Tsinghua overcame the industrialization of hydrogen fuel cell catalysts

Because of the advantages of "high efficiency and zero pollution", hydrogen fuel cells are increasingly used in new energy vehicles. But the key material that enables hydrogen fuel cells to provide electrical energy-catalysts, China has always relied on high-cost imports. A few days ago, the research team of Tsinghua University overcame the problem of industrialization of hydrogen fuel cell catalysts, and the price was only half that of similar imported products.

The bus that is driving is the first bus in China that is powered by a fuel cell made of materials from the country. It was successfully tested in Xianning, Hubei. Compared with traditional cars, its energy conversion efficiency is as high as 50% to 80%, which is 2 to 3 times that of internal combustion engines. The application of hydrogen fuel cells in western developed countries is accelerating, because it has obvious advantages compared with pure electric vehicles.

The core material of hydrogen fuel cells, catalysts, has long relied on imports before, resulting in high costs, which has restricted the independent development of China's hydrogen energy industry. In 2015, Tsinghua University jointly developed hydrogen fuel cell technology through school-enterprise cooperation. It took more than two years to finally overcome the mass production technology of fuel cell catalysts, as well as the technical upgrade and batch preparation of key components such as membrane electrodes and bipolar plates, and to achieve the localization of key materials and components for hydrogen fuel cells. Similar products have been reduced by 50% to 80%, and the performance indicators of some parts have exceeded imported products.

At present, the series of catalyst products have been applied in fuel cell stacks of Chinese Academy of Sciences, universities and many fuel cell companies. A fuel cell catalyst mass production line has been built, with a production capacity of 1200g / day, which can meet the use of 60 fuel cell buses, and has large-scale industrial production conditions. It is expected that China's fuel cell stack production capacity will reach 400,000 kilowatts this year.