As one of the main applications of hydrogen energy, the development of hydrogen fuel vehicles is about to enter the "fast lane", which may accelerate the whole process of hydrogen energy industrialization.

On July 25, Hebei Zhangjiakou Public Transport Corporation announced that 49 hydrogen fuel buses were put into operation in Zhangjiakou, and 25 more will be put into operation in the next two months. By then, Zhangjiakou may become the city with the largest number of hydrogen fuel cell buses in China.

The EU funded zero emission fleet project (zefer) also announced recently that it plans to spend 26 million euros to introduce 180 hydrogen fuel cell vehicles in Brussels, London and Paris this year, including 170 taxis and taxis and 10 police vehicles. Project staff believe that the daily hydrogen demand of these vehicles is four times that of ordinary hydrogen fuel vehicles, which will effectively improve the economic benefits of operating hydrogen refueling stations and promote more people to adopt hydrogen fuel vehicles.

According to the prediction of information trends, a market consulting agency, fuel cell vehicles will become the fastest-growing segment of the global automotive market by 2030. It is estimated that by 2032, the global sales of fuel cell vehicles will reach 5 million, with sales of more than 250 billion US dollars.

However, the agency's data also show that the global cumulative sales of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles were only 6475 from 2013 to 2017. Except for California, Toyota hydrogen fuel cell vehicles accounted for 75% of the remaining market.

In addition, according to the statistics of Professor Wang Hewu of Tsinghua University, there are about 1000 hydrogen fuel cell vehicles in operation in China, 12 hydrogenation facilities in operation and nearly 10 hydrogenation facilities under construction.

In this regard, analysts at global market insights believe that financial subsidies from the government will improve the R & D level of hydrogen fuel technology and the number of hydrogenation facilities between 2017 and 2024.

As far as China is concerned, according to the statistics of the Institute of advanced industry (GGII), up to now, the publicity list of key special projects of the national key R & D plan "new energy vehicles" has reached four batches, of which the R & D support fund for fuel cell vehicles is nearly 827 million yuan. Since this year alone, the R & D support fund for fuel cell vehicles has reached nearly 436 million yuan, involving six projects. The project leaders include Weichai Power, Dongfeng Motor, BAIC, Yutong, Tsinghua University, China Automotive Technology Research Center and other enterprises and institutions.

According to the prediction of the former international Hydrogen Energy Commission, by 2050, hydrogen energy will account for nearly 18% of China's energy, and the output value of the hydrogen energy industry chain will exceed US $250 million.

Chen Qingtai, President of China electric vehicle hundred people's Association, once said at the hydrogen energy industry innovation and development forum that the most typical and difficult application scenario in the development and utilization of hydrogen energy is hydrogen fuel cell vehicle, which will also become a technical breakthrough in the utilization of hydrogen energy.

Foreign car companies and research institutions have sought breakthroughs by holding together. In June this year, Audi and Hyundai signed an agreement to jointly develop hydrogen fuel cell technology and plan to carry out patent cross licensing. The two sides mutually authorize some non competitive components in general. This cooperation aims to improve the efficiency of mass production of fuel cells and make them enter the mass production stage as soon as possible. The two car companies have accumulated profound experience in fuel cell vehicle research.

Last February, Honda and General Motors also announced that they would set up subsidiaries to jointly produce hydrogen fuel cell vehicles. The cooperation between Toyota and BMW in this regard began as early as 2012.

Due to the high cost, up to now, there are only three auto enterprises that can realize the industrialization of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles worldwide, including Hyundai of Korea, Toyota and Honda of Japan.

Gan Yong, academician of the Chinese Academy of engineering, believes that if China wants to develop hydrogen fuel cell vehicles rapidly, in terms of core technology, it is necessary to accelerate the breakthrough of power generation reactor technology, especially the research and development of high specific power fuel cell engines and key materials.

Taking the proton exchange membrane fuel cell, which is the fastest developing and accounts for the largest proportion, as an example, the performance and life of proton exchange membrane will directly determine the performance and life of fuel cell. At present, the five major proton exchange membrane manufacturers in the world are American and Japanese enterprises.

The fuel cell Industry Development Research Report (2018) recently released by the fuel cell branch of China electrical industry association mentioned that due to the small scale, low investment, and just starting in large-scale, automatic production and quality control, Chinese fuel cell enterprises still lag far behind the international advanced level in battery reliability and durability.

In addition, hydrogenation station is also one of the bottlenecks restricting the utilization of hydrogen energy and the development of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles. "By the end of last year, there were 328 hydrogenation stations in operation in the world. The compressor has the highest failure rate during the operation of hydrogenation stations." Jiang Lijun, director of the special committee of China Renewable Energy Association, said at the 2018 national flag hydrogen energy and fuel cell industry development conference that in addition to accelerating the construction of hydrogenation stations, how to improve the operational reliability of hydrogenation stations and reduce the failure rate, It is also the focus of attention at present.