Consolidate the foundation of fuel cell industry and build green hydrogen energy industry ecology
Hydrogen energy is a kind of secondary energy with abundant sources, green and low carbon, and is widely used. It is of great significance for China to build a clean, low carbon, safe and efficient energy system, achieve the goal of carbon peak and carbon neutrality, and improve the international competitiveness of green and low carbon industry.
In recent years, under the efficient collaboration of government, industry, university and research capital, China’s hydrogen energy industry has made great progress. At the policy level, national special policies such as “Medium and Long-Term Plan for the Development of Hydrogen Energy Industry (2021-2035)”, “Guide to the Construction of Hydrogen energy Industry Standard System (2023 version)” and “Notice on the Demonstration Application of fuel cell Vehicles” have been successively issued, pointing out the direction for the sustainable development of China’s hydrogen energy industry. At the technology and product level, the technology of autonomous fuel cells and their key components has gradually matured and realized industrial application, providing important solutions for zero-emission energy utilization. By the end of 2023, China has more than 20,000 fuel cell commercial vehicles, becoming the country with the most fuel cell commercial vehicles in the world, and has built 417 hydrogen refueling stations, ranking first in the world. Among them, the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei city cluster has promoted more than 2,500 fuel cell vehicles, and actively explored cross-regional production of raw materials and industrial finished goods transportation and other characteristic application scenarios; The Shanghai city cluster has promoted more than 2,300 fuel cell vehicles in total, and actively explored features such as online lease. The 2022 Winter Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games have used more than 1,200 fuel cell vehicles to provide transportation support services for the events, with a cumulative operating mileage of more than 3.75 million kilometers, consuming more than 240 tons of green hydrogen and reducing more than 2,700 tons of carbon dioxide emissions, which is the first time in human history that hydrogen fuel cell vehicles have been successfully used on a large scale in a major international event. It has proved the reliability of fuel cell vehicles to the world and boosted confidence in the development of the industry. In order to practice the concept of “sustainable development” and “frugal running of the games”, the Olympic vehicles were converted into buses in Beijing and Zhangjiakou after the games to continue to provide green travel services for citizens. In addition, hydrogen energy is developing rapidly in metallurgy, chemical industry, energy storage and other fields, and the first phase of the 1.2 million tons hydrogen metallurgy demonstration project of Hesteel Group will be completed in 2022. 2023 SINOPEC Xinjiang Kuqa 10,000 ton green hydrogen refining project through the whole industrial chain; In the same year, China’s first megawatt-level hydrogen energy storage project was put into operation in Lu ‘an. According to experts’ prediction, the total output value of the hydrogen energy industry in the next ten years exceeds 10 trillion yuan, which will become another growth pole of China’s economic development.
On the whole, China has made phased achievements in the fields of hydrogen energy industrial policy system construction and core technology research, forming a complete industrial ecology covering hydrogen energy production, storage, transportation, processing, use and research and manufacturing of key core components of fuel cells. However, in order to achieve high-quality sustainable development of the hydrogen energy industry, it is still necessary to make efforts in accelerating technological innovation, deeply tapping market potential, and improving security capabilities.
Policy support is a strong guarantee for the high-quality development of the hydrogen industry
At present, the state and local governments have issued hydrogen energy-related plans and policies, and have initially built a “1+N” policy system in the research and development of hydrogen energy and fuel cell core technologies, the construction and operation of hydrogen refueling stations, and the demonstration application of fuel cell vehicles. However, the specific implementation of the policy still needs to break through the bottleneck, such as supporting the nearby hydrogen production in non-chemical parks and green hydrogen energy derivatives such as green ammonia and green methanol, and promoting hydrogen energy as an energy management.
Mastering key core technologies is the inherent requirement for the high-quality development of hydrogen energy industry
Through the early development of the industry, China has mastered the core technology of fuel cells and their key components, and established a fuel cell technology system and industry chain with independent intellectual property rights, but in the field of proton exchange membranes, catalysts, carbon paper and other basic materials, there is still a gap compared with the international advanced level. To break through the key technologies of these basic materials, improve the localization rate, we must actively play the role of leading enterprises, adhere to innovation-driven development, customer demand-oriented, encourage new technologies and new products to try and use first, and constantly improve the industrial chain and improve the technical level in the development.
Large-scale application is the core driving force for the high-quality development of the hydrogen industry
By expanding the application field and market scale, the technology iteration speed of hydrogen energy industry can be further accelerated, the cost of each chain can be reduced, and the economy of products can be improved. The construction of hydrogen energy high-speed is a new path widely recognized by the industry to promote the cross-regional large-scale application of hydrogen energy transportation. The government and various market players should form a joint force to accelerate the planning and construction of hydrogen energy high-speed, expand the application scale of hydrogen transportation, and actively create a diverse form of hydrogen energy consumption ecology, deeply tap the cross-border application potential, and guide multiple applications according to local conditions. Build a multi-component green hydrogen application ecology covering transportation, energy storage, metallurgy, chemical and other fields.
Low cost green hydrogen guarantee is a necessary condition for the sustainable development of hydrogen industry
The development of green hydrogen is a consensus solution for the global energy revolution driven by low carbon. By strengthening technological innovation, promoting large-scale production, accelerating the layout of off-grid hydrogen production, and promoting the construction of infrastructure such as hydrogen refueling stations and hydrogen energy pipelines, low-cost green hydrogen energy supply system will be built. In addition, low-cost green hydrogen can accelerate the wide application of hydrogen energy in various fields, enhance the international competitiveness of China’s low-carbon industry, and cope with the impact of foreign carbon market policies such as carbon border regulation mechanisms.
The world today is undergoing major changes unseen in a century. A new round of scientific and technological revolution and industrial transformation have formed a historic convergence with the requirements of high-quality economic development in China. The coordinated development model of renewable energy and hydrogen energy has become an important trend in the future global energy transformation. In December 2023, COP28 reached a consensus on promoting the transition of the energy system away from all fossil fuels, and hydrogen energy was given a more prominent role. China’s renewable energy power generation installed capacity and equipment cost performance is the world’s leading, laying a good foundation for the development of green hydrogen industry, should firmly grasp the global energy reform and development trend and opportunities, accelerate the development of hydrogen energy industry, the hydrogen energy industry to build a new growth engine of China’s economy, accelerate China’s energy clean low-carbon transformation, help China’s double carbon goal as soon as possible.