Industrial status, technological progress, challenges, and prospects of hydrogen energy

Abstract

Under the requirements of China's strategic goal of "carbon peaking and carbon neutrality", as a renewable, clean and efficient secondary energy source, hydrogen benefits from abundant resources, a wide variety of sources, a high combustion calorific value, clean and non-polluting, various forms of utilization, energy storage mediums and good security, etc. It will become a realistic way to help energy, transportation, petrochemical and other fields to achieve deep decarbonization, and will turn into an important replacement energy source for China to build a modern clean energy system. It is clear that accelerating the development of hydrogen energy has become a global consensus. In order to provide a theoretical support for the accelerated transformation of hydrogen-related industries and energy companies, and provide a basis and reference for the construction of "Hydrogen Energy China", this paper describes main key technological progresses in the hydrogen industry chain such as hydrogen production, storage, transportation, and application. The status and development trends of hydrogen industrialization are analyzed, and then the challenges faced by the development of the hydrogen industry are discussed. At last, the development and future of the hydrogen industry are prospected. The following conclusions are achieved. (1) Hydrogen technologies of our country will become mature and enter the road of industrialization. The whole industry chain system of the hydrogen industry is gradually being formed, and will realize the leap-forward development from gray hydrogen, blue hydrogen to green hydrogen. (2) The overall development of the entire hydrogen industry chain such as hydrogen production, storage and transportation, fuel cells, hydrogen refueling stations and other scenarios should be accelerated. Besides, in-depth integration and coordination with the oil and gas industry needs more attention, which will rapidly promote the high-quality development of the hydrogen industry system. (3) The promotion and implementation of major projects such as "north-east hydrogen transmission", "west-east hydrogen transmission", "sea hydrogen landing", and utilization of infrastructures such as gas filling stations, can give full play to the innate advantages of oil and gas companies in industrial chain nodes such as hydrogen production and refueling, etc., which can help to achieve the application of "oil, gas, hydrogen, and electricity" four-station joint construction, form a nationwide hydrogen resource guarantee system, and accelerate the planning and promotion of the "Hydrogen Energy China" strategy.