【Major Equipment in the Chemical Engineering Sector】157 – Acceleration in the Localization of Liquid Hydrogen Equipment”

For a long time, due to the late development of hydrogen liquefaction in our country and the limited number of practical projects, coupled with the high technical barriers associated with hydrogen liquefaction itself, the key equipment for liquid hydrogen production in China has been in a bottleneck situation. The figure below shows, using hydrogen liquefaction as an example, the source of equipment for major hydrogen liquefaction production projects in China over the years, from which the degree of reliance on imports can be seen.

Fortunately, as can be seen from the chart above, this situation has been gradually changing since last year, with a trend toward domestic substitution for liquid hydrogen equipment emerging. CASFC has done a great deal of work in the localization of hydrogen liquefaction equipment. Founded in 2016, the company was established based on the extensive achievements in low-temperature engineering technology that have been developed over six decades by two generations of academicians from the Institute of Physics and Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, across four generations. Leveraging its core technical advantages in the field of low temperatures, and with the aim of breaking foreign monopolies and enhancing China’s liquid hydrogen production capacity, Zhongke Fuhai, in collaboration with the Institute of Physics and Chemistry of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, has invested in the development of hydrogen liquefaction units with capacities of 300 kg/D, 1.5 T/D, 5 T/D, and 10 T/D since 2019. Efforts are being made to overcome key technical challenges related to proprietary technologies such as high-speed hydrogen turbine expanders, normal and parahydrogen conversion techniques, ultra-low leakage rate plate-fin heat exchangers, and intelligent system integration control, so as to gradually achieve localization of these complete sets of equipment. Currently, its 1.5 T/D hydrogen liquefaction plant was successfully exported to Canada in January this year ； The 1.5T/D liquid hydrogen plant project located in Anhui began full-scale construction in February this year, with commissioning and operation expected to take place in June or July of this year. Guofu Hydrogen Energy held the groundbreaking ceremony for its first large-scale civilian liquid hydrogen storage tank in March this year. The liquid hydrogen storage tank is designed with a capacity of over 200 cubic meters, allowing it to store more than 14 tons of hydrogen; it is expected to be ready for delivery around August this year. After leaving the factory, this liquid hydrogen storage container will be used in the Qilu Hydrogen Energy Integration and hydrogen storage equipment manufacturing project. It is reported that the liquid hydrogen storage tank production line uses a mixed-production approach, covering liquid hydrogen storage tanks for hydrogen refueling stations as well as those for large-scale hydrogen liquefaction plants, with an overall annual production capacity of 50 units ； Once the construction of the three future equipment bases is completed, the production capacity is expected to reach over 100 units per year. In addition, Institute 101 of the Sixth Academy of China Aerospace Science and Technology (hereinafter referred to as “Institute 101 of the Sixth Academy”) is the earliest institution in China to conduct research on aerospace hydrogen energy utilization technologies. Leveraging its advantages in areas such as liquid hydrogen development, it has gradually developed specific business areas including hydrogen liquefaction units, liquid hydrogen plants, liquid hydrogen refueling stations, on-board liquid hydrogen supply systems, and testing of hydrogen energy equipment. Last September, China’s first hydrogen liquefaction system based on a helium expansion refrigeration cycle and featuring independent intellectual property rights, developed by them, was successfully commissioned. Over 90% of the equipment in this system, including core components such as turbine expanders, control systems, compressors, and propano-hydronium converters, were manufactured entirely in China. As for other companies, in December last year, Ouyang Technology publicly unveiled its 500L liquid hydrogen supply system, which was independently developed, designed, and manufactured by the company. In June of the same year, the Beijing Aerospace Test Technology Institute successfully carried out China’s first fire test on on-board liquid hydrogen tanks. That same year, Hongda Xingye also announced that it would raise 5.5 billion yuan for projects such as liquid hydrogen. Furit Special Equipment has also announced plans to raise funds for developing vehicle-grade liquid hydrogen supply systems as well as related hydrogen valves. Amid the strong push to develop hydrogen energy, the liquid hydrogen industry is thriving; driven by various companies, liquid hydrogen-related equipment is reaching a turning point where domestic production is taking over as a replacement for imported products.

Liquid hydrogen is highly cost-effective, and the prospects for related equipment are promising. These companies have entered the field of liquid hydrogen equipment for two main reasons: firstly, liquid hydrogen storage and transportation can effectively reduce the overall costs associated with the hydrogen energy chain, from production to storage, transportation, and utilization; hence, there are great opportunities in this area given the trend toward cost reduction. For example, in the storage and transportation phase, the cost of transporting liquid hydrogen over 100 kilometers is only 10%-15% of that for 20MPa long-tube trailers, with an economical transportation distance of over 1000 kilometers ； During the filling process, generally speaking, the overall energy consumption for filling hydrogen gas into vehicles operating at 35 MPa is 3–4 kWh/kg, while it is 6–8 kWh/kg for vehicles operating at 70 MPa. Even when filling liquid hydrogen into high-pressure vehicles at 70 MPa, the overall energy consumption remains below 2 kWh/kg, showing a significant advantage in terms of energy efficiency ； Regarding hydrogen refueling stations, for those with the same hydrogen refueling capacity, the use of liquid hydrogen technology can reduce the number of required equipment units as well as the floor space needed; as a result, the construction cost can be reduced by 15–20% compared to high-pressure gaseous hydrogen refueling stations. On the other hand, it is related to the huge market demand being generated across the entire liquid hydrogen industry chain. On the side of hydrogen liquefaction, in the past year or two, there has been a noticeable increase in domestic liquid hydrogen production projects; the following are merely the liquid hydrogen production facilities that have come online in China in recent months. Against the backdrop of **promoting the development of liquid hydrogen, such projects will continue to increase, representing a huge additional market for the liquid hydrogen equipment sector.

On the refueling side, last year China built its first liquid hydrogen refueling station in Pinghu, Zhejiang； Also in that same year, four companies including Furen Energy and Guofu Hydrogen Energy joined forces to advance the “liquid hydrogen storage and refueling station project.” Under the agreement, the four parties would leverage their respective strengths to build no fewer than three liquid hydrogen storage-type refueling stations. Due to the significant advantages of liquid hydrogen refueling stations, over one-third of the more than 400 hydrogen refueling stations worldwide are currently liquid hydrogen refueling stations. In the future, as the number of liquid hydrogen refueling stations in China increases gradually, there is also a huge market potential for related equipment in this area. On the downstream application side, in September last year, Tsinghua University joined forces with Beiqi Foton to develop the world’s first 35-ton and 49-ton heavy commercial vehicles powered by distributed drive liquid hydrogen fuel cells, which successfully passed comprehensive tests. This means that market opportunities for liquid hydrogen heavy trucks have emerged. Combined with the fact that the **Ministry of Science and Technology has been issuing key R&D program projects related to liquid hydrogen for three consecutive years ； Recently, the National Development and Reform Commission issued the \"Medium- and Long-Term Plan for the Development of the Hydrogen Energy Industry (2021–2035)\", which also emphasizes the need to promote the industrial application of low-temperature liquid hydrogen storage and transportation. It is inevitable that liquid hydrogen-related equipment will have a vast market opportunity in the near future. “The hydrogen energy industry is an effective way to achieve the dual-carbon goals. At present, hydrogen energy is most widely used in the transportation sector. Given China’s large vehicle fleet, replacing just 1% of those vehicles with hydrogen fuel could create a huge market for hydrogen energy. Moreover, if 5%-10% of the hydrogen supply comes from liquid hydrogen, the demand for liquid hydrogen and the scale associated with it would be significant. ”An industry insider said as much. “We have made projections indicating that by 2025, liquid hydrogen will account for only 5% of the total, but by 2060 its share could reach 40%. In other words, as the demand for hydrogen increases, the liquid hydrogen technology pathway will play an important role. ”Another industry professional dedicated to the research and development of liquid hydrogen equipment believes so.

Challenges remain; the development of liquid hydrogen is still in the demonstration phase. Liquid hydrogen represents an important solution for the large-scale use of hydrogen energy in the future, and the market for equipment related to liquid hydrogen holds great potential. However, at present, there are still certain limitations to the development of this field. On the one hand, although the implementation of domestic liquid hydrogen projects is accelerating and many companies have entered the liquid hydrogen equipment market achieving certain progress, there is still a gap between China’s equipment in terms of performance and cost control compared to foreign counterparts. Moreover, China does not yet possess core technologies for certain key components such as valves, control elements, and liquid hydrogen pumps. Domestic liquid hydrogen equipment manufacturers still need to increase their R&D efforts and accelerate the localization of related equipment and components. On the other hand, in terms of standards, last year the Standardization Committee issued three standards for liquid hydrogen: GB/T 40045-2021 \"Liquid hydrogen as fuel for hydrogen-powered vehicles\", GB/T 40060-2021 \"Technical requirements for the storage and transportation of liquid hydrogen\", and GB/T 40061-2021 \"Technical specifications for liquid hydrogen production systems\", providing a basis for the development of the liquid hydrogen industry. But at a more specific level, there is also the issue of lacking standards. For example, in the area of liquid hydrogen storage and transportation, based on various application cases, it is evident that the use of spherical tanks for larger-scale liquid hydrogen storage will be an inevitable trend in the future. However, existing group standards still lack regulations specific to spherical tanks and liquid hydrogen tank trucks. Furthermore, due to the lack of prior experience in the use of hydrogen liquefaction in civilian applications, the management approaches regarding project implementation, approval, and safety assessment vary from place to place; there is also no clear national standard yet, which to some extent hinders the progress of hydrogen liquefaction development. Until issues such as these core technologies and standards are resolved, the liquid hydrogen industry is still in the stage of accumulating technical experience and conducting demonstrations.

Large-scale use of liquid hydrogen is still too early; one can take as an example the accident involving a liquid hydrogen transport ship in Japan this year, which was kept hidden for several months before it became public. I prefer methylcyclohexane hydrogen storage technology, as it is more suitable than liquid hydrogen.

Is it a clear oil technology? ? ? ?

Yes, it’s the hydrogen-oil technology; it became popular a few years ago, and there seems to be a demonstration project in Wuhan, Hubei