol vehicles.
In fact, methanol vehicles are not a new thing, it has been developing in the mainland automobile manufacturing industry for more than 40 years.
Relevant data show that methanol has a hydrogen content of 12.5% and an oxygen content of 50%, which is similar to hydrogen energy, and has the characteristics of efficient combustion, clean emissions and renewable. Among the many new energy and clean energy sources in the field of transportation, such as electricity, hydrogen energy, methanol, natural gas, ammonia, etc., methanol is the only liquid energy at room temperature and pressure, with excellent fuel characteristics, safe and convenient use, and the combustion characteristics of gasoline and diesel. Moreover, the wide range of methanol production sources, the huge economic volume, and the sustainable development of the whole industry chain have gradually become an ideal new clean renewable fuel recognized globally.
According to the methanol vehicle pilot operation data of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, methanol vehicles have increased energy efficiency by about 21% and reduced carbon dioxide emissions by about 26% compared with gasoline vehicles.
Compared with pure electric vehicles, methanol vehicles have an obvious advantage that they have high energy efficiency and endurance are not affected by weather. Compared with hydrogen fuel cell vehicles, the extraction and production of methanol vehicle raw materials are not too demanding, and both the cost and promotion difficulty will be lower.
Geely methanol taxi operated on the road in Guiyang City
It is worth noting that methanol not only emits less carbon dioxide than gasoline and diesel when burned, but also consumes carbon dioxide during the preparation process.
It is understood that methanol modern coal chemical industry and renewable energy to produce green hydrogen green oxygen technology coupling, in the process of preparing methanol, every 1 ton of methanol produced can consume about 1.4 tons of carbon dioxide. At the same time, methanol has renewable green properties, which can be synthesized by electrolysis of water to hydrogen and carbon dioxide from renewable energy, or biomass methanol can be prepared from straw and municipal waste.
Some insiders pointed out that under the catalysis of carbon reduction targets, the scale of solar and wind power generation is getting larger and larger, but there is intermittentness, instability, wind curtailment, light abandonment phenomenon, although these electrical energy can be used to electrolyze water to produce hydrogen, but hydrogen is not safe, and it needs to be compressed and liquefied, and the transportation cost is high. If hydrogen is synthesized from industrially captured carbon dioxide into green methanol, methanol is a liquid at room temperature and pressure, and storage, transportation and use are more economical, safe and convenient.
Therefore, methanol is the best carrier of hydrogen in nature, and the carbon dioxide captured by industry reduces carbon emissions in industrial production, and the resulting methanol also has a "green" property.
The industrial chain is becoming more and more mature
Since the development of methanol vehicles has so many advantages, and methanol vehicles have a history of more than 40 years in the mainland automobile manufacturing industry, why has the enthusiasm of most car companies for methanol vehicles not been high before?
The main reason why methanol vehicles have been "applauding or not calling" before is that there are problems such as low product maturity, complex system, long starting time, and small system power.
However, with the advancement of technology, the main standards and specifications related to methanol fuel and methanol vehicles in the mainland have been established, and the upstream and downstream industrial chains have basically taken shape, and gradually have the basis for large-scale promotion and application.
Among them, Geely, which has been deeply engaged in methanol vehicles for 17 years, is not only the enterprise with the largest number of methanol vehicles promoted in the market, but also the automobile manufacturer with the largest number of vehicles put into the pilot operation of methanol vehicles. In the ministry of industry and information technology's nearly five-year pilot project of methanol vehicles in five provinces and cities, Geely invested 908 methanol vehicles, accounting for nearly 90% of the total number of pilot vehicles.
In 2019, Geely's new energy commercial vehicle brand remote car released the world's first methanol heavy truck, Geely's methanol engine overcome the two major technical problems of low temperature start-up difficulties and corrosion of alcohol-related components, and broke through a number of key technologies such as special lubricant development, special additive development, emission control, methanol EFI control system, etc., which are at the world's leading level.
In 2021, the long-range car launched a 13L National VI methanol engine, which further reduced the energy consumption of the previous generation by 5%, the power can reach 430 horsepower / 460 horsepower, and the average annual fuel cost can be saved by 18% compared with diesel heavy trucks, which is both reliable, dynamic and economical.
In March this year, the methanol sedan and long-range methanol heavy truck developed and produced by Geely Holding Group began a test and demonstration run in Aalborg, Denmark, which is the first methanol car in Denmark. Denmark is a pioneer in the integration of methanol applications at the national level, and has formed a complete value chain in the research and development, production, filling and application of green methanol, and is fully driving methanol into the field of sea, land and air transportation. Geely's methanol vehicles were selected for this demonstration operation, which is also a high recognition of Geely's methanol vehicle technology.
The Danish Minister of Transport rides a long-range methanol heavy truck
Industrialization needs to be accelerated urgently
In fact, many countries around the world, including China, are actively deploying methanol. At present, many european countries have laid out green methanol production, and the earliest will be put into production this year. Shipping giant Maersk intends to lead the shipping industry to carbon neutrality ahead of schedule, and has already subscribed in advance for more than 700,000 tons of green methanol supplies for its methanol vessels. Denmark, Finland, Sweden, Germany and other European organizations have carried out a test project of methanol as a vehicle fuel. EU countries consider methanol, as a liquid carbon neutral fuel, to be an important part of achieving sustainable development in the transportation sector, and the use of green methanol fuel will also achieve carbon neutrality throughout the life cycle of "well to wheel".
In recent years, many of the advantages of methanol have begun to be recognized and developed by more and more countries, and China is also changing from a catcher to a leader.
Gregory Dolan, chief operating officer of the Global Methanol Industry Association, said the use of methanol as fuel may have originated as early as the United States and Europe in the 1980s and 1990s, but the Western world is now a student, and China has become a veritable teacher in the field.
From 2013 to 2018, led by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the pilot operation of methanol vehicles was organized in five provinces and cities (Shanxi, Shanghai, Shaanxi, Guizhou and Gansu), which systematically verified the applicability, safety, reliability, economy and environmental protection of methanol vehicles.
In September 2021, the Ministry of Ecology and Environment officially accepted the environmental certification of methanol vehicles, and methanol vehicles were included in the unified management of the national automobile industry. In November of the same year, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology proposed in the "14th Five-Year Plan for Industrial Green Development" to promote the promotion and application of carbon reduction technologies such as carbon dioxide coupling to methanol, incorporate methanol vehicles into green products, vigorously develop and promote new energy vehicles, and promote the promotion of alternative fuel vehicles such as methanol vehicles.
With the maturity of green methanol technology in mainland China, large-scale development is also accelerating. In Lanzhou, the world's first 1,000-ton solar fuel synthesis demonstration project was successfully landed. Shanxi Province is building a waste and straw gasification biomass methanol plant, which is expected to cost as much as coal-to-methanol. Icelandic Carbon Cycle International, an early investment by Geely, used geothermal power generation to produce hydrogen and capture carbon dioxide to synthesize renewable methanol, a technology that has been introduced to China.
At present, Guizhou Province has established a sound methanol vehicle production, sales, service system and methanol fuel transmission and distribution supply guarantee system, introduced a series of incentive measures including taxis, gradually formed a system system and management mechanism to ensure the operation of methanol vehicles, and promoted 16,400 methanol vehicles through market-oriented methods, with a total operating mileage of more than 6.5 billion kilometers and a maximum single vehicle operating mileage of more than 950,000 kilometers. In Guizhou Province, more than 50 methanol fuel filling stations have been put into operation, consuming about 250,000 tons of methanol and replacing about 150,000 tons of gasoline per year. Guiyang has become the most successful, largest and most widely covered city in the marketization of methanol fuel and methanol vehicles in the world, and has formed a certain influence on a global scale.
However, at present, the competent government departments have not confirmed the application attributes of methanol as fuel, and methanol fuel has not been included in the scope of national new energy, so that the production, sales and approval of methanol fuel and the approval and construction of filling stations lack policy basis, so that methanol filling stations in many parts of the country have not been popularized. Correspondingly, methanol vehicles have not been included in the development system and management scope of new energy vehicles, which has led to the lack of basis and support for methanol vehicles to identify as new energy vehicles and obtain new energy licenses.
In addition, the lack of effective policy guidance, domestic enterprises involved in methanol vehicles and industrial chains are also very few, in the context of the degree of science popularization is far less than pure trams, consumer groups because of the lack of understanding of methanol vehicles and have a wait-and-see attitude. All of the above are factors that may lead to restrictions on the application of methanol fuel and the development of methanol vehicles.
During the two sessions of the National People's Congress this year, Li Shufu, a deputy to the National People's Congress and chairman of Geely Holding Group, put forward the proposal of "promoting the application of methanol vehicles to help carbon neutrality in the transportation field", suggesting that methanol vehicles be included in the development system and management of new energy vehicles, and give methanol vehicles the same policy support as new energy vehicles. He introduced that at present, methanol vehicles only have policy support and subsidies in a few provinces or cities, and both the strength and breadth have a large gap with new energy models such as pure electricity, which restricts the promotion speed of methanol vehicles.
"According to the forecast of the mainland's liquid energy demand, if the scale of methanol fuel application reaches more than 350 million tons, the external dependence of mainland crude oil can be reduced to less than 30%." Li Shufu once described the prospects of methanol vehicles in this way.
Editor-in-charge: Yang Lin
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