Fu Yu, who has been working in the field of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles for more than 20 years, recently has a feeling of “hard work and sweet life”.

“On the one hand, fuel cell vehicles will carry out a four-year demonstration and promotion, and the industrial development will usher in a” window period “. On the other hand, in the draft of the energy law issued in April, hydrogen energy was listed in the energy system of our country for the first time, and before that, hydrogen energy was managed according to “dangerous chemicals” He said excitedly in a recent telephone interview with a reporter from China News Agency.

In the past 20 years, Fu Yu has been engaged in research and development in Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, National Engineering Research Center of new source power fuel cell and hydrogen source technology, etc. He has studied with Yi Baolian, a fuel cell expert and academician of Chinese Academy of engineering. Later, he joined a well-known enterprise to work with teams in North America, Europe, Japan and South Korea, “to know where the gap between us and the world’s first-class level is, but also to know our capabilities.”. At the end of 2018, he felt that the time was right to set up a science and technology enterprise Ji’an hydrogen energy with like-minded partners.

New energy vehicles are mainly divided into two categories: lithium battery vehicles and hydrogen fuel cell vehicles. The former has been popularized to some extent, but in practice, problems such as short cruising mileage, long charging time, small battery load and poor environmental adaptability have not been well solved.

Fu Yu and others firmly believe that the hydrogen fuel cell vehicle with the same environmental protection can make up for the shortcomings of the lithium battery vehicle, which is the “ultimate solution” of automobile power.

“In general, it takes more than half an hour for a pure electric vehicle to charge, but only three or five minutes for a hydrogen fuel cell vehicle.” He gave an example. However, the industrialization of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles lags far behind that of lithium battery vehicles, one of which is limited by batteries – specifically, by stacks.

“The electric reactor is the place where the electrochemical reaction takes place and is the core component of the fuel cell power system. Its essence is equivalent to the ‘engine’, which can also be said to be the ‘heart’ of the car.” Fu Yu said that due to the high technical barriers, only a few large-scale vehicle enterprises and the entrepreneurial teams of relevant scientific research institutes in the world have the professional engineering design ability of electric reactor products. The supply chain of domestic hydrogen fuel cell industry is relatively scarce, and the degree of localization is relatively low, especially the bipolar plate of important components, which is the “difficulty” of process and the “pain point” of application.

It is reported that graphite bipolar plate technology and metal bipolar plate technology are mainly used in the world. The former has strong corrosion resistance, good conductivity and thermal conductivity, and occupies the main market share in the early stage of industrialization, but in fact, it also has some shortcomings, such as poor air tightness, high material cost and complex processing technology. The metal bipolar plate has the advantages of light weight, small volume, high strength, low cost and less working procedure, which is highly expected by domestic and foreign automobile enterprises.

For this reason, Fu Yu led his team to study for many years and finally released the first generation of fuel cell metal bipolar plate stack products independently developed in early May. The product adopts the fourth generation ultra-high corrosion-resistant and conductive non noble metal coating technology of Changzhou Yimai, a strategic partner, and the high-precision fiber laser welding technology of Shenzhen Zhongwei to solve the “life problem” that has plagued the industry for many years. According to the test data, the power of a single reactor reaches 70-120 kW, which is the first-class level in the market at present; the specific power density is equivalent to that of Toyota, a famous automobile company.

The test product caught novel coronavirus pneumonia at critical times, which made Fu Yu very anxious. “All the three testers originally arranged were isolated, and they could only guide other R & D personnel to learn the operation of the test bench through video call remote control every day. It was a hard time. ” He said that the good thing is that the test results are better than expected, and everyone’s enthusiasm is very high.

Fu Yu revealed that they plan to launch an upgraded version of the reactor product this year, when the single reactor power will be increased to more than 130 kilowatts. After reaching the goal of “the best power reactor in China”, they will impact the highest level in the world, including raising the power of single reactor to more than 160 kilowatts, further reducing costs, taking out a “Chinese heart” with more excellent technology, and promoting domestic hydrogen fuel cell vehicles to drive into the “fast lane”.

According to data from China Automobile Industry Association, in 2019, the production and sales of fuel cell vehicles in China were 2833 and 2737 respectively, up 85.5% and 79.2% year on year. There are more than 6000 hydrogen fuel cell vehicles in China, and the goal of “5000 fuel cell vehicles by 2020″ in the technical roadmap of energy saving and new energy vehicles has been achieved.

At present, hydrogen fuel cell vehicles are mainly used in buses, heavy trucks, special vehicles and other fields in China. Fu Yu believes that due to the high requirements of logistics and transportation on endurance mileage and load capacity, the disadvantages of lithium battery vehicles will be magnified, and hydrogen fuel cell vehicles will seize this part of the market. With the gradual maturity and scale of fuel cell products, it will also be widely used in passenger cars in the future.

Fu Yu also noted that the latest draft of China’s fuel cell vehicle demonstration and promotion clearly pointed out that China’s fuel cell vehicle industry should be promoted to a sustained, healthy, scientific and orderly development. This makes him and the entrepreneurial team more motivated and confident.