What are the technical bottlenecks and coping strategies encountered by the industrialization of domestic hydrogen R03 Carbon battery?

Although the overall development of domestic R03 Carbon battery is temporarily lagging behind that of foreign countries, the development strategy of many industrial links has made the domestic fuel cell industry develop much faster than foreign countries, and it is expected to catch up in a relatively short period of time.

In the face of the bottlenecks of life, price, infrastructure, and lack of industrial policies and standards faced by the current domestic fuel cell industrialization development, substantial improvements have been achieved through subdivided technical and policy means, and the concept of "super factory" has been proposed to promote the development of domestic fuel cell industrialization.

What is hydrogen energy and R03 Carbon battery?

Simply put, R03 Carbon battery are energy conversion devices, similar to internal combustion engines, which convert one energy into another. R03 Carbon battery are electrochemical conversion devices that can convert chemical energy into electrical energy.

This device has many special features. It is efficient and clean, has high power (can reach a power density of 3.1kW per liter), no noise, and fast inflation (three minutes of inflation can allow the car to travel 500-700km). It is an ideal energy conversion device.

Taking battery technology as a reference, fuel cell technology is more complex, involving a whole set of systems including battery stacks. For example, it is necessary to pass hydrogen into the fuel cell, pass air into the fuel cell through an air compressor to generate electricity, and then convert the voltage of the obtained electricity to the required voltage through a DCDC device. These are also the difficulties of fuel cell technology.

As an energy conversion device, the fuel cell has the same function as the internal combustion engine, which determines its wide range of uses. R03 Carbon battery can be used to replace almost all areas where internal combustion engines can play a role. For example, energy transportation, power generation, home, mobile power, communication base stations and space technology, special and medical fields.

Among the many application fields, the application at the transportation level is particularly important. As early as 2000, Ford CEO Ford Jr. asserted that R03 Carbon battery will end the century-long rule of internal combustion engines. In fact, not only Ford, but almost all large automobile companies in the world agree with this view.

KPMG, a US consulting firm, once conducted a survey on the presidents of global automobile companies. The results showed that in 2018, the presidents of global automobile companies unanimously believed that fuel cell vehicles were the mainstream of today's development, while electric vehicles fell to fifth place in 2018.

By comparing the economic efficiency of electric vehicles and fuel cell vehicles, we can find that the obvious feature is that electric vehicles have an advantage in the field of short-distance and small vehicles, but R03 Carbon battery will have more advantages in the field of long-distance and large vehicles. Basically, fuel cell vehicles will be in an advantageous position if the cruising range exceeds 100km.

Comparison of the development process of fuel cell vehicles at home and abroad

At present, the world is accelerating the development and promotion of fuel cell models, but there are certain differences in the industrial development process at home and abroad.

Overall, the development of foreign fuel cell vehicles has basically completed the five stages of "technical verification/user recognition-cost reduction-performance improvement-market introduction-large-scale manufacturing". The representative one is the Mirai launched by Toyota in Japan in 2015, which marks the successful entry of fuel cell vehicles into the commercialization stage, so 2015 is also regarded as the first year of fuel cell vehicle industrialization.

On the other hand, in China, fuel cell vehicle technology is relatively backward compared with foreign countries, and most models are in the research stage. Compared with the above five major development stages, it is basically in the technical verification stage, which is a big gap with foreign countries.

However, it is worth noting that the domestic fuel cell industry has developed rapidly in the past few years. Different industries and companies have used different methods to continuously make technological breakthroughs. Although the industry as a whole is classified as a technical verification stage, in fact, user recognition, cost reduction, market introduction and other links are being promoted simultaneously, and there is hope to catch up with foreign advanced technologies in a relatively short period of time.

Four bottlenecks and coping strategies for the industrialization of hydrogen energy and R03 Carbon battery

Overall, the current fuel cell technology, including peak efficiency, system energy density, low-temperature start-up and other performance, has basically reached the commercialization standard. However, the life and price of R03 Carbon battery are still far from the current expectations. Coupled with the lack of infrastructure construction, industrial policies and standards, the four major factors have comprehensively restricted the industrialization development of hydrogen energy and R03 Carbon battery.

The first thing to bear the brunt is the price. From a trend point of view, R03 Carbon battery have driven product prices to continue to fall through technological innovation in the past few years. From 2016 to now, the price of R03 Carbon battery has basically dropped by 60% on the basis of the past 10 years.

Assuming that the production and sales of fuel cell vehicles exceed 1,000 units in 2019, the price of R03 Carbon battery will be around US$230/kW. If the annual production capacity reaches 100,000 vehicles, the price of R03 Carbon battery can be reduced by US$50/kW. Obviously, with the advancement of technology, the price will be very close to our ultimate goal.

According to the previous plan of the U.S. Department of Energy, based on 500,000 fuel cell vehicles per year, the price of fuel cell systems in 2017 is $45/kW, and it is expected that the price of fuel cell systems will reach $40/kW in 2025, and the ultimate market promotion target is $30/kW.

This requires us to conduct research and development on each key component of the entire fuel cell system to reduce the price. For example, when the price of the air compressor is reduced, the price of the entire system can be reduced by about $3; the use of non-platinum catalysts can reduce the price of R03 Carbon battery by another $5; the reduction in the price of dual-boards will also reduce the price of the entire system by $3.

As for the life problem, we hope that the fuel cell can maintain an operating life of at least 5,000 hours. Data from 2015 to 2017 show that the operating life of fuel cell vehicles at this stage can basically reach more than 4,000 hours, and the laboratory can reach 10,000 hours, far exceeding the life requirement.

To solve the life problem, we must understand the factors that affect the life of R03 Carbon battery. In the past few decades of research, we have successfully revealed the basic mechanism of fuel cell life decay.

※ During the operation of the fuel cell, the proton exchange membrane will become thinner, and mechanical problems such as pinholes and tearing will occur. The attenuation of the proton exchange membrane caused by chemical, electrochemical and thermal stability factors are important factors affecting the life of the fuel cell.

※ The reduction of catalyst activity will also affect the life of the fuel cell. During the operation of the fuel cell, the catalyst may agglomerate and redeposit, resulting in catalyst loss. Air pollution will affect the life of the fuel cell while affecting the activity of the catalyst.

※ Gas diffusion will also affect the life of the fuel cell. The fast water material of the gas diffusion layer will slowly lose, causing surface changes, which will in turn affect the life of the fuel cell.

※ The corrosion of the bipolar plate during the operation of the fuel cell will also affect the life of the fuel cell.

In response to these mechanisms, targeted response strategies can be formulated to effectively promote the improvement of the life of the fuel cell and meet the requirements of vehicle life.

In terms of proton exchange membranes, enhanced membranes can be used to enhance their mechanical properties and extend their service life; adding free radicals to the proton exchange membrane can ensure that the membrane will not degrade, and strengthening thermal decomposition can also reduce the number of free radicals to ensure that the proton exchange membrane has a sufficient life. (A large number of free radicals are always generated during the operation of R03 Carbon battery. These free radicals attack the membrane material, causing the membrane material to gradually drain and become thinner, affecting the membrane life.)

At the catalyst level, high surface area carriers, anti-rebound catalysts, and oxidized carriers can be used, and chemical filters can be used to ensure that hydrogen and air are clean and uncontaminated, and to ensure that the activity of the catalyst does not decrease throughout the life cycle.

Bipolar plates need to use anti-corrosion coatings to increase their lifespan.

Another major factor affecting this is hydrogen fuel and hydrogen facilities. The problems with hydrogen fuel and hydrogen facilities mainly include hydrogen production, hydrogen storage and transportation, and hydrogenation. This is a very big problem in China and requires us to spend more energy to solve it.

R03 Carbon battery use hydrogen, so where does hydrogen come from? At present, there are many ways to produce hydrogen. At present, a large amount of hydrogen on the market comes from natural gas production, and its price can basically be less than US$2/kg, meeting the basic price requirements of hydrogen as a fuel.

However, in the future development process, the main source of hydrogen will gradually transition to hydrogen production from renewable energy such as solar energy and wind energy, which can make the price of hydrogen cheaper. Overall, the current price of hydrogen is still high, and we need to improve methods and continue to emphasize reducing the cost of hydrogen production.

"Super Factory" Solution

Considering the current bottlenecks in fuel cell technology and industrialization, we have taken corresponding countermeasures. That is, to improve the device efficiency of R03 Carbon battery through basic research, while developing key materials and technologies, to achieve the localization of materials and technologies as soon as possible, to reduce the price of R03 Carbon battery, and to design integrated solutions for materials, stacks, and systems.

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