Carbon fiber for hydrogen storage has broad application prospects but domestic market supply is limited

Carbon fiber is an inorganic high-performance fiber with a carbon content of more than 90%, which is transformed from organic fibers through a series of heat treatments. Carbon fiber has excellent comprehensive properties, and its downstream applications involve many fields such as aviation, automobiles, rail transit, electronic appliances, and energy storage. As a clean and renewable new energy source, under the strategic background of “carbon neutrality and carbon peaking”, hydrogen energy is bound to usher in rapid development opportunities, and the market demand for carbon fiber for hydrogen storage will be released accordingly.

High-pressure hydrogen bottles are currently the mainstream method of gaseous hydrogen storage. At present, high-pressure hydrogen bottles have developed into the fourth generation of products, which are Type I pure steel metal bottles, Type II steel-lined carbon fiber wrapped bottles, and Type III metal-lined carbon fiber bottles. Wrap bottles, Type IV non-metallic carbon fiber wrap bottles. At present, type IV high-pressure hydrogen cylinders are widely used in overseas markets. Due to the immature domestic high-strength carbon fiber technology, type IV high-pressure hydrogen cylinders have not been commercialized on a large scale in China. Type III high-pressure hydrogen cylinders are the mainstream products in the market.

Since high-pressure hydrogen bottles are explosive at high concentrations, the country has extremely high requirements on the quality and performance of carbon fibers for hydrogen storage. Most of the carbon fiber raw materials used for hydrogen storage are carbon fiber precursors of T700 and above. Carbon fiber for hydrogen storage is an indispensable key component in the field of hydrogen storage and transportation. There are extremely high technical, qualification, and R&D barriers in the industry. Due to this restriction, my country’s carbon fiber for hydrogen storage production is low and highly dependent on imports. Among them, Japan’s Toray, Japanese and Korean companies such as SK of South Korea and Toho of Japan are the main suppliers of carbon fiber for hydrogen storage in my country.

According to the “2022-2027 China Hydrogen Storage Carbon Fiber Industry Market In-depth Research and Development Prospects Forecast Report released by the Industrial Research Center , carbon fiber accounts for a high proportion of the total cost of the hydrogen storage system, reaching more than 60%. The main application fields of carbon fiber for hydrogen storage include vehicle-mounted hydrogen storage bottles, hydrogen storage bottles for renewable energy hydrogen production, hydrogen storage bottles for hydrogen refueling stations, pressure vessels, etc. In the context of energy conversion, the hydrogen storage bottle market has broad development space and is expected to In 2026, the number of domestic hydrogen storage bottles will increase to 800,000. Facing the impending explosion of market demand for hydrogen storage bottles, insufficient supply of carbon fiber for hydrogen storage has become the biggest factor restricting its development.

There are many carbon fiber manufacturers in my country, including Guangwei Composite Materials, Zhongjian Technology, Zhongfu Shenying, Hengshen Co., Ltd., etc. However, domestic companies mostly focus on ordinary carbon fiber, and there are fewer companies producing T700 and above carbon fibers. Among them, China Fu Shenying is the only company in China that can batch supply carbon fiber for truck-mounted hydrogen storage bottles.

Industry analysts said that under the strategic goal of “carbon neutrality and carbon peaking”, the hydrogen energy market will usher in rapid development During this period, as one of the mainstream hydrogen storage methods, the market demand for hydrogen storage bottles is about to explode, and the market demand for carbon fiber for hydrogen storage is vast. At the same time, under the general trend of domestic substitution, Type IV high-pressure hydrogen bottles have entered the research and development plans of domestic enterprises. With the With the upgrading of high-pressure hydrogen storage bottles, the amount of carbon fiber used for hydrogen storage will continue to increase.