New Energy

1. Improve energy efficiency. While hydrogen energy is used to power buildings, the waste heat generated by fuel cells can be used for building heating, and the comprehensive energy utilization efficiency can reach 95%;

2. When the power grid is out of power, it will not affect indoor lighting, and it can also ensure the power supply of low-power devices such as mobile phones and computers, ensure continuous hot water supply for daily life and winter floor heating, and ensure emergency energy supply for families;

3. Renewable energy generation or solar photovoltaic power generation directly electrolyzes water to produce hydrogen, and hydrogen is transported to hydrogen energy buildings through pipelines. Distributed fuel cells provide electricity and heat for hydrogen energy buildings, reducing carbon dioxide emissions by 1.3Mt per year.

Hydrogen energy can generate heat energy through combustion and mechanical work in heat engines. It can also be used as a raw material for fuel cells, and can also be converted into isomorphic hydrogen for use as structural materials.

Since the 1970s, developed countries such as the United States and Japan have accelerated the research pace of hydrogen power generation technology. At present, hydrogen power generation has entered the stage of construction pilot projects in some developed countries.

Domestic hydrogen energy storage technology is still in the demonstration application stage. The first megawatt-level hydrogen energy storage project in China was put into operation in Lu'an, Anhui on July 6, 2022. The project adopts a single-tank 250-kilowatt four-tank parallel control technology and applies the first megawatt-level proton exchange membrane (PEM) pure water electrolysis hydrogen production system in China. The hydrogen production capacity is 220 standard cubic meters/hour under the rated hydrogen production power, and the system hydrogen production efficiency reaches 85%.
Zhangjiakou 200MW/800MWh hydrogen energy storage power generation project passed the expert review on November 13, 2021. The entire power generation area is a large-scale hydrogen production, storage and power generation system consisting of 80 large-scale water electrolysis hydrogen production devices, 96 sets of hydrogen absorption and release metal solid hydrogen storage devices, 384 640kW fuel cell modules, and inverter and boost electrical equipment. The project is scheduled to be completed and put into operation in 2023, marking a substantial step forward in the application of hydrogen energy in large-scale energy storage and peak regulation in my country.

The industrial sector has a large demand for hydrogen, so it can reduce the cost of the hydrogen energy supply chain through economies of scale; at the same time, industrial enterprises have relatively centralized decision-making, and can take the lead in infrastructure and other aspects, and drive the development of hydrogen energy in the whole society. In the future, hydrogen energy will have broad application prospects in the industrial field, and hydrogen steelmaking, green hydrogen chemical industry and natural gas hydrogen blending will become the main application scenarios.

In the industrial field, hydrogen energy will be widely used in steel, chemical, petrochemical and other industries, replacing fossil energy such as coal and oil. It is estimated that the demand for hydrogen energy in the industrial field will exceed 35 million tons in 2050, of which hydrogen metallurgy is expected to reach more than 10 million tons. Against the background of stricter environmental protection policies, hydrogen metallurgical technology can help achieve different degrees of emission reduction and become one of the focuses of green development of steel. Hydrogen metallurgy mainly includes two types: blast furnace hydrogen-rich reduction ironmaking and hydrogen-based shaft furnace direct reduction. Among them, the former uses hydrogen to replace part of the coke as a reducing agent, which can achieve a carbon emission reduction of more than 10%; the latter uses hydrogen as a reducing agent to convert iron ore into direct reduced iron (DRI), and then through electric furnace smelting, it can achieve a carbon emission reduction of more than 50%.

In the field of transportation, hydrogen energy is mainly used in hydrogen energy vehicles, heavy machinery, aircraft and ships. Hydrogen-powered vehicles are one of the main ways to use hydrogen energy. Hydrogen has high thermal energy. Each kilogram of hydrogen can produce 33.6kW/h of energy, which is 2.8 times that of gasoline. In addition, hydrogen has a very low ignition point and a fast flame propagation speed. It has a higher fuel utilization rate than gasoline vehicles and does not emit pollutants or greenhouse gases. The application of hydrogen energy in my country follows the characteristics that hydrogen fuel cell commercial vehicles develop before passenger vehicles. With the support of industrial subsidies and national policies, the application of commercial vehicles such as hydrogen fuel cell buses and logistics vehicles in China is ahead of other hydrogen fuel cell models.

Hydrogen fuel cell vehicles will set off a wave of new energy reform. As an important downstream application field of hydrogen energy, hydrogen fuel cell vehicles have entered the demonstration and introduction period. With the continuous improvement of infrastructure construction such as hydrogen refueling stations and the continuous breakthroughs in hydrogen production and storage technologies, the advantages of fuel cell vehicles in low emissions, short hydrogenation time and long cruising range will gradually emerge, and production and sales will show an upward trend. Hydrogen fuel cell vehicles will start with buses and urban logistics vehicles, expand to passenger cars, and then deploy in other transportation fields. Gradually establish a complete fuel cell material, component, system preparation and production industry chain. According to the Energy-saving and New Energy Vehicle Technology Roadmap 2.0, by 2035, the number of fuel cell vehicles in my country will reach about 1 million. In 2050, the number of fuel cell vehicles will reach 10 million.

Hydrogen fuel cells are an important technical route for the application of hydrogen energy in the transportation field. Among them, hydrogen energy commercial vehicles and hydrogen energy heavy engineering machinery are the main forms of application in China's hydrogen energy transportation field at this stage. Hydrogen fuel cell vehicles currently have high construction costs, low coverage of hydrogen refueling stations, and insufficient hydrogen energy education in the market, so people are less willing to buy hydrogen fuel cell passenger cars. However, hydrogen fuel cell vehicles have advantages such as long battery life, convenient charging, and low temperature resistance. Compared with lithium battery vehicles, their performance attributes are more in line with commercial vehicle scene requirements. Although the number of commercial vehicles used is less than that of passenger cars, their daily operating mileage far exceeds that of passenger cars. The government has formulated subsidies and proportion policies to promote the willingness of municipal and corporate purchases to hydrogen fuel cell commercial vehicles, thereby driving the development of hydrogen energy vehicles. By 2025, the number of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles in China is expected to grow to 100,000, with a market size of 80 billion yuan.

According to the "China Hydrogen Energy and Fuel Cell Industry White Paper" report, it is expected that hydrogen energy will account for at least 10% of China's terminal energy system in 2050, and the demand for hydrogen will be close to 60 million tons, of which 24.58 million tons will be used in the transportation sector, accounting for about 19% of the energy consumption in this sector, and the output of fuel cell vehicles will reach 5.2 million vehicles/year.