Li Can: Green hydrogen energy and liquid sunlight methanol help achieve the "double carbon" goal

Beijing, August 12 (Xinhua Finance) -- On the evening of the 12th, at the second sub-forum of the fourth "Gansu Qilianshan Forum", Li Can, academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and director of the Solar Energy Research Department of the Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, delivered a speech entitled "Green Hydrogen Energy and Liquid Sunlight Methanol - The Path of Low-Carbon Greening in China's Western Region" in view of the low-carbon green development path of China's western region, especially Gansu Province. He pointed out that the technology of using renewable energy such as solar energy to produce green hydrogen and reacting with carbon dioxide to generate liquid sunlight methanol will become a feasible path for China to achieve the goal of carbon peak carbon neutrality and "double carbon".

At present, global climate change has endangered the sustainable development of mankind, and the "double carbon" target has been included in the government work report and the "14th Five-Year Plan", and has become one of the eight key tasks in 2021. In this speech, Li Can focused on the technical principles and practical achievements of carbon capture, utilization and storage to achieve carbon reduction.

Li Can introduced that to achieve carbon circular economy through carbon capture and storage and carbon capture resource utilization, green hydrogen energy is needed to achieve this process. In the three ways of hydrogen production, compared with gray hydrogen and blue hydrogen, under the "double carbon" requirements, the use of renewable energy such as solar energy to electrolyze water to produce green hydrogen is the direction of development advocated, because through green hydrogen can achieve zero carbon dioxide emissions. At the same time, green hydrogen energy can not only be applied to hydrogen fuel cells, but also play a carbon reduction role in the chemical industry, metallurgy, cement, building materials and other industries.

For a long time, China's dependence on oil is relatively high, and liquid fuel is relatively scarce. Li Can believes that by consuming renewable energy electricity to produce hydrogen, and then further generating liquid fuel, it can realize the centralized storage of solar energy. The specific path is carbon dioxide hydrogenation, which is stored in methanol, that is, liquid sunlight methanol. Methanol is an excellent fuel and basic chemical intermediate, which can replace gasoline and is widely used in the chemical industry, so that carbon dioxide can be turned into a treasure and resource utilization can be realized.

At the beginning of 2020, the world's first set of direct liquid solar fuel large-scale synthesis projects with China's independent intellectual property rights technology was successfully tested in Lanzhou New Area, and has now developed into a thousand-ton large-scale solar fuel synthesis industry demonstration project. Li Can pointed out that if China's current 80 million tons of methanol production capacity is calculated, liquid sunshine methanol will reduce carbon dioxide emissions by hundreds of millions of tons compared with coal chemical methanol, providing a practical solution for the realization of the "double carbon" goal. In addition, as a long-term, stable and safely stored renewable energy, liquid sunlight methanol can also alleviate China's energy security problems, while also solving the problem of random changes in renewable electricity on the supply side and market side.

Looking forward to the future transformation of fossil energy and chemical industries under the goal of carbon neutrality, Li Can believes that the emergence of more subversive and breakthrough technological research results will make renewable energy sources such as light, electricity, wind and water replace fossil energy and become the main energy used by human beings, thus promoting the fundamental transformation of fossil energy and fossil industries.

Finally, based on the "double carbon" goal, Li Can believes that Gansu should seize the following three major development opportunities:

First, fully develop Gansu's photovoltaic and wind power resources, achieve low-cost, efficient and large-scale production of green hydrogen and liquid solar methanol, solve the problem of wind and light abandonment, form a green methanol production base in addition to UHV transmission, and form a trillion-level new energy industry。

Second, give full play to the advantages of Photovoltaic and Wind Energy resources in Gansu, and combine with local enterprises, especially traditional chemical, metallurgical, building materials and other enterprises, to develop green and low-carbon emerging industries.

Third, through the optimal use of carbon resources through green hydrogen, research and development of high value-added products (fine and high-end chemicals) and green products such as "card neck", forming a green and low-carbon modern industrial industry.

Source: Xinhua Finance Editor: Liu Mingde