Recently, the China Media Group interviewed Ouyang Minggao, a member of the Standing Committee of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and professor of Tsinghua University, on whether hydrogen fuel cell vehicles will replace pure electric vehicles and what role hydrogen energy can play in carbon neutrality.
According to Ouyang, China has about 8,000 hydrogen cars, one of the best in the world. At present, there are not many hydrogen fuel cell vehicles in the world, and the penetration rate of cars is very low and has not yet risen.
Hydrogen energy has become an important choice for international energy change with its ubiquitous, clean characteristics and commercial potential for promotion. Our country is rich in hydrogen energy production, with 10 million tons of industrial byproduct hydrogen energy not fully used every year, enough for millions of "hydrogen cars" for several years.
Does this mean that hydrogen fuel cell vehicles will replace pure electric vehicles and become the commanding heights of the technological competition in the future automotive industry? Ouyang minggao believes that hydrogen fuel cell vehicles will not replace pure electric, it has its positioning, may be more or commercial vehicles. Cars are mainly pure electric, not hydrogen fuel cell vehicles to replace pure electric vehicles.
Ouyang Minggao analysis said that traffic is not only cars, it also has ships, trains, planes, etc., is to heavy long-distance transportation to use. In the future, hydrogen will be used in long-haul transportation, such as ships, trains and planes. The Central Economic Work Conference has clearly identified "achieving carbon peak and carbon neutral work" as one of the eight key tasks in 2021. Driven by the vision of "achieving carbon neutrality by 2060", China's energy structure transformation has pressed the "acceleration button". As a major developing country dominated by coal with a large proportion of fossil energy, China has an arduous task to peak its carbon emissions within 10 years and achieve carbon neutrality within 40 years.
Ouyang said that as a member of the new energy family, hydrogen energy is indispensable to carbon neutralization. From the perspective of the big strategy, the fuel cell belongs to the big hydrogen energy system, which is a component of the fuel cell hydrogen energy technology. Hydrogen energy strategy is a national grand strategy, and also an important part of carbon neutrality.
So, hydrogen is important, at least for heavy traffic, renewable energy storage and peaking, and for industrial purposes, and for other applications, as well as for daily life (such as) home heating.
At the same time, Ouyang believes that hydrogen energy will play an important role in the long-cycle energy storage peak regulation of renewable energy sources. Renewable energy is a complete technical system, which not only needs solar energy and wind power, but also needs hydrogen energy as an energy carrier and energy storage mode to form a real new energy system.
In addition, hydrogen energy will also replace the existing coke, fossil and other energy fuels. For steelmaking, hydrogen will be used for chemicals, now with fossil fuels, and now for heating and coal.