The world's largest pilot plant for magnesium hydride hydrogen storage materials has been put into operation in Yulin
China has made major breakthroughs in hydrogen energy storage, transportation and material preparation technologies
On May 20th, it was learned from the Yulin Institute of Clean Energy Innovation of the Chinese Academy of Sciences that the 150-ton/year magnesium hydride pilot production line, after being fed and started up in Yulin, Shaanxi Province, has recently entered stable operation after defect elimination and optimization. This is the first pilot production line of magnesium hydride hydrogen storage materials with independent intellectual property rights in China, with a scale of over 100 tons. It is the largest in the world and marks a major breakthrough in China's hydrogen energy storage and transportation technology as well as the preparation of key materials.
The person in charge of the magnesium hydride project team at the Yulin Institute of Clean Energy Innovation of the Chinese Academy of Sciences introduced that the project adopts the patented technology of the Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences. The main raw materials, magnesium powder and hydrogen, are hydrogenated under catalytic conditions to synthesize magnesium hydride (MgH2). The reaction conditions are relatively mild, and the technical difficulties in the large-scale production of magnesium-based hydrogen storage materials have been overcome.
This project is jointly built by the Yulin Institute of Clean Energy Innovation of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the Dalian Institute of Chemical Technology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and Dalian Fude Jinyu New Energy Co., LTD. It is the first project to carry out pilot and demonstration tests after the operation of the Yulin-Hengyang Comprehensive Pilot and Demonstration Base. The total investment of the project is 50 million yuan. The production facilities include magnesium powder preparation, magnesium hydride synthesis, automatic packaging units, etc. In January this year, the production line of the pilot plant was successfully started up with one-time feeding of materials, producing the first batch of qualified products, and achieving unmanned on-site operation and automated operation. The mass hydrogen storage densities of the prepared magnesium hydride materials are 6.5wt% and 7.2wt%. Magnesium hydride products in powder, granular and block forms can be produced according to demand. At present, the process package for a 10,000-ton magnesium hydride project is being compiled, with the aim of establishing an industrial demonstration project in Yulin. This will promote the comprehensive utilization of the abundant industrial by-product hydrogen in the local area and the transformation and upgrading of the magnesium metal industry.
It is understood that solid-state hydrogen storage is an emerging technology in the hydrogen storage process. Compared with high-pressure gas energy storage and low-temperature liquid hydrogen storage, it has the characteristics of high safety, high volume hydrogen storage density and convenient transportation. Among them, magnesium hydride material is safe, environmentally friendly and recyclable, and it is a hydrogen storage material with great application prospects. Compared with other metal-like hydrogen storage materials, magnesium-based solid-state hydrogen storage materials have a significant advantage in hydrogen storage weight density, which is five times that of traditional high-pressure gaseous hydrogen storage. They can be safely transported under normal temperature and pressure, providing a high-safety, high-efficiency, and low-cost hydrogen storage and transportation solution.
In recent years, the magnesium hydride team of Yulin Innovation Institute has carried out small-scale and pilot-scale amplification and other engineering tests on magnesium-based solid-state hydrogen storage materials, and continuously iterated and upgraded the batch production technology. At the same time, dedicated equipment for the preparation of magnesium-based hydrogen storage at the kilogram and hundred-kilogram levels has been developed.