Fuel cell vehicles the way to go as auto revolution grips country
Print Edition
When administrator of the United Nations Development Program Achim Steiner took a bus in Beijing recently, it was a white van with a special gas vessel sealed to its top, running up and down the street smoothly and quietly.
Instead of heading straight to his destination, Steiner got off the hydrogen-fueled vehicle, took out his phone and circled the van for photos and videos. “These fuel cell vehicles showcase the potential for a clean transportation sector,” he said, impressed by his experience on the vehicle.
The van, produced by Chinese auto maker Foton Motor, is just the tip of the iceberg for the booming hydrogen-fueled vehicle sector which is gaining much popularity.
In Beijing, Bus 384 with a hydrogen fuel cell has been carrying passengers for more than 10 years.
In Zhangjiakou, a co-host of the 2022 Winter Olympics along with Beijing, 74 hydrogen-fueled buses each run three routes every day, accounting for 25 percent of the city’s total number of buses, with 170 procured and yet to hit the road, Zheng Taipeng, an official with the city’s bus company, revealed.
According to Zhang Weidong, a director of energy and environment at UNDP China, by the end of 2017, the total amount of FCVs in service in China had already surpassed 1,000, most of them buses.
For him, the biggest advantage of a hydrogen fuel cell is that it generates electricity within the auto to power the motor using oxygen from the air and compressed hydrogen, and thus only emits water and a very small amount of carbon dioxide and oxynitride.
“We once tested the water it lets out, and it’s even cleaner than a lot of drinking water on the market,” said Zhang, who also manages a project on commercializing hydrogen fuel cell buses jointly launched by the Ministry of Science and Technology and Ministry of Finance in 2003.
Hydrogen cylinders
Another advantage of a hydrogen fuel cell lies in its efficiency. At a hydrogen refilling station in Zhangjiakou, it took a fuel cell bus with eight hydrogen cylinders no more than 10 minutes to finish its refueling, which could support the vehicle for another 400 kilometers or so.
“A fuel cell’s service life is two to three times longer than that of an average battery,” said Yang Shaojun, a senior engineer with SinoHytec, a state-owned high-tech enterprise that focuses on hydrogen fuel cells.
“Unlike lithium batteries, it’s also environment-friendly after being disposed of and highly recyclable, particularly the platinum on its surface.”
However, as the prospects of FCVs in the country keep booming and with the project deep into its third stage, which is expected to be completed by 2020, breaking through the bottlenecks in certain areas has become even more urgent.
The common concern that hydrogen is highly hazardous has also affected the construction of more hydrogen stations, as they are generally considered inappropriate to be built close to residences, said Yang, who expects more policies to be enacted to raise awareness of hydrogen as a safe and green energy.
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