Hydrogen energy and electric energy are coupled to form an "electric hydrogen energy system", which is an important trend of energy transformation and development. With the acceleration of the demand for green hydrogen substitution, the importance of hydrogen production technology progress is emerging. The technology of hydrogen production by electrolysis of water is in urgent need of progress. The technology of hydrogen production by PEM water electrolysis in foreign countries started earlier and has been commercialized.
The State Development and Reform Commission, the State Energy Administration, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and the Ministry of Ecology and Environment recently jointly issued the Guiding Opinions on Promoting Green Innovation and High-quality Development of the Refining Industry. The document proposes to support hydrogen production and carbon reduction, encourage enterprises to vigorously develop renewable energy hydrogen production, support the construction of green hydrogen refining demonstration projects, and promote green hydrogen substitution. It is generally regarded as an important way to achieve the goal of "double carbon"
by replacing green hydrogen, promoting decarbonization in refining and chemical industries, and promoting the absorption and utilization of renewable energy. Yi Baolian, academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, pointed out that in order to achieve the goal of carbon peak and carbon neutralization, it is necessary to vigorously develop renewable energy and use renewable energy to electrolyze water to produce green hydrogen, so as to realize the redistribution of energy storage and renewable energy, and promote decarbonization in areas such as transportation, metallurgy and construction, which are difficult to decarbonize.
01 The advantages of electricity and hydrogen coupling development are obvious
. As a zero-carbon green energy developed by Guangfa, the significance of developing green hydrogen has become a consensus at present. According to Professor Liu Jianguo of North China Electric Power University, the main advantage of green hydrogen is that in the process of water electrolysis, electricity consumption comes from renewable energy, which has significant advantages in carbon emission reduction compared with traditional fossil-fuel hydrogen production. Therefore, the development of hydrogen production from renewable energy is an important solution to promote decarbonization of industries with greater difficulty in carbon emission reduction, such as transportation, chemical industry or steel.
"Green electricity can be stored and transported through green hydrogen, thus realizing the coupling of hydrogen and electricity and promoting the absorption of renewable energy." Liu Jianguo said that under the goal of "double carbon", green hydrogen plays a unique role in the power system that other energy products can not replace. He believes that hydrogen production from renewable energy is the main direction of hydrogen energy development in the future, and will be applied to the "source, network and load" links of the new power system, showing the development trend of electricity and hydrogen coupling.
Hydrogen energy and electric energy are coupled to form an "electric hydrogen energy system", which is an important trend of energy transformation and development. Zhang Zongliang, academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering and chief scientist of China Electric Power Construction Group Co., Ltd., believes that "electricity-hydrogen" coupling can improve the utilization rate of new energy. As a flexible load, hydrogen has wide fluctuation and adjustable feasibility, which can greatly reduce the rate of new energy abandonment in the integrated base and improve the overall utilization rate of new energy. Compared with the traditional integrated base, the new energy power curtailment rate is controlled within 10%, and the new energy power curtailment rate can be controlled within 5% after adding hydrogen production load.
Because of its multiple advantages, green hydrogen has been developing rapidly all over the world in recent years. Shao Zhigang, a researcher at the Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, pointed out that globally, as of 2022, there are 228 hydrogen projects in the industrial chain, of which 17 have been announced to produce hydrogen from renewable energy on a scale of more than 1 GW, with an annual output of more than 200000 tons of low-carbon hydrogen. He stressed that "energy transformation needs hydrogen energy, which is one of the core technologies to achieve low-carbon energy."
In China, the development momentum of green hydrogen is also rapid. The International Research Report on Hydrogen Energy Technology and Industrial Development 2023 (hereinafter referred to as the Report), compiled by the Hydrogen Energy Branch of the China Association for the Promotion of Industrial Development, points out that by 2022, the country has built and planned a renewable energy hydrogen production capacity of 4.1 million tons per year, and about 52 hydrogen production projects by electrolysis of water in the whole year of 2022. It is estimated that by 2030, the new investment scale of renewable energy hydrogen production in China will reach 375 billion yuan, and the production capacity of green hydrogen will be close to that of by-product hydrogen. Hydrogen energy for deep decarbonization
promoted by
ammonia and hydrogen fusion has broad application scenarios. At present, great breakthroughs have been made in the application of hydrogen in fuel cell vehicles, cogeneration of heat and power, hydrogen metallurgy, green hydrogen chemical industry, green building and other fields. For example, in the field of green hydrogen chemical industry, methanol can be prepared by adding carbon dioxide to hydrogen, which can realize the recycling of carbon dioxide; in the field of hydrogen metallurgy, green metallurgical technologies such as hydrogen-rich blast furnace and hydrogen shaft furnace have also entered the stage of demonstration and application. In the future, hydrogen energy will help deep decarbonization in transportation, construction, industry and other fields.
Liu Jianguo believes that the application fields and scenarios of hydrogen energy are very diverse. In addition to being used as fuel, it can also be used as raw materials for deep decarbonization in many fields, including industrial raw materials, industrial heating, transportation, residential heating, power generation and so on. He suggested deepening the application of hydrogen energy, making use of scenery and other resources in different regions, actively carrying out green hydrogen demonstration work, and promoting the large-scale application of green chemical industry, green steel, green transportation, green shipping and other scenarios.
Among them, the way of producing green hydrogen from green electricity and green ammonia from green hydrogen is emerging from many application scenarios of green hydrogen. "Ammonia-hydrogen fusion energy system will help the development of hydrogen energy," Liu Jianguo pointed out that green ammonia can be used as a hydrogen storage medium, but also a relatively cheap zero-carbon fuel. In his view, as an effective technical route to solve the storage, transportation and application of hydrogen, the establishment of ammonia-hydrogen energy system is of great significance to the development of hydrogen energy.
Zhang Zongliang believes that green hydrogen and green ammonia produced by renewable energy can replace fossil energy in the industrial field, help metallurgical technology progress, and improve carbon emissions in the construction and transportation fields. Under China's "double carbon" goal, in order to safely and efficiently absorb large-scale renewable energy, the construction of a new power system requires sufficient flexible resources. Green hydrogen, green ammonia and green methanol based on hydrogen are effective ways to assist the construction of a new power system with high flexibility.
According to the statistics of Hydrogen Energy Branch of China Association for the Promotion of Industrial Development, the output of synthetic ammonia in 2022 is about 60 million tons, the output of synthetic methanol is about 81 million tons, and the demand for hydrogen is about 10.59 million tons and 10.12 million tons respectively. The potential of green hydrogen substitution is huge. Among them, the wind and solar integrated green hydrogen synthetic ammonia project has the highest market attention. From the point of view of project distribution area, it is mainly concentrated in the "Three North Areas" with abundant renewable resources, among which the scale of the project of hydrogen storage and green ammonia production in Duolun County, Inner Mongolia has reached 600000 tons. At present, the progress of hydrogen
production technology has become the key
, and the speed of "low-carbon hydrogen production" including blue hydrogen and green hydrogen replacing traditional energy sources is accelerating. According to the forecast of Hydrogen Energy Branch of China Association for the Promotion of Industrial Development, by 2025, the annual demand for hydrogen in China will reach 40.58 million tons, and by 2030, the annual demand for hydrogen in China will reach 49.1 million tons. By then, the supply of hydrogen from electrolytic water will be about 11 million tons per year. And is equivalent to that electrolytic hydrogen production capacity of 75-100GW.
With the acceleration of the demand for green hydrogen substitution, the importance of hydrogen production technology progress is emerging. In Liu Jianguo's view, the technology of hydrogen production by electrolysis of water is in urgent need of progress. "It is necessary to develop large-scale, high-efficiency, low-cost and widely adjustable water electrolysis hydrogen production technology," he said. In terms of materials, performance, efficiency and cost, the two mainstream water electrolysis technologies, alkaline water electrolysis hydrogen production technology (ALK) and proton exchange membrane hydrogen production technology (PEM), have their own advantages and limitations.
Liu Jianguo pointed out that although the technology of alkaline electrolytic water is mature and the cost is low, the adjustable range is small and the response time is slow. In specific application scenarios (such as vehicle-grade hydrogen energy and fluctuating renewable energy), the advantages of PEM, such as fast response speed and wide adjustable range, are becoming more and more obvious, and many new projects at home and abroad have begun to use PEM electrolyzers.
It is understood that the PEM water electrolysis hydrogen production technology in foreign countries started earlier and has begun to be commercialized. At present, the international leading level is that the DC power consumption is less than 3.9 kW · H/Nm3 . The hydrogen yield of single tank reaches 500 Nm3 /H. Among the manufacturers of PEM hydrogen production equipment in various countries, the United States, Cummins, German SIEMENS and other companies have obvious technological advantages, and have launched megawatt products for renewable energy hydrogen storage.
The report shows that at this stage, hydrogen production by electrolysis of water accounts for less than 1% of global hydrogen production, and with the expansion of renewable energy generation scale and the decrease of cost, as well as the gradual improvement of the technology level of alkaline (ALK), proton exchange membrane (PEM) and solid oxide (SOEC) hydrogen production by electrolysis of water. The comprehensive cost of hydrogen production from electrolytic water is expected to decrease by more than 50% in 10 years, which will gradually replace fossil energy hydrogen production.
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