Analysis on the development of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles

A hydrogen fuel cell is a device that generates electricity through a chemical reaction between hydrogen and oxygen (there have also been "hydrogen internal combustion engines" that rely solely on burning hydrogen, such as BMW's hydrogen-powered 7 Series). The driving force of a hydrogen fuel cell vehicle comes from the electric motor on the vehicle, just like a pure electric vehicle, so a hydrogen fuel cell vehicle can be understood as an "electric vehicle with its own hydrogen fuel generator." Let's follow the automotive electronics editor to learn more about the relevant content.

 Analysis on the development of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles

In May this year, 11 Japanese companies signed a memorandum of understanding to jointly build hydrogen refueling stations in Japan to promote the "Hydrogen Energy and Fuel Cell Strategic Roadmap" previously released by the Japanese government. The British government announced in April that it would invest 23 million pounds to improve the infrastructure of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles.

On June 25, Wan Gang, Minister of Science and Technology, delivered a speech in Changchun, Jilin, which helped hydrogen fuel cell vehicles gain countless fans in China. He said that hydrogen has the characteristics of wide sources, large-scale stable storage, continuous supply, long-distance transportation, and rapid replenishment. "In the future of automotive energy, hydrogen fuel and electricity will coexist and complement each other, and jointly support the development of the new energy vehicle industry."

New energy vehicle market, one third of the world must be occupied

"In the future, hydrogen fuel cell vehicles will occupy one-third of the new energy vehicle market!" Talking about it, Academician Yi Baolian, a researcher at the Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences and chairman of the National Fuel Cell and Flow Battery Standards Committee, could not hide his excitement.

Although hydrogen fuel cell vehicles are still unknown in the minds of ordinary people, in the eyes of many experts, they will play a vital role in the future new energy vehicle market.

This must start with the principle of hydrogen fuel cells. Hydrogen fuel cells are actually a power generation device, and its fuel is hydrogen. Hydrogen enters from the anode of the fuel cell, and oxygen enters from the cathode. Under the action of the catalyst, hydrogen and oxygen undergo a chemical reaction to form an electric current and produce water.

"It can achieve zero emissions and is very environmentally friendly." Yi Baolian said that compared with ordinary cars, cars powered by hydrogen fuel cells have obvious advantages. Even compared with electric cars, hydrogen fuel cell cars are remarkable.

Yi Baolian said that electric vehicles are generally limited by the amount of energy stored in the battery, with a driving range of about 200 kilometers on a single charge, and the charging time is often several hours, which causes users to have "charging anxiety". "However, refueling with hydrogen is just like refueling with gasoline, which only takes a few minutes, and the driving range on a single charge can reach 500-700 kilometers."

For this reason, in the "three verticals and three horizontals" development layout of new energy vehicles established in my country, fuel cell vehicles have always been listed as the "three verticals" alongside hybrid electric vehicles and pure electric vehicles - although compared with the other "two verticals", the development trend of fuel cell vehicles has always been a bit low-key.

It is encouraging that the 13th Five-Year National Strategic Emerging Industries Development Plan has once again placed high hopes on hydrogen fuel cell vehicles, proposing to achieve mass production and large-scale demonstration applications of fuel cell vehicles by 2020. In terms of subsidy policies, the subsidy amounts for other "two verticals" will decline significantly from 2016 to 2020, but the subsidy amount for fuel cell vehicles will not only not decrease, but some models will even increase.

The first year of industrialization has arrived, but the level is still far behind that of foreign countries

"Now more and more domestic companies are beginning to pay attention to fuel cells, which is a situation that did not exist before." Hu Liqing, general manager of Shanghai Shenli Technology Co., Ltd., set his sights on the hydrogen fuel cell industry many years ago, and the industry trends in the past two years have made him particularly happy.

In 2014, Toyota of Japan announced that its hydrogen fuel cell vehicles entered the market, with prices only slightly higher than lithium battery vehicles. Yi Baolian told Science and Technology Daily that in China, Foshan, Rugao, Zhengzhou, Shanghai, Beijing and other places have started demonstration operation of hydrogen fuel cell buses.

"If 2015 is the first year of fuel cell vehicle industrialization in the world, 2017 can be regarded as the first year of fuel cell vehicle industrialization in my country," said Yi Baolian. He revealed that major domestic automobile companies such as SAIC, FAW and Second Automobile have begun planning, designing or producing hundreds of fuel cell-specific vehicles to be put on the market. In addition, the Beijing Winter Olympics will also carry out a demonstration operation of fuel cell buses.

At the same time, it should be noted that the current domestic hydrogen fuel cell industry is still some distance away from the international advanced level.

As an industry insider, Hu Liqing feels that the key materials for hydrogen fuel cells, production lines for related parts, production processes, and other supporting facilities are currently scarce in China. In Japan, however, there are companies involved in all aspects of the fuel cell industry, which is very beneficial for reducing fuel cell costs and promoting industrialization.

"After more than a decade of research and development, domestic hydrogen fuel cell technology has laid a basic foundation, but many key materials and components have not yet left the laboratory," said Zhang Tong, director of the Academic Committee of the School of Automotive Engineering at Tongji University, in an interview with Science and Technology Daily.

Ouyang Minggao, director of the State Key Laboratory of Automotive Safety and Energy Conservation, told reporters that the core and most basic technology in hydrogen fuel cell technology is the membrane electrode, which is as important as the chips in computers and mobile phones, and the durability and performance of domestic membrane electrodes need to be improved. "Currently, the life of domestic membrane electrodes can reach up to 8,000 hours, and the best level in the world is more than 10,000 hours, which also directly determines the life of hydrogen fuel cells."

"Although our country started developing hydrogen fuel cell vehicles more than a decade ago, most vehicle manufacturers took a wait-and-see attitude at the time, relying only on a few fuel cell companies to fight alone, and the investment in industrialization was insufficient." Hu Liqing analyzed the reasons and introduced that, in comparison, Japan's Toyota Corporation continues to invest hundreds of millions of dollars in this field every year.

Now, with favorable policies, domestic automobile companies have also begun to actively participate, which makes Hu Liqing more optimistic about the prospects of the hydrogen fuel cell industry.

To improve the industrial chain, we must make layout from the perspective of energy strategy

"Now domestic hydrogen fuel cell vehicles are in the transition stage from demonstration and assessment to industrialization." Ouyang Minggao believes that fuel cell technology has high barriers to entry, great difficulty, and a long technical chain involved, and it will take some time for full-scale commercialization. However, commercial breakthroughs can be made in some areas first.

The field that Ouyang Minggao mentioned refers to the commercial vehicle field such as city buses, which is also the fastest-growing part of the domestic hydrogen fuel cell industry.

The reason why we start from these fields, rather than from family cars like Toyota did, is mainly because these fields are easier to enter. Zhang Tong explained that the requirements for the volume, energy density, and reliability of hydrogen fuel cells in city buses are lower than those in family cars. "For example, generally speaking, the volume of domestic hydrogen fuel cells is twice that of Toyota's hydrogen fuel cells. It is not a problem to put them on buses, but it is very bulky when put on cars."

Ouyang Minggao is optimistic about this industrialization route with "Chinese characteristics". He told reporters that Toyota sold several hundred hydrogen fuel cell cars last year, while my country's fuel cell buses have reached the level of 100. Ouyang Minggao believes that the total number of domestic hydrogen fuel cell city buses and extended-range fuel cell vehicles may exceed Toyota in one or two years and reach the level of 1,000.

"The key is for companies to increase investment." As for how to further foster the maturity of the domestic hydrogen fuel cell industry, Zhang Tong believes that Europe, North America and Japan are all taking the lead in this effort. If companies do not invest in research and development, and just hope for government policy support and investment in scientific research funds, nothing will be accomplished.

From a more macro perspective, Zhang Tong suggested that the country should not only formulate policies on hydrogen fuel cell vehicles, but also formally regard hydrogen as an important part of the energy structure and coordinate the planning of hydrogen production, transportation, storage and utilization.

Hu Liqing told Science and Technology Daily that hydrogen is not only relatively clean, but also widely available. Like electricity, it is a "universal currency" in the energy sector. If we only collect hydrogen produced by fertilizer plants, coking plants and other industrial wastewaters, it will be enough to power tens of millions of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles. "But up to now, hydrogen is still only considered a chemical raw material in the national energy structure, not a fuel," said Zhang Tong.

The above is an introduction to the development analysis of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles in automotive electronics. If you want to know more related information, please pay more attention to eeworld. eeworld Electronic Engineering will provide you with more complete, detailed and updated information.