“Carbon peak”, “carbon neutralization” and “new energy” are undoubtedly the annual hot words in 2021. This year’s central economic work conference clearly put forward: “we should correctly understand and grasp carbon peak and carbon neutralization. Realizing carbon peak and carbon neutralization is the internal requirement of promoting high-quality development. We should unswervingly promote it, but we can’t accomplish it in one battle.” At the same time, it is also proposed to “pay close attention to tackling key problems of green and low-carbon technology.” At present, Ningxia’s specialty, in addition to medlar, but also add “hydrogen”. How did Ningxia do it?
100 billion chemical parks use hydrogen energy, and “green hydrogen” and “green oxygen” pollution are reduced
Starting from Yinchuan, all the way East, across the quiet Yellow River, Ningdong energy and chemical base stands on the edge of Maowusu sandy land. It is an important large-scale coal production base, coal chemical industry base and thermal power base of “west to East power transmission” in China.
Six months ago, a new guy appeared in this traditional energy and chemical base, namely hydrogen energy truck.
Without noise and pollution, Wang Chengwu, who has been driving a truck for more than 20 years, suddenly relaxed.
In May this year, the first hydrogenation station in Ningxia and the first one officially put into operation in Northwest China was completed, which can inject hydrogen into 50 heavy hydrogen fuel cell trucks every day.
Wang Chengwu’s hydrogen energy vehicle comes here every two days to add hydrogen.
Hydrogen energy trucks and hydrogen refueling stations are just a small epitome of the changes in this traditional energy and chemical base. In the past many years, Ningdong base is the largest production base of coal to oil and coal based olefins in China due to its rich coal resources. With the proposal of the goal of “carbon peak and carbon neutralization”, high energy consumption and high emission have become a sword hanging over the head of Ningdong base.
Ningdong base is the only chemical park in Northwest China with an output value of more than 100 billion yuan, and it is also the stabilizer and Beijing Dynamic Power Co.Ltd(600405) of regional industrial economy. However, Ningdong energy and chemical industry base consumes more than 90 million tons of coal every year. In addition to thermal power generation, 50 million tons are used for coal chemical industry, accounting for more than 50%.
As the basic raw material of coal chemical industry, the consumption of coal to hydrogen is as high as 2.4 million tons per year. The production of hydrogen from these coal alone requires 28.8 million tons of standard coal and 56 million tons of carbon dioxide emissions.
Standing at the crossroads of transformation, Ningdong base urgently needs to find a “key” to solve the bottleneck of energy, resources and environment. Finally, they focused on hydrogen energy. Hydrogen is an important basic raw material for modern coal chemical industry.
In Ningdong base, most of the hydrogen is produced from coal obtained by the reaction of carbon and water, commonly known as grey hydrogen. Although the cost is low, such an approach will inevitably increase energy consumption, water consumption and emit a large amount of carbon dioxide.
Ningxia Baofeng Energy Group Co.Ltd(600989) is a large coal chemical enterprise in Ningdong base. Since 2019, Liu Fei and engineers dispatched by various departments have formed a technical research team to develop the overall technical scheme of Cecep Solar Energy Co.Ltd(000591) generating “green power”, electrolyzing water to produce “green hydrogen” and “green oxygen”, and directly supplying coal chemical production system.
In the past, the traditional alkaline water electrolyzer was mainly used in power plants and polysilicon production. The scale of hydrogen production was mostly 200-300 standard cubic meters per hour, and the largest was no more than 500 standard cubic meters. However, Liu Fei and his team are faced with the situation that the first phase will build a plant that can produce 10000 standard cubic meters of hydrogen per hour.
Engineers have created a new distributed control system and specially set up a safety protection system for various instruments.
After intensive installation and commissioning, this set of electrolytic water hydrogen production plant, which can produce 10000 standard cubic meters of hydrogen per hour, was officially put into operation in Ningdong in April this year.
Subsequently, these green hydrogen and green oxygen produced by Cecep Solar Energy Co.Ltd(000591) power generation and electrolytic water were successfully coupled into the coal chemical production system of Ningxia Baofeng Energy Group Co.Ltd(600989) , realizing stable operation and large-scale production.
At present, the largest electrolytic water hydrogen production project in the world can produce 240 million standard cubic meters of green hydrogen and 120 million standard cubic meters of green oxygen every year, which can be directly supplied to coal chemical industry to replace the original coal hydrogen production.
perfect closed-loop industrial chain of hydrogen energy production, storage, processing and utilization
At present, the cost of most projects in the industry for electrolytic water to produce green hydrogen using photovoltaic power generation is between 1.7 and 2 yuan per standard square, while the cost of coal to hydrogen is only 0.6 to 0.7 yuan per standard square because the industrial chain is more mature.
The production and utilization of green hydrogen can undoubtedly release huge environmental benefits, but the operation of enterprises still needs to calculate an economic account. In Liu Fei’s electrolytic water hydrogen production workshop, the cost of green hydrogen can be controlled to 0.7 yuan per standard square meter, which is almost the same as that of coal hydrogen production. How did this happen?
In addition to technical process and process optimization, economies of scale are the magic weapon to reduce costs. Liu Fei said that as early as 2016, Ningxia Baofeng Energy Group Co.Ltd(600989) had laid out Cecep Solar Energy Co.Ltd(000591) photovoltaic power generation project.
This single crystal silicon module, each of which is nearly 2 square meters, can generate about 1.8 degrees of power every day. At present, the total construction scale of photovoltaic power generation of this enterprise has reached 1 million KW.
Not only the green hydrogen project of Ningxia Baofeng Energy Group Co.Ltd(600989) , but also the new hydrogen energy project in Ningdong base is accelerating. At the end of last year, the integrated demonstration project of hydrogen energy production, storage and processing declared by Jingneng Ningdong power generation company was approved.
In this demonstration project, Liu Wei has been leading the technical route of hydrogen production by electrolyzing water with proton exchange membrane (PEM). This technology was first used to provide fresh and sufficient oxygen for submarines and astronauts.
At present, most of the major foreign gas leading enterprises use this technology, but there is no mature project in China. Liu Wei believes that proton exchange membrane (PEM) hydrogen production by electrolyzing water is a potential technical route in the future with environmental protection and small site occupation.
Liu Wei, general manager of Jingneng Ningdong power generation company
Ningxia Baofeng Energy Group Co.Ltd(600989) such coal chemical enterprises manufacture green hydrogen to transform the coal chemical production process. The reason why Liu Wei’s power generation enterprise wants to launch the hydrogen production project is also from the perspective of power plant peak shaving.
In the development planning of hydrogen energy industry in Ningdong base, from green power generation in the upstream to green power hydrogen production in the midstream, and then to the coupling application of coal chemical industry in the downstream, it is a complete closed-loop industrial chain of hydrogen energy.
Zhao Rui is the person in charge of the hydrogen energy industry development center of Ningdong energy and chemical industry base. He told reporters that the annual sunshine time of Ningdong base exceeds 3000 hours and the effective power generation time of Cecep Solar Energy Co.Ltd(000591) can reach 1700 hours. Using Cecep Solar Energy Co.Ltd(000591) photovoltaic power to prepare green hydrogen has unique advantages.
In fact, as early as 2019, Ningdong has taken the lead in the layout of hydrogen energy. According to the latest development plan of Ningdong base, by 2025, the annual production capacity of green hydrogen will reach more than 300000 tons, which can reduce coal consumption by 3.6 million tons and carbon dioxide emission by 7 million tons every year.
With a clear development plan, it is becoming a new trend to apply for green hydrogen production project in Ningdong base. At present, one of their enterprises is planning to sell the by-product hydrogen in the production process through the hydrogen liquefaction project, and the other enterprise is trying its best to reduce the operation cost of the photovoltaic electrolytic water hydrogen production project.
At present, Ningdong base partially replaces coal with green hydrogen to produce hydrogen, and the theoretical substitution amount is about 1.2 million tons per year. Around green hydrogen, Ningdong base is focusing on coal chemical coupling, green hydrogen to ammonia, hydrogen for fine chemical industry, hydrogen energy storage, hydrogen energy transportation and other fields. Technological innovations and application scenarios are witnessing and recording the transformation of Ningdong base from a “leader” in coal chemical industry to a “leader” in hydrogen energy.
[half hour observation] green energy enables high-quality development
The annual output of 4 million tons of coal to oil, 3.2 million tons of coal based olefins and 6 million tons of downstream products of coal chemical industry is a good report card of Ningxia Ningdong energy and chemical industry base. After aiming at the new industrial direction of hydrogen energy, several hydrogen energy projects such as photovoltaic power generation, green electricity hydrogen production, green hydrogen coupling coal to oil and hydrogen energy truck will bloom and bear fruit in Ningxia in the West in the future.
At this year’s central economic work conference, it was clearly proposed that based on the basic national conditions dominated by coal, we should pay attention to the clean and efficient utilization of coal, increase the consumption capacity of new energy, and promote the optimal combination of coal and new energy. We hope that more and more places will use science and technology to create new economic strength and make green the strongest background for high-quality development.
(China Central Television Finance)
