Hydrogen energy what is it? Why should our country vigorously develop hydrogen energy? In the context of " carbon neutrality", the new energy field has attracted much attention in the past two years. Photovoltaic, wind energy, solar energy, lithium batteries and other sectors are strongly supported by national policies. It is developing rapidly under the current situation, but from the perspective of energy development prospects, hydrogen energy is the "ultimate energy" for future development.
In today's world, it is urgent to develop new energy sources. The reason is that the energy sources used, such as oil, natural gas , and coal, petroleum gas , are non-renewable resources. The reserves on the earth are limited. With the increasing consumption of fossil fuels, their reserves are increasing day by day. If the demand decreases, one day these resources and energy will be exhausted, which makes it urgent to find a new energy-containing energy source with abundant reserves that does not rely on fossil fuels. Hydrogen is exactly such a secondary energy source.
The main reason for vigorously developing hydrogen energy is that the advantages of hydrogen energy are very prominent. The first is its environmental protection. Compared with other fuels, hydrogen is the cleanest when burned. In addition to generating water and a small amount of hydrogen nitride, it will not produce carbon monoxide such as carbon monoxide , carbon dioxide , hydrocarbons , lead compounds and dust particles and other pollutants that are harmful to the environment. A small amount of ammonia will not pollute the environment after proper treatment. Replacing fossil fuels with hydrogen can minimize the greenhouse. Effect ; secondly, from the transportation side, hydrogen energy can exist in various forms, appearing as gaseous, liquid or solid metal hydride , which can adapt to different requirements of storage, transportation and various application environments. Hydrogen can reduce the weight of the fuel. , can increase the payload of the vehicle and reduce transportation costs; finally, from the perspective of energy use, it has good combustion performance, fast ignition, has a wide flammable range when mixed with air, and has a high ignition point and fast burning speed. At the same time, it also has the advantages of good thermal conductivity, high recycling rate, and wide application scenarios.
Why should we develop hydrogen fuel vehicles when there are lithium electric vehicles? How is hydrogen energy better than new energy (lithium battery)?
First of all, from the perspective of raw material acquisition, lithium batteries are currently dominated by ternary lithium batteries and lithium iron phosphate batteries. However, no matter what kind of battery it is, in the context of increasingly strong downstream demand, the required cobalt and nickel The prices of precious metals are rising all the way, and the reserves of rare metals themselves are limited and non-renewable. However, based on the current development plan of hydrogen energy, the most ideal raw materials required for green hydrogen are only electricity and water. From the perspective of raw material acquisition, It is easier to see; secondly, from the user point of view, hydrogen fuel cell has high energy storage density, is light in weight, and generally has a longer cruising range. It usually exceeds 500 kilometers, and pure electric vehicles are determined based on battery pack density, battery capacity, and even battery temperature control and other technologies. At the same time, from the perspective of energy replenishment, the time required for hydrogenation is close to that of refueling, but currently pure electric vehicles even With fast charging technology, it far exceeds the time required for hydrogenation; finally, from an environmental perspective, the main component of hydrogen fuel cells is hydrogen. Hydrogen fuel cells will not cause pollution to the environment after their service life ends, while Lithium-ion batteries contain a lot of heavy metals. If they are not recycled properly, they will cause greater pollution to the environment.
Then why does my country still mainly rely on lithium battery vehicles? This is mainly because there are currently key technical bottlenecks in the field of hydrogen energy that have not been broken through. At the same time, whether it is hydrogen production, transportation or hydrogenation, there are cost issues. In addition, my country's geographical area The vastness of the country means that the construction cost of hydrogen refueling stations is much higher than that of pure electric vehicle charging stations. Therefore, most manufacturers in China, the United States, and Europe focus on pure electric vehicles, while Japan, South Korea, etc., with developed economies and large populations, Dense focuses its research and development on the field of hydrogen energy.
In addition to transportation, what other fields are the applications of hydrogen energy? Will it be the next billion-dollar outlet?
The current main application scenario of hydrogen energy is fuel cell . The fuel cell system is a complete power generation system that uses the fuel cell stack as the basic unit and adds necessary auxiliary components.The hydrogen fuel cell system is complex and mainly consists of a stack and system components (air compressor, humidifier , hydrogen circulation pump, hydrogen bottle); the stack is the core of the entire battery system, including membrane electrodes, bipolar plates It consists of each battery unit, current collecting plate, end plate, sealing ring, etc.; the key materials of the membrane electrode are proton exchange membrane, catalyst, gas diffusion layer. The durability and other properties of these components and materials determine the service life and performance of the stack. Adaptability to working conditions.
With the improvement of the technical performance of fuel cells and hydrogen storage systems, the advantages of hydrogen fuel cells in terms of endurance, low temperature adaptability, energy replenishment time, loading space, etc. have gradually become more and more prominent. It plays an advantageous role in the field of logistics distribution and trunk line or branch line heavy-haul long-distance logistics, and hydrogen energy vehicles have successfully completed the transportation mission at the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics.
In the field of non-road transportation, China is actively exploring hydrogen fuel cell heavy engineering machinery, rail transportation, ships, drones and other fields, but there is still a long way to go before large-scale use.
The arrival of the trillion-level trend requires, in addition to policy support, breakthroughs in key industrial technologies, increased industry participation, and financial recognition. We look forward to my country's energy development reaching a higher level.
Risk warning: policy promotion is less than expected, fuel cell technology implementation is less than expected, cost reduction is less than expected, supporting facility construction is less than expected, etc.
Data sources: Oriental Fortune Network, Huibo Investment Research Information, Soochow Securities "Hydrogen Energy Series Research 1: Analysis of Hydrogen Energy Industry Chain" Yuan Li 20220103
