On the morning of August 27th, 2022, the official inauguration ceremony of the National Fuel Cell Technology Innovation Center and the handover ceremony of 200 Weichai hydrogen fuel cell commercial vehicles newly put into operation in Weifang were held. Jiang Duntao, Secretary of the Weifang Municipal Party Committee, Liu Yun, Deputy Secretary of the Weifang Municipal Party Committee and Mayor, Tan Xuguang, chairman of Shandong Heavy Industry Group and Weichai Group, heads of various departments directly under the Weifang Municipal Government, media representatives, etc. participated in the event to jointly witness a major breakthrough in the construction of fuel cell technology innovation platform and large-scale demonstration application of hydrogen energy in China.
Jointly build the national platform to "sharpen the sword" for fuel cell innovation in China
On April 16th, 2021, the National Fuel Cell Technology Innovation Center was officially unveiled in Jinan, marking that the center officially entered the trial operation stage. With the full support of the Ministry of Science and Technology, Shandong Provincial Government and local cities, Shandong Guochuang Fuel Cell Technology Innovation Center Co., Ltd. was established as the main operating entity to implement independent legal person operation and gather excellent talents. The Center now has more than 200 middle and high-level scientific and technological talents. During the trial operation, the R&D organization structure and management process were improved, and the unique innovative operation mode was actively explored and practiced. After more than a year of trial operation, with the concerted efforts of many parties, and relying on the Ministry of Science and Technology's demonstration project of “Introduce Hydrogen Energy into Residential Consumption Terminals”, the Center has successfully developed 15-200kW series hydrogen fuel cell engines, forming a series of transformation achievements such as “Yellow River” snow wax vehicles, hydrogen cogeneration, high-speed hydrogen refueling stations, hydrogen port construction, hydrogen fuel cell passenger ships and so on. At present, the National Fuel Cell Technology Innovation Center is ready for formal operation.
The National Fuel Cell Technology Innovation Center takes Weichai Power as the main body, and combines high-quality innovation resources such as Tsinghua University, Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, Sinotruk, Shaanxi Heavy Duty Automobile, Shandong Guohui, Zhongtong Bus and other leading enterprises in the industrial chain, universities, scientific research institutes, etc., to create an industry university research technology innovation system of “with me as the main force, industrial chain joint innovation”. With the R&D of key technologies of fuel cells as its core mission, the Center focuses on the fields of transportation, engineering machinery, energy storage, power generation, etc. and is committed to the research of common key technologies of fuel cells, the research of application development technologies, the research of testing and evaluation technologies, and the construction of relevant R&D platforms, and promotes the industrialization of major research results.
In April 2021, the National Fuel Cell Technology Innovation Center took the lead in undertaking the Phase I of the “Introduce Hydrogen Energy into Residential Consumption Terminals” science and technology demonstration project jointly implemented by the Ministry of Science and Technology and Shandong Province, which is the first and only project nationwide. The project focuses on the development of hydrogen power system, conducts the application demonstration of comprehensive hydrogen energy supply around typical scenarios such as hydrogen high-speed, hydrogen port and hydrogen industrial park, and strives to create a replicable and popularized demonstration model of comprehensive hydrogen energy utilization. At present, a number of “Firsts” have been achieved: The first “Hydrogen + 5G” port and port hydrogen refueling station in China have been built in Qingdao port, Qingdao city; The first high-speed hydrogenation station in China has been built in Zibo South service area of Jiqing Expressway; The first zero-carbon service area in China has been built in Jinan East service area; The first hydrogen energy low-carbon Park in China was built in Weifang; The first hydrogenation master station in China, which is supplied with hydrogen by the by-product hydrogen purification pipeline of the iron and steel industry, has been built at Taishan Iron and Steel Co., Ltd. in Jinan.
Build an Industrial Cluster to Promote the Implementation of the “Hydrogen City” Blueprint
Since the first batch launch in 2019, Weichai Power has successively launched hydrogen fuel cell buses in Weifang. The vehicle is equipped with Weichai hydrogen power, which has won wide recognition in the society for its characteristics of zero-carbon, comfort, safety and reliability.
With the strong support of Weifang Municipal Party Committee and Municipal Government, five hydrogen refueling stations have been built in Weifang. After the hydrogen fuel cell commercial vehicle being put into operation, there will be 18 special bus lines, making the city the most densely populated area of hydrogen fuel bus lines in the world and the city with the most hydrogen fuel buses in the world. The accumulated mileage of vehicles equipped with Weichai hydrogen fuel cell engine exceeds 20 million kilometers. The hydrogen consumption of Weifang 12-meter fuel cell bus in 100 kilometers of actual operation is the lowest in the world, and its comprehensive performance is internationally leading. With practical actions, Weichai has made important contributions to replacing old growth drivers with new ones, and creating hydrogen energy demonstration city in Weifang.
Weichai Power not only leads the industry in the promotion and demonstration of hydrogen public transport, but also actively arranges the hydrogen power of a full series of commercial vehicles. It has launched a series of mature and tested commercial products in such sub-markets as hydrogen heavy truck port traction, hydrogen heavy truck trunk transportation, hydrogen light truck urban logistics and cold chain transportation. Weichai Power is a true leader of China's hydrogen fuel cell commercial vehicles. In addition to hydrogen fuel cell buses, Weichai also delivered hydrogen fuel cell light trucks and heavy trucks in batches in conjunction with the vehicle factory.
Weichai Power has invested 4 billion CNY in new energy business since 2010. In particular, in terms of fuel cells, the company has strategically reorganized Canada's Ballard hydrogen fuel cell, Britain's Ceres solid oxide fuel cell and Switzerland's FISCHER air compressor, and fully realized the industrial construction in Weifang. After more than five years of development, Weichai has established a R&D team with independent innovation capability, built the world's largest R&D and manufacturing base for 20,000 hydrogen fuel cell engines, and made a large number of breakthrough achievements with completely independent intellectual property rights in the R&D and industrialization of the fuel cell industry chain.
Tan Xuguang said that in the future development, we will rely on the National Fuel Cell Technology Innovation Center to seize the major opportunity of the “Introduce Hydrogen Energy into Residential Consumption Terminals” science and technology demonstration project. With an open and cooperative attitude, gather domestic and foreign innovative resources of industry-university-research, build the high-end talent clusters, accelerate the technological breakthrough of the whole fuel cell industry chain, further improve the key core technical performance, create a model of “Hydrogen Society” that can be popularized and replicated, and contribute Weichai's strength to the realization of the “Carbon Peaking and Carbon Neutrality Goals”!