The Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics came to an end recently, and a new energy application news attracted attention: during the Winter Olympics, the organizing committee invested more than 700 hydrogen fuel buses in Yanqing and Zhangjiakou to provide transportation service guarantee.
This is an epitome of the increasingly wide application of hydrogen energy. In recent years, China has made breakthroughs in core technologies such as hydrogen fuel cell membrane electrode, and the layout of the whole hydrogen energy industry chain has become increasingly clear. With the gradual realization of hydrogen fuel cell from 0 to 1 in the automotive field, the construction machinery industry, which also takes internal combustion engine products as the main driving force, is also bound to usher in a dynamic change. What changes will this "whirlwind" of hydrogen energy bring to society? What is the development potential?
Trillion hydrogen energy tuyere attack
In the context of carbon neutralization, hydrogen energy has become an important solution for many countries in the world to achieve the goal of decarbonization and a key puzzle to solve the climate problem.
According to the white paper 2020 on China's hydrogen energy and fuel cell industry, at present, China's hydrogen production capacity is about 41 million tons per year and the output is about 33.42 million tons. It is the first hydrogen producing country in the world.
According to the blue book on infrastructure development of China's hydrogen energy industry, by 2030, the number of fuel cell vehicles in China will reach 2 million, and the industrial output value will exceed trillion yuan. Under the tide of "hydrogen heat", China's hydrogen energy and fuel cell industry cluster has been formed, the layout of the whole industrial chain is taking shape, and the industry is rapidly driving into the "fast lane".
Industry insiders generally believe that hydrogen, as an important industrial raw material and clean fuel, will form a competitive pattern in the coming decades. Fatih Birol, director of the International Energy Agency (IEA), said that at present, the global crude oil economy is experiencing a sharp shock, and "green hydrogen", as an emerging field of energy conservation and emission reduction targets, is becoming the focus of the industry. Now, many countries in the world have begun to explore green hydrogen, and China has also carried out 12 wind power hydrogen production projects and 7 photovoltaic hydrogen production projects. "Clean hydrogen" has also been set as a "priority development area" in the "green agreement" drawn up by the EU some time ago.
From the perspective of environment and ecology, hydrogen production from renewable energy such as wind power and photovoltaic can not only achieve "zero carbon emission" and obtain truly clean "green hydrogen", but also convert and store intermittent and unstable renewable energy into chemical energy and promote the digestion of new energy power. The resulting eco-environmental and economic benefits are immeasurable.
Accelerated layout in the field of construction machinery
Construction machinery is a famous "oil tiger". Under the dual wheel drive of national energy transformation and upgrading and environmental protection, accelerating the energy conservation and emission reduction of construction machinery has become the goal and task of the industry. Hydrogen fuel cell has the advantages of zero emission and zero pollution, and can adapt to high-intensity continuous operation. It is considered to be one of the most promising alternative power solutions.
In recent years, many enterprises have begun to try to apply hydrogen fuel cells to engineering machinery. Hydrogen forklifts, tower cranes, excavators, snow beauty machines and other equipment have been successfully applied.
In November 2020, XCMG released the first hydrogen fuel cell muck truck on Bauma China, which is equipped with Hongtu G110 fuel cell engine provided by Guohong hydrogen energy; In December, Zoomlion released the world's first hydrogen fuel sanitation dust suppression vehicle, which is equipped with a fuel cell system with a rated power of 63kw, provided by Hubei Haiyi; In the same month, Sany Heavy Industry hydrogen fuel cell engineering vehicle and the world's first hydrogen fuel cell mixer went offline. The vehicle is equipped with reshaping technology PRISMA Jingxing 110KW fuel cell system.
At the same time, many domestic and foreign enterprises have arranged hydrogen fuel heavy trucks. Overseas, American Nikolay, Japanese Toyota, Korean Hyundai and other auto enterprises have launched hydrogen fuel heavy trucks; In the domestic market, Jiefang, Dongfeng, Hongyan, Shaanxi Automobile, Jiangling, Universiade and other automobile enterprises have also developed relevant products.
The change of policy wind direction and the certain advantages of hydrogen fuel cell itself are the biggest motivation for enterprises to carry out layout in the field of hydrogen fuel cell engineering machinery. In addition, as a "means of production", the operating cost of hydrogen fuel cell is even lower than that of pure electric loading vehicle. This also makes hydrogen fuel cell expected to become one of the directions of power transformation in the field of construction machinery.
Opportunities and challenges of hydrogen fuel cell
Although the potential market of hydrogen fuel cell engineering machinery is huge, there are still many obstacles for enterprises to eat this "cake".
Firstly, the technology maturity is related to the use cost of hydrogen fuel cell products. At present, the best service life of domestic hydrogen fuel cell engine is about 20000 hours. Assuming that the working hours are 10 hours a day and the whole life cycle is 5.5 years, the actual situation is that the construction machinery in the ideal state operates 24 hours a day. This means that to fully meet the market demand of construction machinery, the service life of hydrogen fuel cell system needs to be further improved.
Secondly, construction machinery needs large power, while the stability and reliability of domestic high-power system still need to be verified for a certain time.
Third, the purchase cost of hydrogen fuel cell engineering machinery and the cost of using hydrogen are still very high. Compared with the convenient maintenance of diesel engine, the timeliness of maintenance of hydrogen fuel cell engineering machinery and equipment is also difficult to achieve.
Fourth, the construction of a better network of hydrogenation stations is a prerequisite for the promotion of hydrogen fuel cell engineering machinery. At present, China has not established a relatively perfect hydrogenation station as a basic supporting.
Objectively speaking, the advantages of hydrogen fuel cell engineering machinery and equipment have begun to be noticed, and the initial seedling of hydrogen fuel cell engineering machinery market has also "emerged". However, many bottlenecks such as durability and cost doubts, anxiety about hydrogen storage and transportation and hydrogenation infrastructure in the whole industry still need to be "broken through".
In the future, hydrogen energy will become the top priority of the global energy strategic layout. With the gradual advancement of the policy and the increasingly strict environmental protection audit, the application prospect of hydrogen fuel cell in the field of construction machinery is still considerable.
We also believe that more hydrogen fuel engineering machinery and equipment will emerge in Bauma China 2022 to compete for the hydrogen track.
