"Hydrogenation is 3 minutes, driving 800 to 1,000 kilometers." Recently, with technological progress and industry attention, hydrogen fuel cell vehicles have risen again from abroad to domestic, and related components have attracted attention.

In early June, Toyota signed an agreement to unite the four automobile companies of FAW, Dongfeng, GAC, BAIC and Yihuatong to plan to establish United Fuel Cell System Research and Development (Beijing) Co., Ltd. within the year.

On June 16, Shanghai Jicheng Hydrogen Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as Jicheng Hydrogen Energy) released an upgraded version of the MH170 fuel cell metal plate stack for vehicles. The product has a single stack power of 137kW, which is known in the domestic and foreign fuel cell field. The largest single stack power of metal plates.

At present, although the domestic hydrogen fuel cell auto parts supply chain is not mature enough, all walks of life are paying more and more attention. "Guide to increase investment in basic research on hydrogen fuel cells, break through the technical bottlenecks of core materials and key components, and promote localization of products; encourage and promote the demonstration and application of hydrogen energy according to local conditions, and promote the formation of large-scale industrial clusters; guide social capital investment and encourage energy The enterprise takes the lead in establishing a stable, convenient, and low-cost hydrogen energy supply system; improving standards and regulations, speeding up the formulation of management rules after hydrogen is incorporated into the energy management system; formulating top-level hydrogen energy plans, rationally planning hydrogen refueling stations, and formulating long-term stable fuel cells Automobile development policy.” At the National People’s Congress this year, Wang Fengying, representative of the National People’s Congress and President of Great Wall Motors, once again made suggestions for the development of the hydrogen fuel cell industry.

On June 12, the market value of Nicholas, a shortly-listed American hydrogen fuel cell vehicle startup, reached 23 billion U.S. dollars, and the highest point reached 34 billion U.S. dollars, surpassing Ford’s 26 billion U.S. dollars. For a start-up company whose products have not yet been put on the market in batches, what it contains is nothing more than the high expectations of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles in the industry and abroad.

As far as the hydrogen fuel cell vehicle industry chain is concerned, Toyota is an automobile manufacturer with a large investment in the field of hydrogen energy. Since 1992, Toyota has accumulated a large number of technologies and patents in fuel cell stacks, high-voltage hydrogen storage, fuel system software, hydrogen generation, etc., especially in battery stacks and high-voltage hydrogen storage technologies.

In terms of domestic fuel cell auto parts, commercial vehicles are still more advanced than passenger vehicles. "The overall technology of hydrogen fuel cell auto parts is not mature enough, it is difficult to promote, and the inconvenient construction of hydrogen refueling stations is restricting its development." Chen Shiping, a member of the Expert Committee of the Bus Branch of the China Highway Society, said in an interview with reporters that this clean energy The development of automobiles should start with parts and components, increase support and promote its accelerated development.

Domestically, recent hydrogen fuel cell components are also advancing. "This cooperation with Toyota and other auto companies is a strategic layout of Yihuatong's "independence + cooperation" dual operation mode, and further perfects Yihuatong's "independent graphite plate + international metal plate" dual technology route." The relevant person in charge of Yihuatong said that while actively absorbing, learning from and cooperating with international advanced technologies, Yihuatong will continue to deepen the innovation of independent graphite plate technology and increase its technical reserves in hydrogen fuel cell technology, especially the graphite plate route. And product market competitiveness.

Yihuatong is an industrialized entity of the Energy Conservation and New Energy Vehicle Engineering Center of Tsinghua University and a key enterprise supported by the long-term incubation of Beijing Tsinghua Industrial Development Research Institute. As early as 14 years ago, Yihuatong and Tsinghua University undertook the development of hydrogen fuel cell buses in the national "863 Program" energy-saving and new energy vehicle key special projects, and participated in the Beijing Olympics, the Shanghai World Expo, and the first Singapore Youth Olympic Games. Demonstration and operation of fuel cell buses for many world-class major events. Yihuatong provides fuel cell engine systems for Foton Motors and other vehicle companies. Related vehicles have been commercialized in Beijing, Zhangjiakou, Zhengzhou, Shanghai, Suzhou and other places, and the products have realized passenger cars, buses, logistics vehicles, and cars.化 Coverage. Among them, nearly 300 hydrogen fuel cell vehicles operated online in Beijing and Zhangjiakou have experienced the test of the low temperature environment in high-latitude regions in winter and are operating in good condition, providing technical support for the demonstration application of the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics.

In 2018, Yihuatong cooperated with Toyota. In April 2019, Yihuatong and Toyota jointly developed a 60kW hydrogen fuel cell engine. So far, Yihuatong’s hydrogen fuel cell engine has covered 30kW to 100kW.

A stack is a container for electrochemical reactions and a core component of a fuel cell power system. The stack consists of multiple fuel cells, and the core components are bipolar plates and membrane electrodes. When the stack is working, hydrogen and air are distributed to the bipolar plates through the pipes, and evenly distributed to the electrodes by the bipolar plates, and the electrode supports are in contact with the catalyst to perform electrochemical reactions. Bipolar plates are mainly divided into graphite bipolar plates and metal bipolar plates.

In recent years, the hydrogen fuel cell industry has developed rapidly, but due to technical bottlenecks in various aspects of the industry, the current stack performance on the market is mostly concentrated in the range of 30kW to 60kW, and there are almost few applications exceeding 110kW. If the power is low, the performance may not reach the application level of heavy trucks. The metal plate stacks of more than 130KW of Hydrogen Energy are used in heavy trucks, which are rare at home and abroad.

"The single-stack power of 137KW can completely'land' the 7.5-meter logistics vehicle and the 8.5-12-meter bus. This means that the domestic hydrogen fuel commercial vehicle market is no longer limited to policy subsidies, but truly meets demand. "Fu Yu, founder of Jihong Hydrogen Energy, said that high power means more power and a wider range of applications. In addition, the high power density means that the battery is smaller and more convenient for car manufacturers to do system integration.

The above-mentioned products of Ji Chong Hydrogen Energy adopt the metal bipolar plate route. Currently, most mainstream foreign manufacturers also adopt this route. According to the development plan of Jichong Hydrogen Energy, in 2020, the company will complete the first phase of the pilot test base, whose main function is to manufacture bipolar plates and stack pilot lines; in 2021, complete the second phase of the pilot base, whose main functions are bipolar plates and stacks A new process upgrade for the pilot line; from 2022 to 2023, a mass production base will be completed. The main function of the base is the mass production of stacks and key components.

At present, although the domestic hydrogen fuel cell supply chain has made breakthroughs in some "points", the overall development is still slow.

"The relatively slow development of the domestic hydrogen fuel cell supply chain is related to technical problems in some links, high costs, and inadequate support policies." Pei Zhihao, senior technical consultant of the Bus Branch of the China Highway Society, accepted the "China Automobile News" The reporter said in an interview that only by gradually solving some bottlenecks can accelerate the development of the hydrogen fuel cell auto parts industry.

The hydrogen fuel cell converts chemical energy into electrical energy through the electrochemical reaction between hydrogen and oxygen. At present, most of the hydrogen fuel cells produced in China can only be used for 2000 to 3000 hours, and the efficiency is only 40%. Academician Yi Baolian, a researcher at the Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, said that foreign hydrogen fuel cell products have a longer lifespan than domestic products, and domestic fuel cell costs must be resolved. To realize the large-scale application of fuel cells, the problems of high cost and high driving cost must be solved.

One of the sources of high prices is the high platinum content of the catalyst. In the process of hydrogen fuel power generation, platinum-containing catalysts are needed, but platinum metal is more precious than precious metals. At Toyota, its hydrogen fuel cell vehicle Mirai uses 20 grams of platinum per vehicle, which is about 0.17 g/kW. Therefore, through technological progress, the continuous reduction of platinum metal usage is also one of the ways to reduce the cost of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles.

To solve the technical difficulties of the core components of hydrogen fuel cells, domestic enterprises and scientific research units are cooperating to tackle the problems. The "High Power Density Fuel Cell Thin Metal Bipolar Plate and Mass Precision Manufacturing Technology" jointly developed by Shanghai Jiaotong University, Xinyuan Power Co., Ltd., SAIC and Shanghai Zhizhen New Energy Equipment Co., Ltd. won the 2019 Shanghai Technology Invention Award Grand Prize. Under normal circumstances, the stack accounts for 60% of the cost of the fuel cell system and 30% of the cost of the entire vehicle, which has become an important path for reducing the cost of fuel cell vehicles.

"Due to the high power, long distance, and low cost requirements of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles, the development trend of fuel cell stacks should be shifted from the original extended range or low power to full power mode." The project leader, Shanghai Jiaotong University Mechanical Engineering Professor Lai Xinmin of the School of Power Engineering told reporters that after more than ten years of research, the new structure of thin metal bipolar plates "two plates and three fields" was invented. Based on this structure, a new distribution form of hydrogen, oxygen, and water flow fields creates the third generation of 12 metal bipolar plates. This is the industry's first 400-unit 115kW high-power vehicle stack, which realizes the full-power drive of a fuel cell vehicle, and can continue to drive 600 kilometers with one addition of hydrogen. "This is just a step in the development of China's hydrogen fuel cell vehicles." Lai Xinmin said that to truly achieve curve overtaking in new energy vehicles, greater breakthroughs in multiple components, materials, and systems are needed.

At present, although the promotion of hydrogen energy has gradually formed more consensus, it can not only achieve zero-emissions, low-carbon and environmental protection, but also have no mileage anxiety like gasoline vehicles. However, due to the constraints of component technology and infrastructure, hydrogen energy cannot Widely popularized. The cumulative sales of domestic hydrogen fuel cell vehicles are still limited, and there are only dozens of hydrogen refueling stations. At the same time, the popularization and application of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles are mainly in the fields of public transportation and logistics.

Wang Fengying believes that the domestic hydrogen energy industry cluster has not formed a large-scale, the hydrogen energy supply system is not yet mature, the core materials and key component technologies are not yet mature, and the hydrogen energy industry cannot achieve rapid and sound development. In fact, these issues are also the general consensus of industry experts, scholars and entrepreneurs.

At present, the development of new generation energy technologies such as hydrogen energy and fuel cells has become an important part of the national innovation-driven development strategy. In recent years, the state has actively promoted the construction of charging and hydrogen refueling facilities, and has pushed the hydrogen fuel cell industry into a period of rapid development. Local governments have actively introduced policies to follow up and fully support the development of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles.

So far, more than 20 provinces across the country have issued hydrogen energy industry development plans. In the Yangtze River Delta, Pearl River Delta, Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei and other regions, there have been some small-scale demonstration applications of hydrogen energy. In some places, a complete industrial chain of preparation, storage and transportation, fuel cell filling and downstream applications has been formed. The recently released "Beijing Action Plan for Accelerating the Construction of New Infrastructure (2020-2022)" proposes to explore and promote the pilot application of green advanced technologies such as hydrogen fuel cells in specific edge data centers to create a leading domestic hydrogen fuel cell vehicle industry pilot Model city. The "Tianjin Hydrogen Energy Industry Development Action Plan (2020 to 2022)" proposes that Tianjin will build a hydrogen energy industry ecosystem that integrates technology, industry, and applications; by 2022, the total output value of the hydrogen energy industry will exceed 15 billion yuan In terms of the technology industry, by 2022, cultivate and introduce a number of hydrogen production and storage and transportation, hydrogen fuel cell manufacturing, technology research and development and supporting services, and introduce and cultivate 2 to 3 companies in hydrogen fuel cells and core components and power Advantageous enterprises with international competitiveness in the fields of system integration, inspection and testing are actively seeking national pilot projects related to hydrogen energy industry clusters, and the development pattern of the hydrogen energy industry chain has been initially formed.

In view of the good environmental performance of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles, domestic support in various aspects is gradually increasing. Recently, the 333th batch of "Road Motor Vehicle Manufacturers and Products Announcement" announced by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology shows that 79 of these products are related to hydrogen fuel cell vehicles.

At the same time, with the support of gradually sound policies, my country's new energy automobile industry is ushering in new development opportunities. After years of hard work, the technical level of my country's new energy vehicle industry has been significantly improved, and the industrial system has become increasingly complete. The production, sales, and ownership of new energy vehicles have ranked first in the world for four consecutive years. According to the prediction of the Chinese Society of Automotive Engineering, the number of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles in my country will reach 10,000 in 2020, 100,000 in 2025, and 1 million in 2030. "These have brought new opportunities for the development of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles and their parts." Pei Zhihao believes.

Indeed, domestic companies are constantly making efforts to hydrogen fuel cell auto parts. Great Wall Motors has an early layout in the field of hydrogen energy technology. It has established a 600-person hydrogen energy, fuel cell system and vehicle technology research and development team, composed of industry professionals from Germany, the United Kingdom, South Korea, Japan, the United States and China. Most of them have more than ten years of work experience in the fields of fuel cell, hydrogen storage, hydrogenation, hydrogen production, hydrogen transportation technology, and vehicle integration. Great Wall Motor's plan for related parts and components is to focus on technical research on core parts such as membrane electrodes, Type IV 70MPa hydrogen storage bottles, highly integrated bottle mouth valves and pressure reducing valves. Among them, membrane electrodes, bottle mouth valves and pressure reducing valves will have small batch production capabilities within this year, and products such as fuel cell stacks and hydrogen storage bottles will be launched later.

At the same time, as early as August 2018, Great Wall Motor acquired a 51% stake in Shanghai Fuel Cell Vehicle Power System Co., Ltd. and achieved full control. The 85kW hydrogen fuel cell system for passenger vehicles developed by Shangran Power will be equipped with Great Wall hydrogen fuel cell prototype vehicles in 2020. The net output peak power of this system reaches 85kW, the maximum system efficiency reaches 60%, the cold start temperature can be as low as -30°C, and the volume specific power is greater than 700W/L.

In April 2019, Great Wall Motors invested 450 million yuan to establish Weishi Energy Technology Co., Ltd. in Shanghai. It is positioned as a fuel cell auto parts manufacturer and system integrator, and is another important carrier for its hydrogen fuel cell vehicle supply chain.

In March of this year, Shanghai Jie Hydrogen Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as Jie Hydro Technology), a subsidiary of SAIC Motor, started construction of a special fuel cell project in Shanghai. According to reports, JieHydrogen adheres to independent development, masters core key technologies such as fuel cell stacks and systems, and has complete independent intellectual property rights. Currently, it has participated in the formulation of 15 fuel cell national standards, and has issued 7 fuel cell vehicle enterprise standards and 350 Patent in fuel cell related fields. The SAIC Roewe 950 fuel cell sedan equipped with JetHydrogen technology fuel cell is the only fuel cell passenger car in China that has achieved announcements, sales and licensing. It is also the first domestic fuel cell model to use a 70MPa hydrogen storage system. The first phase of the project is planned to be put into production in August 2021, and will reach the production capacity of 12,000 units (sets) of fuel cell stacks and systems, and is expected to achieve an output value of 1.2 billion yuan in 2024. "The start of the project will further complement the company's R&D and manufacturing capabilities, and will further optimize product costs and improve product quality through scale and batch, and accelerate the industrialization of SAIC fuel cell products." The relevant person in charge of Jie Hydrogen Technology said.

At present, Weichai Power continues to attach great importance to the hydrogen energy business layout, and continues to increase investment in the research and development of related key core components. It has undertaken the national new energy vehicle key special project "Hydrogen Fuel Cell Engine and Commercial Vehicle Industrialization Technology and Application" and Shandong Province Several major projects for the conversion of new and old kinetic energy are accelerating the commercialization and engineering of products. At the same time, the company has invested in Canada's Ballard Power Systems Co., Ltd. and British Syris Power Holdings Co., Ltd. to accelerate the deployment of hydrogen fuel cell and solid oxide fuel cell business.

Industry experts believe that, at present, auto companies are accelerating their deployment in the hydrogen fuel cell vehicle market, with breakthroughs in key technologies and a clear path for cost reduction, which is expected to be accepted by the market in the future. In the field of core components,