In recent years, with the development of fuel cell technology and the improvement of hydrogen refueling facilities in my country, the characteristics of hydrogen-powered vehicles, such as fast refueling speed and suitability for long-distance heavy-load transportation, are becoming more prominent.

Recently, a hydrogen-powered logistics vehicle completed a 1,300-kilometer long-distance transportation mission from the Beijing Daxing International Hydrogen Energy Demonstration Zone to the Yangtze River Delta (Jiaxing) Hydrogen Energy Industrial Park. Earlier in April, a 49-ton hydrogen-powered heavy truck also completed a 1,500-kilometer long-distance transportation test from Beijing to Shanghai, proving that my country's hydrogen-powered vehicles have achieved large-scale, long-distance, and cross-regional actual transportation.

 

Hydrogen vehicles can achieve large-scale, long-distance, and cross-regional transportation, which is an important part of the market promotion of fuel cell vehicles. So, what difficulties need to be overcome to truly achieve sustainable commercial operation?

Vehicles and roads have initially met the conditions for long-distance transportation

Building a long-distance "hydrogen corridor" to enable hydrogen heavy trucks to run in the broadest application scenario of medium- and long-distance highway freight, and then to enable the entire industrial chain to move upstream and downstream, is currently a key link in promoting the commercialization of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles. Wan Gang, chairman of the China Association for Science and Technology, has repeatedly advocated that the "hydrogen highway" supporting the cross-regional demonstration operation of fuel cell vehicles should be connected, and a "hydrogen corridor" with a combination of long and short distances and a reasonable layout should be built to form a comprehensive and large-scale hydrogen transportation major demonstration project.

Since last year, the number of cases where hydrogen fuel cell vehicles have achieved long-distance missions across multiple provinces has gradually increased. On October 22, 2023, the State Power Investment Hydrogen Energy Logistics Vehicle completed the Beijing-Jinan cross-provincial transportation mission and returned to the Daxing depot smoothly, with a total of 1,160 kilometers of round trips across Beijing, Tianjin, Hebei, and Shandong.

In April this year, a 49-ton hydrogen heavy truck equipped by Reshape Energy departed from Beijing Daxing, and after two days, it crossed six provinces and cities and finally arrived in Shanghai. In August, an 18-ton hydrogen logistics vehicle crossed six provinces and cities, namely Beijing, Tianjin, Hebei, Shandong, Jiangsu and Zhejiang, and successfully built a hydrogen energy high-speed corridor connecting Beijing to the Yangtze River Delta region.

The realization of large-scale, long-distance and cross-regional hydrogen transportation by hydrogen vehicles has benefited from the progress of my country's high-power fuel cell technology in recent years and the gradual maturity of hydrogen refueling station networks in various places.

In terms of fuel cells, in the past, based on reliability, life, cost, maintenance and other considerations, the power range of fuel cell systems for heavy-duty transport vehicles was mainly 110-130kW. These vehicles seemed to be a bit struggling when facing high-speed, long-distance and complex road conditions. With the continuous improvement of my country's fuel cell stack and system technology development work, more and more heavy trucks and other vehicles equipped with 130+kW systems have been put into use, and long-distance transportation of hydrogen vehicles will become more and more smooth.

In the above-mentioned case across six provinces and cities with a total distance of about 1,500 kilometers, the vehicle was equipped with a 180kW fuel cell system from Reshape Energy.

In terms of hydrogen refueling station construction, the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei-Shandong-Jiangsu-Zhejiang-Shanghai region is currently the region with the highest level of development in the promotion and demonstration of hydrogen energy in my country, and the layout of the hydrogen refueling station network is also relatively complete. According to statistics from the Industrial Research Institute (GGII), my country has built more than 470 hydrogen refueling stations, and only 7 provinces and cities, including Beijing, Tianjin, Hebei, Shandong, Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Shanghai, have built 161 hydrogen refueling stations, which provides convenience for hydrogen refueling during long-distance transportation of hydrogen vehicles.

According to reports, their hydrogen energy logistics vehicles carried out two hydrogen refueling operations when crossing the six provinces and cities of Beijing, Tianjin, Hebei, Shandong, Jiangsu and Zhejiang. The first hydrogenation was completed at the Sinopec hydrogenation station in Huaiyin District, Jinan City, Shandong Province, and the second hydrogenation was completed at the gas station on Wenchang West Road, Yangzhou City, Jiangsu Province. The 1,300-kilometer long-distance transportation mission consumed a total of 54 kilograms of hydrogen.

What is left to achieve truly sustainable business operations?

The completion of the hydrogen corridor of thousands of kilometers by hydrogen vehicles is a milestone, which shows that medium and large hydrogen transport vehicles have become a reality for heavy-load long-distance trunk logistics from a product perspective. However, the above-mentioned large-scale, long-distance, and cross-regional transportation cases of hydrogen vehicles are still in the testing stage. If sustainable commercial operations are to be achieved, the economic feasibility of long-distance transportation of hydrogen vehicles must also be considered.

Liu Yonggui told Gaogong Hydrogen and Electricity that in order to open up this 1,300-kilometer new inter-provincial green logistics channel, the route was carefully planned. The biggest difficulty encountered was to coordinate the hydrogenation of vehicles with hydrogen stations along the way. Although there are many hydrogen stations along the way, the hydrogen prices of hydrogen stations in various places are different. If the hydrogen price is too high, hydrogen vehicles will lose the economic feasibility of transportation.

It is understood that at present, since many places in my country have introduced hydrogen subsidy policies, the government will subsidize hydrogen vehicle hydrogenation, so the price of hydrogen in the eastern provinces is about 30-35 yuan per kilogram. However, the prerequisite for hydrogen vehicles to enjoy hydrogen subsidies at hydrogen refueling stations is to register at local hydrogen refueling stations. Unregistered foreign vehicles can only buy hydrogen at high prices at hydrogen refueling stations without subsidies.

Since the needs of each hydrogen vehicle operating company are the same, the economic balance point between hydrogen vehicle refueling and traditional fuel vehicle refueling is also different. According to their calculations, taking a 4.5-ton truck as an example, when the hydrogen price is 25 yuan/kg, the fuel cost of hydrogen trucks and fuel trucks is basically the same; when the hydrogen price is 35 yuan/kg, the fuel cost of hydrogen refrigerated trucks and fuel refrigerated trucks is basically the same. If the operating company purchases hydrogen that does not enjoy government subsidies at a high price, the operating economy of hydrogen vehicles will not be guaranteed.

In the process of transportation, in addition to being affected by the price of hydrogen, highway tolls are also an important factor affecting the economic efficiency of hydrogen vehicle transportation. Since the beginning of this year, Shandong, Sichuan, Jilin, Shaanxi, Ordos, Inner Mongolia and other places have successively introduced policies for free highway passage of hydrogen vehicles. The calculation based on a 49-ton heavy truck as an example shows that if all highway tolls are exempted, the unit transportation cost of fuel cell vehicles can be reduced by 25%.

However, in long-distance transportation across multiple provinces, hydrogen vehicles are currently facing the same embarrassment as hydrogen refueling. If they are not registered locally, they cannot enjoy the preferential policies for hydrogen vehicle traffic.

At present, although hydrogen vehicles can technically achieve large-scale, long-distance, and cross-regional actual transportation. However, the policy link has not been opened up, and the economic efficiency of hydrogen vehicle transportation has not yet been truly reflected.

Liu Yonggui said that at present, the hydrogen energy policies within various provinces and regions are relatively unified, and hydrogen vehicle transportation can have a certain degree of economy in some provinces and cities. Therefore, many companies choose to cooperate with designated hydrogen refueling stations to set the mileage of hydrogen energy transportation vehicles within hundreds of kilometers.

The development of the hydrogen energy industry also requires national policies to pay attention to hydrogen energy-related aspects. It is certain that the country and various regions will introduce a series of preferential measures for the application of hydrogen vehicles in the future. As policies continue to improve, the hydrogen refueling station network will become larger in the future, and the user experience of hydrogen vehicles will be greatly improved. Especially for commercial vehicles such as logistics, hydrogen vehicles can significantly reduce costs and are extremely practical.