At the beginning of this year, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and other six departments issued the "Guiding Opinions on Promoting the Development of the Energy Electronics Industry", which clearly emphasized accelerating the research and development, promotion and application of high-efficiency fuel cells such as methanol. In the following months, policies to promote the preparation and application of methanol were also introduced, aiming to improve the promotion and application of methanol fuel.
So, why have the relevant policies continued to put forward the layout of methanol fuel this year?How significant is the use of methanol fuel for the commercial vehicle industry?
Balance between environmental protection and economy Methanol is the optimal solution
At present, the number of commercial vehicles in China accounts for only 10 of the number of vehicles9%, but consumes 51% of gasoline and diesel, and carbon dioxide emissions and air pollutant emissions account for 56% and 80% of total vehicle emissions, respectively. At the same time, the imbalance of domestic energy consumption structure is mainly constrained by China's resource endowment of "rich in coal, low gas and poor in oil".
In addition to the common pure electric, extended-range hybrid, plug-in hybrid, and hydrogen fuel cells, more and more companies have begun to get involved in methanol fuel in recent years. It's not hard to understand why methanol fuel has no range anxiety compared to pure electric vehicles, and compared to hybrid powertrains, methanol fuel has no pollutant emissions and has excellent environmental advantagesAt the same time, as a liquid fuel, methanol's stability and ease of transportation are also incomparable to electricity and hydrogen. At the same time, China's oil self-sufficiency rate has been less than 30% for a long time, and its dependence on foreign countries is high, so making good use of methanol, a "green liquid", is of great significance to China's energy security, the development of new energy industry and atmospheric environment governance.
In addition to the natural environmental advantages, methanol fuel also has huge economic advantages. At present, the market of methanol is 1800-2500 yuan, compared with gasoline and diesel and other fuels have a huge cost advantage, and the fluctuation is small, relatively stable, which undoubtedly saves huge expenses for mining trucks with high power consumption and high emission levels.
At the same time, the preparation of methanol is also relatively convenient. A large number of wind and solar energy fields have been built in China to provide rich conditions for the preparation of methanol, and at the same time, the required carbon sources can be obtained not only from rich coal resources, but also from carbon emissions and even urban pollution.
In addition, methanol has excellent low-temperature stability. As a low-carbon oxygenated fuel, methanol not only has the advantages of efficient combustion, clean emission and renewable, but also is liquid at room temperature and pressure, has better temperature adaptability than power batteries and fuel cells, and its low temperature characteristics are close to those of diesel, so it is considered an ideal clean and renewable energy. It is not difficult to see that methanol is an excellent energy source to replace fuel oil at this stage and become mining truck fuel.
The extended-range hybrid is more suitable for mining production
Under the current technical conditions, the application of methanol and other clean fuels will provide strong support for the promotion of the "dual carbon" strategy. So, what form of power should be used to maximize the advantages of methanol?
At this stage, the promotion of new energy products in the mining industry has become a consensus. At present, many new energy mining truck products in the industry adopt pure electric technology route, thanks to the application of braking energy system, pure electric mining truck can continuously charge the power battery in the downhill stage, which also makes this type of model very suitable for heavy-duty downhill conditions.
However, for many mining enterprises, heavy load uphill is a common working condition. The mileage of the pure electric mining truck will be greatly reduced under the heavy-duty uphill condition, and the longer charging time will also affect the attendanceAt the same time, since the mining equipment is almost not out of the mine after it is put into operation, if there is a demand for battery replacement, only battery replacement facilities can be added in the mining area, which will undoubtedly significantly increase the operating costs of enterprises. Therefore, for "pit-type" mining areas, pure electric mining trucks can hardly meet the demands of cost reduction and efficiency increase, and there are no obvious economic advantages compared with fuel mining trucks.
At this time, the extended-range hybrid system, which is more popular in the new energy passenger vehicle industry, has stronger technical advantages in the special field of mining trucks. The extended-range hybrid not only has no range anxiety, but also can further reduce energy consumption and achieve a longer range by ensuring that the engine is always running in the most efficient range, and can also extend the life of the engine and the battery in scenarios with frequent start-stops and many uphill and downhill slopes. Among the new energy mining truck power types that have been put into use, the extended-range hybrid system has stronger universality.
It is the first to be applied to wide-body mining trucks to create the optimal power chain
Limited by the scale of the industry, methanol engines and extended-range hybrid systems were not widely used in the field of mining equipment in the past. Now, however, the industry has taken a turnaround. Recently, a mining area in Xinjiang has applied a number of mining truck models equipped with methanol extended-range hybrid system on a large scale, which has attracted widespread attention in the industry. The leading supplier of this power combination is a fast-growing new energy power enterprise - Kaibo Easy Control.
Based on the recognition of the extended-range hybrid technology route and the prospect of methanol fuel, on the basis of the original positive research and development of pure electric drive technology route, Kaibo Yikong took the lead in applying the extended-range hybrid technology to wide-body mining trucks, and gave it a new control logic, combined with the special application scenarios of mines, to create a new energy power system in line with mining trucks - alcohol-electric extended-range hybrid system.
This is the first time in the industry to apply high-speed and high-power flat wire motor to the extended range hybrid system, Kaibo Easy Control also added a high-power on-board drive motor to the system, which not only meets the power demand of mining trucks when climbing with heavy loads, but also ensures the industry problem of power interruption when the vehicle shiftsThe design of the dual high-speed motors ensures that there is no "walking" when going uphill with heavy loads, making the operation of the mine safer;The advanced software control algorithm and methanol engine also improve the operation efficiency of the vehicle, and match the unique power following strategy for different scenarios such as no-load and downhill to further improve the economy of system operation.
In addition, Kaibo Easy Control has also introduced the active lubrication technology of on-demand distribution in this system, and realized fixed-point and quantitative lubrication spray by optimizing the design of the lubricating oil pipeline, which not only reduces the power consumption of the system and the amount of lubricating oil, but also further reduces the cost of single maintenance, effectively reducing costs and increasing efficiency for users.
Wrapping up
From the perspective of actual operational performance, the alcohol-electric extended-range hybrid system developed by Kaibo Yikong takes into account both power and economy, dispelling the industry's doubts about the new technology route and boosting the confidence of the mining truck market in the methanol extended-range hybrid system. As more and more automakers and parts manufacturers join the market, range-extender hybrid systems using methanol fuel are expected to grow significantly.