Hydrogen Energy Industry Development

Global carbon neutrality promotes the development of hydrogen energy industry

In the global energy transition to low-carbon, hydrogen energy is an important choice

Hydrogen energy is an ideal alternative to traditional fossil fuels. In order to cope with global climate change and meet the needs of sustainable development, the world's major economies have accelerated the process of low-carbon transition, more than 130 countries and regions have proposed to set carbon neutral targets, most countries will achieve medium-term carbon reduction by 2030 and achieve carbon neutrality by 2050 or 2060. In the context of carbon neutrality, countries around the world are accelerating the pursuit of clean energy development and utilization. As a clean and environmentally friendly secondary energy with high caloric value, good safety and rich application scenarios, hydrogen energy is an ideal alternative to traditional fossil fuels and is gradually becoming one of the important carriers for the development of global energy transformation.

Clean and environmentally friendly: In the application of hydrogen, hydrogen reacts with oxygen to produce only energy and water. Hydrogen in the combustion, fuel cell electrochemical reaction process will not generate fossil energy use in the process of pollution sources and carbon dioxide, can truly achieve zero emissions. High calorific value: The calorific value of hydrogen is as high as 142 kJ/g, which is currently the highest calorific value among common fuels, about 3-4 times the calorific value of gasoline and natural gas, and 4.5 times that of coke. The high calorific value of hydrogen means that hydrogen can provide more energy under the same mass fuel consumption. Good safety: hydrogen diffusion coefficient is 12 times that of gasoline, when hydrogen leaks, it is easy to dissipate, it is not easy to form explosive aerosol, and the lower explosion limit concentration is much higher than that of gasoline and natural gas. At present, hydrogen energy can be widely used in the field of transportation, construction, energy storage and industrial fields

1) In the field of transportation, the current carbon emissions generated by the transportation industry account for about 24% of the global carbon emissions, fuel cell vehicles with zero emissions, long driving range and other characteristics, at present road long-distance transport, railway, aviation and shipping will be regarded as one of the important alternative fuels to reduce carbon emissions.

2) In the field of construction, the combination of hydrogen energy and construction is a new concept of green building that has emerged in recent years. The construction sector needs to consume a lot of electricity and heat, and the combined efficiency of the current heat-electricity co-generation method can reach 85% - hydrogen fuel cells generate electricity for the building at the same time, waste heat can be recycled for heating and hot water. In terms of hydrogen transportation to the building terminal, with the help of a relatively complete household natural gas network, hydrogen can be mixed into natural gas at a ratio of less than 20% and transported to thousands of households. According to the Hydrogen Council, 10% of building heating and 8% of building energy will be supplied by hydrogen by 2050, saving 700 million tons of CO2 emissions per year.

3) In the field of energy storage, hydrogen energy is a high-quality medium for large-scale, long-term and long-distance energy storage, and it can be flexibly complementary with other energy storage methods, and is also the best energy complementary way. With the acceleration of the construction of new power systems, it is necessary to store wind and power on a larger scale and for a longer time. For example, the use of lithium + hydrogen energy storage mode, in the short-term energy storage scenario, lithium for daily level of energy peak adjustment, hydrogen for quarterly level of energy peak adjustment, there is no lack of complementary advantages of the combination.

4) The industrial field is currently the largest proportion of hydrogen energy applications in China. Hydrogen is an important industrial raw material. Hydrogen can replace coke and natural gas as a reducing agent, which can eliminate most of the carbon emissions from iron and steel making. The preparation of synthetic ammonia, methanol and other chemical products by green hydrogen is conducive to the significant reduction of carbon emission in the chemical industry.

China Hydrogen Energy Alliance estimates that in the carbon neutral scenario in 2060, China's annual demand for hydrogen will increase to about 130 million tons, accounting for about 20% of the final energy consumption. Among them, the industrial field accounted for 60% of hydrogen, about 77.94 million tons, the transportation field accounted for 31%, about 40.51 million tons, and the construction field and power field accounted for about 9%.

Hydrogen energy industry contributes to economic development and energy security. China's energy structure is "poor oil, less gas, rich coal", in 2023, China's oil and natural gas two major energy dependence of 71.2% and 40.2%, respectively, for the world's largest oil and gas importer. The development of hydrogen energy industry can drive the transformation and upgrading of related energy industries and promote the development of the overall industrial chain. At the same time, from the perspective of energy structure, the development of hydrogen energy can reduce the dependence on traditional fossil fuels.

National policies promote the high-quality development of green hydrogen industry

At present, the global hydrogen energy industry has entered a stage of rapid development, and major global economies such as Europe, the United States, Japan and South Korea have elevated the development of hydrogen energy to the national strategic level, and formulated development plans, road maps and relevant support policies to accelerate the development process of hydrogen energy industrialization.