【Ten Years of Great Progress in Chemical Technology】094-2023: Successful commissioning of large-scale hydrogen liquefaction equipment exported by China to overseas markets for the first time

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Over the past decade, chemical technology has seen tremendous development, reflecting the prosperity and strength of modern China. By contributing our ideas, we can encourage more people to get involved and make the discussions more lively. HaiChuan becomes even better with your participation; we welcome everyone to join in the forum discussions. Everyone should pay attention to safety and know how to handle emergencies. ********************************************* Recently, the first set of hydrogen liquefaction equipment with independent intellectual property rights, capable of producing 1.5 tons of hydrogen per day, was developed, manufactured by ZhongKe FuHai and exported overseas. It was successfully tested at a customer’s site abroad, marking China’s mastery of the core technologies related to hydrogen liquefaction. This breakthrough ends the previous situation in which foreign countries held a monopoly over such equipment, representing a remarkable transformation from being restricted to developing such technologies independently and then bringing them to the international market. The hydrogen liquefaction unit exported in this set uses a turbine-inverse Brayton helium refrigeration cycle to achieve a cooling capacity of 20K. Normal-temperature hydrogen is gradually cooled to low temperatures and liquefied; during this cooling process, it also undergoes positive-secondary hydrogen conversion through positive-secondary hydrogen converters at different temperature levels, ultimately yielding liquid hydrogen with an appropriate content of secondary hydrogen. The main equipment of the hydrogen liquefaction plant includes: compressors, oil filters, a 20K cryogenic tank, a control system, a liquid hydrogen storage tank, transfer pipelines from the cryogenic tank to the liquid hydrogen storage tank, and a helium buffer tank. Among them, the 20K cryostat is a vacuum-insulated cryostat, and it contains components such as multi-stage heat exchangers, turbine expanders, internal adsorbers, primary-secondary converters, low-temperature valves, and measuring elements. By the end of 2021, the device was integrated and passed all the relevant certification audits, including PED, ATEX, EMC, LVD, and MD; it ultimately obtained the CE certification for the product, fully meeting the requirements of overseas customers ； At the beginning of 2022, the unit was shipped to an overseas site, where the user organization was responsible for installing the hydrogen liquefaction equipment and connecting the pipes between the various devices ； On April 8, 2023, the Zhongke Fuhai team went to the site for debugging ； The debugging was completed on May 16, and the test results met the requirements specified in the contract. During the device commissioning process, the technical staff from Zhongke Fuhai addressed various issues that arose on site one by one, optimized the control and operation parameters based on the actual conditions, and ensured the stable startup and operation of all equipment. They also carried out iterative improvements to the control system in terms of programming and operating procedures, thereby ensuring precise control over all process parameters. In this way, they met the customer’s commissioning requirements and completed the delivery successfully, laying a solid foundation for further expansion into overseas markets.