On November 16, at the “Energy China—Accelerating the Construction of a New Low-Carbon Power System to Meet the Growing Power Demand” forum co-organized by the China News Agency and the Energy Foundation, the Deputy Secretary-General of Tsinghua University and Beijing Tsinghua Industrial Jin Qinxian, Dean of the Development Research Institute, said that hydrogen energy has extremely high strategic value for China to improve the security of the energy system and achieve carbon neutrality.
Jin Qinxian stated that China has the world’s fastest growing energy and environmental protection needs, and has huge and unique market advantages. Hydrogen production from renewable energy can produce abundant clean energy, and developed countries in related industries cannot achieve a monopoly. China should make breakthroughs in core technologies related to hydrogen energy, carry out large-scale hydrogen energy application promotion, lead the formulation of world hydrogen energy standards, and lead the development of the global hydrogen energy industry.
He believes that hydrogen energy is the main force in carbon neutrality. In the industrial field, hydrogen energy will play a major role in the substitution of raw materials and heat sources. In the field of transportation, hydrogen energy has a greater effect on the decarbonization of long-distance heavy transportation. In the energy field, hydrogen energy will play an important role in distributed power systems and energy storage. It is estimated that by 2050, the demand for hydrogen energy will be 80 million tons, which will help reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 870 million tons. It is estimated that China’s carbon dioxide emissions will be reduced to 5.8 billion tons in 2050, a relative peak reduction of 7.7 billion tons, of which hydrogen energy applications will reduce emissions by 870 million tons, and carbon neutrality will be achieved in 2060. It is expected that carbon emissions will be reduced by another 3 billion tons, of which hydrogen energy applications 300 million tons of emission reductions, accounting for more than 10% of the total reduction.
“If all renewable energy is used to produce hydrogen by water electrolysis, the annual power generation of renewable energy is about 350 trillion kWh, which is the renewable energy power generation in 2018. 180 times the volume of 1.9 trillion degrees.” Jin Qinxian said. Renewable energy and hydrogen energy jointly support energy transformation and industrial green upgrading. China has gone from a high-carbon energy system based on coal to a low-carbon energy system based on oil and natural gas, and directly entered a green energy system based on renewable energy. Only by supplying the three production factors can the real transformation of the energy structure be realized.
Regarding the industrial application of hydrogen energy, Jin Qinxian believes that the application of hydrogen energy to steel production is an effective way to transform and upgrade the steel industry to a low-carbon and green environment. More than 90% of the production capacity of China’s steel industry is long-process steel produced using blast furnace technology, and carbon emissions account for about 15% of the country’s total annual carbon dioxide emissions. It is estimated that in 2050, the short-process steel of scrap recycling will account for 60% of China’s total steel output, of which direct reduced iron is an important component of short-process steel. The combination of scrap steel recycling and hydrogen direct reduction iron technology will build a complete zero-carbon emission metallurgical industry and provide zero-carbon emission green steel for new energy and other green industries.
“Green electricity from renewable energy is an important support for the zero-carbon transformation and upgrading of the metallurgical industry.” Low sulfur content, low five-hazard impurities, clean, raw materials capable of producing high-purity and high-quality steel. It is an indispensable supporting technology for short-process electric furnace steel. It can be combined with upstream high-carbon ferrochrome and downstream ferritic stainless steel to form Complete the metallurgical industry chain.
In addition, Jin Qinxian also stated that the new chemical product production path will use electricity and hydrogen as the main fuel and raw materials to remove or capture nitrogen and petrochemicals in the air. Carbon produced by combustion. The synthesis reaction using hydrogen, nitrogen and carbon as raw materials forms the main product of the chemical industry, and is an important path for the zero-carbon transformation and upgrading of the chemical industry. To