Rapid development of foreign fuel cells, Domestic fuel cells need to break technical bottleneck

A fuel cell is a power generation device that converts the chemical energy of a fuel and an oxidant directly into electrical energy through an electrochemical reaction. It is mainly composed of positive poles, negative poles, electrolytes and auxiliary equipment.

Developed countries have made the development of large fuel cells a key research project, and the business community has also invested heavily in the research and development of fuel cell technology. As a result, fuel cells will soon replace traditional generators and internal combustion engines and are widely used in power generation and automobiles.

The difficult problem of the industrialization of catalyst production of key fuel cell materials has been overcome by the joint research and development team of the hydrogen fuel cell laboratory of Tsinghua University and a technology company in Wuhan. At present, the catalyst has 17 patents, with a capacity of 1200 grams per day, and the price is only half that of imported products.

Catalyst as the core material of fuel cell, its comprehensive performance and localization are directly related to the core competitiveness of fuel cell technology in China and its industrialization prospects. However, the related intellectual property rights have always been in the hands of a few developed countries in the West. The high cost of the catalyst core materials has long relied on imports, which has restricted the independent development of China's hydrogen energy industry.

According to data from the forward-looking industry research institute "China Fuel Cell Industry Market Outlook and Investment Strategic Planning Analysis Report", fuel cells are mainly divided into six types, of which PAFC, DMFC, and PEMFC use platinum metal catalysts.

In 2015, Tsinghua University and Wuhan Himalaya Optoelectronics Technology Co., Ltd. carried out in-depth cooperation between the school and enterprises, and jointly used the catalyst preparation process of Tsinghua University to carry out the mass production technology of the Pt/C catalyst. At present, the catalyst production capacity has reached 1200 g/day, which can meet the needs of 40 36kW fuel cell electric reactors and have large-scale industrial production conditions. This series of results completely broke the long-standing monopoly of the technology in a few countries, and the price is only half that of similar imports.

Catalyst serialization products have been applied to fuel cell reactors of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, universities and several fuel cell companies. At the end of this year, up to 1,000 hydrogen fuel cells will be produced using the catalyst.

The next step will be to improve the catalyst's parameters, to increase the tolerance of sulfides, nitrides and other impurities, and to inject strong power into the domestic production of fuel cells in China, said Wangcheng, the leader of the attack team and director of the hydrogen fuel cell laboratory at Tsinghua University.

Most of the problems of industrialization and commercialization can be attributed to costs, and fuel cells are no exception. Cost control of fuel cells has been one of the most important objectives of research institutions and industry in the past 10 years.

Fuel cells are part of clean energy. Since the reaction process is a pollution-free water reaction, the reaction process will not produce pollutants. The main pollutants come from fuels, and there may be pollution such as nitrogen oxides. Compared to the air pollution of ordinary thermal power generation and the heavy metal pollution of traditional batteries, the pollution degree of fuel cells to the environment is greatly reduced.

The high efficiency, pollution-free, short construction cycle, easy maintenance and low cost potential of fuel cells will ignite the green revolution of new energy and environmental protection in the 21st century. Today, in North America, Japan and Europe, fuel cell power generation is rapidly catching up to the stage of industrial-scale applications, and will become the fourth generation of power generation in the 21st century after thermal power, hydropower, andspecial power. The rapid development of fuel cell technology in foreign countries must be paid enough attention to by us. It is now an issue that the energy and power industries have to face.

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