The hydrogen fuel cell industry faces the challenge of industrialization of fuel cell technology

In recent years, benefiting from the rapid upgrading of electric vehicle technology and the promotion of policies, the new energy vehicle industry in China has shown "blow-out" growth. As the core component of electric vehicle, the level of technology directly affects and even restricts the development level of the new energy automotive industry. At present, lithium-ion batteries in poor endurance, long charging time and other core difficulties difficult to break through effectively, the development of the new energy automotive industry seems to have entered a "bottleneck period." Hydrogen fuel cells have the advantages of long life and fast fuel supply, which is expected to break the bottleneck of the development of the new energy automotive industry.

The hydrogen fuel cell system is a power generation system. Electrochemical reactions occur through hydrogen and oxygen. The final emission is water, which is more environmentally friendly than the current mainstream lithium battery. According to the battery China Network, the current lithium battery charging time fast charging mode is generally 30-50 minutes, and compared to the lithium battery used as a energy storage device, the hydrogen fuel cell system itself is a power generation device, supplementing fuel-hydrogen. It only takes 3-5 minutes.

Statistics show that in 2017, 1,500 fuel cell commercial vehicles were sold worldwide, of which 1,272 were sold in China. The 1272 figure is actually a very small figure relative to China's large market base, but sales of fuel cell vehicles in the Chinese market in 2016 were less than 30, which shows that fuel cell commercial vehicles have seen rapid growth in 2017.

It is worth noting that in 2017, the global capital market invested more than 10 billion yuan in the fuel cell industry, of which Chinese capital exceeded 9 billion yuan, including such as Xiongyi, Dayang, Sansuo, Zhongtong, etc. The investment layout has been carried out in the field of hydrogen fuel cells. The entry of social capital stems from the optimistic prospects for the development of the hydrogen fuel cell industry, but it will also provide strong support for the rapid development of the hydrogen fuel cell industry.

The development of hydrogen fuel cell industry is proceeding quietly

In 2016, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology planned in the "Energy Conservation and New Energy Vehicle Route" that by 2020, the market will have 5,000 hydrogen fuel cell vehicles and 100 hydrogen refueling stations; In 2025, there will be 50,000 hydrogen fuel cell vehicles and 350 hydrogen refueling stations; In 2030, the group will reach 1 million hydrogen fuel cell vehicles and 1,000 hydrogen refueling stations.

At the same time, local governments have also begun to actively deploy the fuel cell industry. In September 2017, Shanghai took the lead in issuing the "Shanghai Fuel Cell Automobile Development Plan" at the local government level. It is planned that by 2020, the hydrogen fuel cell industry chain will be able to create a production value of 15 billion yuan in Shanghai, and hydrogen stations will be completed. Ten, to build two passenger vehicle demonstration areas. The operating scale exceeds 3,000 vehicles, with an annual output value of 100 billion in 2025 and passenger car sales of 20,000 vehicles. Subsequently, including Suzhou, Xi'an, Guangzhou, Wuhan, Foshan and other places have also issued development plans for the hydrogen fuel cell industry.

Not only domestic, the Japanese government has also made plans to launch a total of 200,000 hydrogen fuel cell vehicles and 320 hydrogen refueling stations by 2025; In 2030, it will have 800,000 hydrogen fuel cell vehicles and 900 hydrogen refueling stations; The German hydrogen energy plan released in 2016 mentioned that by the end of 2018, it will invest 116 million euros in the development of hydrogen energy industry, and plans to complete 100 hydrogen refueling stations in 2023. The hydrogen fuel cell industry is valued in most countries.

Steady progress in the construction of hydrogen refueling stations and other basic facilities

The hydrogen station provides raw materials for hydrogen fuel cell vehicles. If supporting facilities can not keep up, it will seriously restrict the development of the fuel cell automotive industry. Statistics show that by the end of 2017, there were 327 hydrogen refueling stations in the world, and they were mainly distributed in Asia, Europe and North America. Before 2015, there were only three hydrogen refueling stations in China, and by 2017 there were already 13 hydrogen refueling stations in operation. At present, there are still 20 Chinese buildings under construction, and this number is expected to exceed 100 by 2019.

The application advantage of fuel cell in commercial vehicle field is obvious

With foreign car companies in the layout of fuel cell vehicles from passenger vehicles, some domestic fuel cell enterprises choose to open the way from commercial vehicles. According to battery China, Shanghai remodel energy technology company launched 500 fuel cell logistics vehicles in Shanghai in 2017. The company's chairman, Linqi, revealed to Battery China Network that the company chose to enter the fuel cell commercial market from a logistics vehicle, mainly due to the following considerations: First, commercial vehicles are relatively flexible in space layout for fuel cell systems; Second, the operating route of commercial vehicles is relatively fixed, fixed-point alignment, and the demand for the layout density of hydrogen stations is relatively small; Third, the use of fuel cells for urban public transport and logistics distribution has a certain sense of promotion; Fourth, we hope that through the promotion of the fuel cell commercial vehicle market, driving the construction of hydrogen infrastructure and paving the way for the future passenger car market.

According to industry experts, the commercial advantages of automotive fuel cell technology are that it is not sensitive to vehicle load, mass ratio power density, volume ratio, power density is relatively high, and fueling time is very short (about 3-5 minutes to be able to put fuel Complementing), the cruising range and load are greatly improved, and the fuel cell system has obvious advantages in large load applications and medium and heavy commercial vehicle applications. The range of mileage and load brought about by the fuel cell system has been greatly improved, and the advantages of the fuel cell system in the application of heavy load and medium and heavy commercial vehicles are more obvious. With the rapid development of e-commerce and logistics and distribution industries, especially under the premise that large and ultra-large cities have greater demand for logistics and distribution industries, and under the premise that there are also higher requirements for the urban environment, Fuel cell logistics vehicles are a good way to fill the current new energy vehicles in the long life, high load this blank area of application.

Challenges to the industrialization of fuel cell technology

As the most ideal energy-saving technology in the future, the industrialization and commercialization of fuel cell technology still face considerable challenges. According to experts in the battery China Network industry, the challenges facing the commercialization of fuel cell vehicles are grouped into the following categories:

First, the standard class. Fuel cell vehicles have the advantage of long endurance, which means more hydrogen, and currently the 70Mpa hydrogen system standard for hydrogen storage systems needs to be broken. In the field of logistics, for end users, they are more concerned with operating costs and use requires companies to strengthen technology research and development in hydrogen storage and transportation. At the same time, the relevant standards for fuel cell vehicles also need to be improved.

Second, resource class. The first is the construction of hydrogen station facilities. The commercialization of fuel cell vehicles can not be separated from the supporting construction of hydrogen station facilities. At this stage, hydrogen station is under great pressure both in approval and on the ground. The second is the autonomy of the components of the fuel cell system, and the independent development and localization of the key components of the fuel cell system is a key path to reducing costs. This area requires support from supply chains and component manufacturers. Third, the policy-oriented market pressure, the current new energy vehicle market is a subsidiary-driven market, in the absence of subsidies or subsidies after the slope, this pressure is also necessary to bear, but also must have solutions.

Third, cognitive class. The first is the over-interpretation related to hydrogen safety. For a long time, due to the lack of sufficient public understanding of hydrogen energy, there are doubts about the safety of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles. This is also a major factor that the hydrogen fuel cell automotive industry is currently difficult to develop rapidly. The second is the social science of fuel cell technology. Although fuel cells are also called "batteries," it is different from energy storage batteries. It is actually a power generation device. Its energy is actually stored in hydrogen storage systems. The third is the diversification of global technology routes. At this stage, fuel cells are still in the stage of development, the market has not yet formed a scale, and companies are not yet clear on the technology route. Experts believe that the future fuel cell technology route has yet to determine 1-2 very clear technical routes.

As a rookie in the new energy automotive industry, fuel cell vehicles still have a long way to go in terms of technology research and development, supporting facilities construction and large-scale commercial applications. In the face of these challenges, it is necessary for enterprises, governments and society to participate together to promote the development of the fuel cell automotive industry.

The page contains the contents of the machine translation.