Proposal to promote green hydrogen technology research and industrial development
"Green hydrogen is known as the purest new green energy source and plays an important role in the energy transition. The full exploitation of the energy properties of green hydrogen and the promotion of its use and development will help China to achieve the goal of "double carbon", guarantee national energy security and promote high-quality development. As the world's largest producer of hydrogen, China has good conditions and a promising future for the development of the green hydrogen industry. However, the development of green hydrogen has started late compared to countries and regions such as the US and Europe, and there are some urgent problems to be solved in terms of policy system, technical support and industrial growth.
Firstly, the existing policies and systems cannot meet the requirements of the medium and long-term planning and development goals of hydrogen energy. At present, the overall management and supervision system of hydrogen energy has not yet been fully established, resulting in the lack of a clear competent department for planning and approval, construction and operation, and safety supervision of green hydrogen-related links, and the lack of effective guidance for industrial development. The standard system for the production, storage, transmission and use of green hydrogen is not perfect, the product quality specifications are not uniform and the value measurement is not clear. The lack of policy support such as the price of electricity produced by green hydrogen and the financial support for the construction of industrial supporting facilities has hindered the development of scale up.
Secondly, the overall strength of scientific and technological innovation is not enough to promote the rapid and sustainable development of green hydrogen in depth. The green hydrogen technology that China has mastered has limited cost reduction and efficiency enhancement for the end-use of green hydrogen, and it is difficult to form a comparative advantage. The technical efficiency of the production end is low and the cost is high, and the service life of new technologies such as solid oxide electrolysis and the transformation of results have not yet made a breakthrough. There are many bottlenecks at the hydrogen storage end, with insufficient technical support for high-pressure gaseous and low-temperature liquid state, and low hydrogen storage density. The technology represented by hydrogen fuel cell and hydrogen internal combustion engine is still in the position of "catching up", and the material dependence on foreign countries is large. Green hydrogen technology in general has a concept of focusing on application rather than R&D and on short-term effects rather than long-term investment.
Thirdly, the constraints on the application of green hydrogen are hindering the construction of a unified market in the green hydrogen industry. The industrialisation process of green hydrogen in China is generally characterised by high enthusiasm, high restrictions and narrow applications. The cost of electricity for hydrogen production from electrolysis water is too high and the stability of renewable energy is insufficient. The multiple management and unclear authority and responsibility of hydrogen refuelling station construction, superimposed on the factor that hydrogen is managed according to hazardous chemicals, lead to large investment, high operation cost, small quantity and remote distribution, which affect the development of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles and reverse restrict the construction and operation of hydrogen refuelling stations. The pure hydrogen pipeline mileage is relatively short, and the natural gas pipeline network has not yet been used for hydrogen transmission, and natural gas blending with hydrogen has not yet been implemented to provide low-carbon energy for household life, so the expansion of application scenarios is limited.