Dialogue, a decade of sharpening a sword, to solve the key problem of PEM electrolytic water from technology to market.-Amoy Island Hydrogen（Xiamen）Technology Co., Ltd.

Company news

Industry news

Team style

Dialogue, a decade of sharpening a sword, to solve the key problem of PEM electrolytic water from technology to market.

Release time:

2024-11-19

"The localization and autonomy of PEM electrolyzed water system equipment is very critical. If our instruments and core materials cannot be produced independently, the cost will be difficult to reduce, and it will be" stuck "by foreign countries '."In 2020, Tao Huabing returned from Singapore and stood at the crossroads of entrepreneurship. He plunged into the research in the field of electrochemical materials. For more than two years, he focused on the most critical membrane electrode in PEM water electrolysis hydrogen production equipment. In April 2022, with the support of Jiageng Innovation Laboratory, Amoy Island Hydrogen (XIAMEN) Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Aihytech") was established.

In the China Hydrogen Energy Alliance "2024 Hydrogen Energy Specialized New Entrepreneurship Competition", Ludao Hydrogen Energy won the championship in one fell swoop and won widespread attention from the industry and the market. From the initial project R & D team of five or six people to the "champion" enterprise with more than 70 employees,With the international and domestic first-class technical capabilities and key product indicators, Aihytech has opened up the whole chain research and development of PEM electrolytic water hydrogen production equipment, and realized the self-sufficiency of key materials.

Apply what you have learned to make technology from abstract to concrete.

Figure 2024 Hydrogen Energy Specialized Special New Venture Competition Annual Championship

China's 14th five-year Plan puts forward the goal that the total installed capacity of solar and wind energy will reach 1200 gigawatts by 2030. As of July this year, China has achieved this goal six years ahead of schedule.In the face of such a large-scale green power growth in a short period of time, hydrogen production from electrolytic water will become a key solution for green power consumption.

At present, the main factor restricting the development of green hydrogen is the cost problem, the cost of producing green hydrogen comes partly from the cost of electricity in the process of electrolytic water hydrogen production, and the other part is the cost of electrolytic water hydrogen production equipment. Therefore,Reducing the cost of renewable energy power generation and hydrogen production equipment is the two key cores to realize the industrialization and large-scale application of green hydrogen."Because my own research direction is electrochemistry Catalysis Direction, in the course of the study has been to promote the equalization of green hydrogen through efficient electrochemical hydrogen production technology." With this vision and mission, Tao Hubing began to gradually build a team framework during his stay in Singapore, and began to try and explore materials and dynamics with Tao Yongbing, who is currently the chief engineer of Heron Island hydrogen energy equipment.

Tao Hubing has been engaged in the research of hydrogen production technology by electrolysis of water for a long time, and has cross-integrated chemical reaction engineering and electrochemistry, forming a unique research direction of electrochemical reaction engineering. In 2020, during the epidemic blockade, Tao Hubing returned to China after several twists and turns, came to Xiamen for the first time, entered Xiamen University, and got acquainted with Academician Zheng Nanfeng and Academician Tian Zhongqun, and carried out in-depth academic and industrial cooperation and exchanges. "Xiamen University is a representative unit in the field of electrochemistry in China, and it also has a very high reputation in the world. This is what I knew when I was an undergraduate at Tianjin University." Therefore, after returning to China, he did not hesitate to join Xiamen University and Jiageng Laboratory.

Rapid growth, from blueprint to "first set 」

Figure Heron Island Hydrogen Energy Engineer in Catalyst Synthesis

Aihytech combines more than ten years of technical accumulation and research results of Tao Huabing's team, Xiamen University and Jiageng Laboratory, focuses on efficient hydrogen production system, breaks through efficient electrochemical hydrogen production technology, and develops efficient and low-cost electrolytic hydrogen production equipment."At the beginning of entering the hydrogen energy industry, we made a comprehensive evaluation of several directions of hydrogen production from electrolytic water. After careful comparison, we believe that the advantages of proton exchange membrane (PEM) electrolyzer in terms of high efficiency, flexibility and safety can more effectively solve the problem of green power consumption. In addition, the high technical threshold and challenge of PEM hydrogen production technology match the technical background and tackling ability of our team, just enough to play to our strengths. Therefore, we decided to focus on research and development in the field of PEM electrolyzed water technology, committed to overcome the technical problems in this field." Tao Hubing has always been full of confidence in the technical strength of the team.

"The most important thing is to apply what you have learned. If what you have learned and the results of research and development cannot be translated into actual technical and industrial applications, it will be of little significance."This is Tao Hubing's first intention to start a business, and it is also what Aihytech has been doing.

Figure 1 Heron Island Hydrogen Energy Engineer Characterizing Membrane Electrode Slurry

PEM hydrogen production equipment in the past can not be large-scale commercial production, mainly because of the high cost, PEM electrolyzer performance is generally low, the same amount of hydrogen production requires more expensive material input, the catalyst on the membrane electrode relies on precious metal materials such as iridium, expensive, low utilization rate and short life.

At that time, China urgently needed to develop high-performance electrolyzers with independent intellectual property rights, focusing on breaking through core material preparation technologies such as anode catalysts and membrane electrodes to achieve high current density, high energy conversion efficiency and high stability.

Figure: CIFIT China Hydrogen Energy Alliance

"Pilot China · Hydrogen Energy Industry Zone"

Heron Island Hydrogen Energy Low Iridium High Current Density Electrolytic Cell

"The biggest problem in increasing the current density is to solve the problem of attenuation of PEM electrolyzed water. We have done a lot of tests on this in order to solve its mechanism from the underlying logic. The reason for designing low iridium and high current density is to consider the long-term application of PEM electrolyzed water. Because our country's iridium reserves account for only 0.2 percent of the world's total, our goal is to reduce the iridium loading at low iridium and high current densities to less than 0.1 mg to address possible resource shortages for future large-scale applications. After extensive testing, we finally found that the decay was caused by a deterioration of the physical structure of the catalytic layer formed by the catalyst. After finding the root cause of this problem, we redesigned a set of catalyst evaluation system, and carried out a lot of process improvement and optimization, so as to ensure the long-life operation of the low iridium high current density electrolytic cell."

Tao Huabing led the team members to do nearly a thousand tests before and after, and finally prepared a catalyst that met the conditions, reducing the amount of iridium on the membrane electrode material by 70%. At the same time, the effective utilization rate of iridium, hydrogen production efficiency and equipment life of PEM electrolyzed water equipment did not decrease but increased,It really solves the key problem of PEM electrolyzed water technology to the market, and also provides technical support for the transformation of the team to the enterprise.

Figure Heron Island Hydrogen Energy Low Iridium High Current Density Single Stack 500 Standard Square Electrolyzer

In April 2023, Aihytech independent research and development‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍The multi-channel PEM electrolytic cell testing instrument obtained CNAS testing qualification certification, and released high-performance megawatt PEM hydrogen production equipment. In October, the low iridium high current density PEM electrolyzer was selected as "the first (set) of major technical equipment in the national energy field".In June 2024,Aihytech megawatt series electrolyzers were officially put into operation at Urumqi Hydrogenation Station in Xinjiang. After actual measurement and verification, relevant data have reached the leading level in China. In October, Aihytech released a new generation of low iridium and high current density single stack 500 standard electrolyzers, pushing the domestic PEM electrolysis water hydrogen production technology to take a solid step towards larger specifications and lower cost.

「Hydrogen "road course, full of thorns

Figure Heron Island Hydrogen Energy Electrolyzer Production and Testing

Perseverance, stone can be carved.Behind the fruitful results of rapid development is more than ten years of technological accumulation, and the firm belief that you can sit on the bench and work hard.

"For so many years, I 've been sticking to the field of electrolyzed water, and there were years when electrolyzed water wasn't as popular, and a lot of people went to the high-profile areas of carbon dioxide reduction, nitrogen reduction, monatomic catalysis, and so on. But our research, for more than a decade, has been focused on electrolyzed water anodes, because it's also the most difficult part of the water electrolysis process." Recalling the process along the way, Tao Hubing talked about.

In the process of research and development, they have repeatedly encountered doubts, "some people will worry about whether PEM will become a mainstream technology in the future when it comes to restrictions on precious metals." However, after repeated discussions and verification, Tao Huaming's team still focused on PEM electrolyzed water technology."In 2020, the gap between our domestic technology and foreign technology is still obvious. However, today, whether in terms of monomer scale or technical parameters, we have been in line with the advanced level of Europe and the United States, and even in the anode research of electrolyzed water, we have surpassed Europe and the United States.In the process of witnessing the smooth progress of technology, our confidence in the future development of PEM technology is also increasing."

Figure 1 Megawatt-class hydrogen production system

In the process of industrialization, Tao Hubing recalled that the most challenging link was the scale-up production of electrolyzers."At that time, the time was tight and the task was heavy, and we were faced with the limitation of delivery time, but because what we had been doing was positive research and development, we had never actually done such a large electrolytic cell or such a large system. At that time, we were very worried that the products after amplification could not achieve the expected results. However, fortunately, the first generation of electrolyzers has basically reached the design performance after being produced. After continuous iteration, its performance indicators are also constantly improving. This gives us full confidence in the process of scale-up production."

However, compared with the difficulties in the process of R & D and industrialization, for Tao Hubing, who has moved from a university to an enterprise, entrepreneurship itself is more difficult."In the past, I only had to focus on scientific research, but now I need to take care of many things in the company's operation. As a novice entrepreneur, everything has to be learned from scratch. In the process, I realized that my knowledge is very narrow and I can only do research; but running a business requires not only technology, but also management, financing and marketing, all of which I need to learn from scratch." Tao Hubing talked about. "Sales is also a science. Our business model has also experienced a process from simply selling products to providing comprehensive solutions, which requires us to make a fundamental change in our way of thinking. We are no longer just processing or producing, but providing a total solution that includes our process technology. PEM electrolytic water hydrogen production is a newly developed technology in China. In practical application and demonstration, many customers are not specialized in research and development in the field of electrolytic water, often do not know enough about the technical details, and the acceptance of new products needs to be further improved. This requires us not only to focus on product technology leadership, but also to design detailed and understandable solutions for customers. This shift in thinking from single product research to customer-centric solution design is another level of challenge for us."

There is a long way to go from scientific research results to market application. In the face of the rapid development of the hydrogen energy industry and the hydrogen energy companies and hydrogen energy talents that continue to join the industry, Tao Hubing said,"The hydrogen energy industry has a high threshold and it is difficult to be a technology business, but the future prospects are undoubtedly very broad. For those who intend to work deep in this industry, my advice is to be firmly prepared to invest in the long term and overcome numerous difficulties."

- THE END -

Graphic from hydrogen energy alliance CHA