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China’s first liquid hydrogen storage material project comes online Author/Source: China Chemical Industry News Date: March 5, 2019 Clicks: 2 On March 1, the first phase of the hydrogen storage material project at Hubei Yidu Hydrogen Yang New Materials Co., Ltd. was put into operation, producing the first batch of liquid hydrogen storage materials under normal temperature and pressure. This marks significant progress in the technology for safe and efficient storage and transportation of hydrogen under such conditions, following years of development, and signifies that this technology has now entered the stage of industrial application. Hydrogen energy is regarded as the \"ultimate energy source\" and is recognized worldwide as a clean energy source; however, it has not yet been used on a large scale. The bottleneck lies in the difficulty of storing and transporting hydrogen under normal temperature and pressure conditions. The liquid organic hydrogen storage (LOHC) technology developed by a team led by Cheng Hansong, a distinguished professor at China University of Geosciences and chairman of Huyang Company, has solved the global challenge of storing and transporting hydrogen in liquid form at normal temperature and pressure. Liquid organic hydrogen storage technology involves a reversible chemical reaction between specific organic unsaturated compounds (hydrocarbon carriers) and hydrogen gas, catalyzed by a catalyst, to produce alkane compounds (hydrogenated hydrocarbons), thereby enabling the storage and release of hydrogen. Both oil storage medium and hydrogen-oil mixture are in liquid state at normal temperature and pressure, similar to petroleum and gasoline, allowing for easy storage and transportation. This effectively solves the problems associated with storing and transporting hydrogen energy, and the \"oil storage medium\" can be reused. Cheng Hansong told reporters that Yidu is the production base for hydrogen storage materials of Huyang Company. The completion and operation of the first phase of the hydrogen storage materials project mark a significant step forward in the industrialization of organic liquid hydrogen storage technology, laying the foundation for the large-scale adoption of this technology. At present, Huyang Company has completed the research and development as well as pilot-scale testing; this year it will enter the stage of product commercialization. Industrial demonstration projects will be carried out in selected cities in China, where the organic liquid hydrogen storage technology under normal temperature and pressure will be applied in areas such as automobiles, ships, railways, and off-grid energy storage. According to Liu Bo, president of Huyang Company, the Huyang hydrogen storage material project was established in Yidu Chemical Park in November 2017. The total investment in this project is expected to be 3 billion yuan, and once fully completed, it will be able to produce 1 million tons per year of liquid organic hydrogen storage materials (oil storage materials). The first phase has an annual production capacity of 1,000 tons; it was completed on December 29 of last year, and testing began in January this year. The products are mainly used in industrialization demonstration projects across the country, and the output value is expected to reach 50 million yuan. Cheng Hansong believes that LOHC technology is fully compatible with existing oil-based storage and transportation facilities, making it very easy to implement on a large scale. In recent years, liquid organic hydrogen storage technology has developed rapidly in Japan and Europe. It offers significant advantages in terms of dehydration temperature, hydrogen purity, dehydration rate, and catalyst cost, which has drawn considerable attention from peers both domestically and internationally. “Organic liquid hydrogen storage technology enables the safe, stable, and high-density storage of hydrogen at normal temperature and pressure. Its transportation cost is less than one-fourth that of conventional high-pressure tankers for transporting hydrogen, and this technology makes large-scale, long-term storage of hydrogen as well as its safe transportation over long distances possible. ”Cheng Hansong said that in this technology, hydrogen storage is achieved through a chemical reaction between hydrogen and a specific type of liquid organic compound under the action of a catalyst, similar to how oil is converted into gasoline through catalytic hydrogenation in refineries; whereas hydrogen release can be accomplished under relatively mild conditions via a catalytic process, and the carrier after dehydrogenation can be reused in repeated cycles. Cheng Hansong explained that hydrogen storage carriers and their hydrides are in liquid state at normal temperature and pressure, possess stable chemical properties, are non-flammable, and can be produced on a large scale. Existing gas stations can be converted into hydrogen refueling stations at very low cost with only minor modifications. Therefore, the process of storing and transporting hydrogen in liquid organic form can be fully implemented using existing petroleum-based energy infrastructure, which can significantly reduce the costs associated with the large-scale application of hydrogen technology. Hydrogen energy technology faces four major challenges Link The large-scale commercial deployment of the entire hydrogen energy technology ecosystem is confronted with the following four main challenges: first, the large-scale production of hydrogen; second, the safe and efficient storage and transportation of hydrogen; third, hydrogen fuel cells that are long-lasting, low-cost, and highly efficient; fourth, hydrogen energy infrastructure such as hydrogen refueling stations. At present, the technology for large-scale production of hydrogen is largely mature; processes such as natural gas reforming and petroleum catalytic cracking are already carried out on a commercial scale. Meanwhile, China has a huge capacity for producing hydrogen from industrial by-products as well as from coal. On the other hand, over the past decade or so, renewable energy and nuclear energy in our country have developed rapidly, but the grid connection capacity is insufficient, resulting in serious issues of wasted solar, hydro, wind, and nuclear energy. Utilizing these energies to produce hydrogen through water electrolysis can address both the problem of large-scale energy storage and that of large-scale hydrogen production. In recent years, fuel cell technology has become increasingly mature; fuel cell vehicles have begun to enter the market in small quantities, and fuel cells with long lifespans and reasonable prices are also gradually making their way onto the market. What truly limits the development of hydrogen energy technology are the technologies for the safe and efficient storage and transportation of hydrogen, while the infrastructure required depends entirely on the methods used for storing and transporting hydrogen.