National Fuel Cell Technology Innovation Center Officially Launched in Shandong

SHANDONG, CHINA(chinatrucks): The "National Fuel Cell Technology Innovation Center" (hereinafter referred to as “National Innovation Center”), approved by the Ministry of Science and Technology of China and led by Weichai Power, was officially put into operation in the city of Weifang, Shandong province on August 27 after more than a year of trial operation.

The above-mentioned National Innovation Center began its trial operation in April, 2021 after gained approval from the Ministry of Science and Technology in March of the same year.

The National Innovation Center aims to create a technology innovation system for industry-university-research applications for high-quality innovation resources such as global collaborative industry chain leaders and scientific research institutes. Focusing on the research and development of key fuel cell technologies for transportation, engineering machinery, energy storage and power generation, the National Innovation Center will conduct research on key fuel cell technologies, application development technologies, testing and evaluation technologies and construction of related R&D platforms to promote the industrialization of major research results.

In April 2021, the Centre took the lead in undertaking the first phase of the "Hydrogen in Ten Thousand Homes" technology demonstration project jointly implemented by the Ministry of Science and Technology and Shandong Province.

The project focuses on the development of hydrogen power systems and the demonstration of integrated hydrogen energy applications in scenarios such as highway, port and park. Under the project, China’s first port hydrogen refueling station, the first high speed hydrogen refueling station and the first zero carbon service area in China have been built. 

In 2019, the first batch of hydrogen fuel cell buses was put into service in Weifang and has been running well. On August 27, another 200 Weichai hydrogen fuel cell commercial vehicles were officially handed over and put into use in Weifang. After the buses are put into service, there will be 18 dedicated routes for hydrogen-fuelled buses in the city of Weifang.

Mr. Tan Xugang, Chairman of Shandong Heavy Industry Group and Weichai Group, revealed that since 2010, Weichai Power has invested RMB 4 billion in new energy business. At present, the company has set up a research and development team with independent innovation capabilities, built a research and development manufacturing base for 20,000-unit hydrogen fuel cell engines, and achieved a large number of breakthrough results with full independent intellectual property rights in the research and development and industrialization of the entire fuel cell industry chain.

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