The high-purity hydrogen industry has broad development prospects, and domestic companies are accelerating localization

Hydrogen product categories include ordinary hydrogen, industrial hydrogen (3N level) and high-purity hydrogen (5N level). Industrial high-purity hydrogen is mainly used in new industries with higher hydrogen purity requirements such as the semiconductor industry, solar cells and petrochemical industry. Most of the downstream industries of high-purity hydrogen are new industries, which are currently in the development stage. The demand for high-purity hydrogen is high, which is good for the development of the high-purity hydrogen industry.

Hydrogen has a wide range of uses. There is no naturally occurring hydrogen in nature, and hydrogen for industrial use needs to be converted through other energy sources. There are currently four hydrogen production technologies in the world, namely hydrogen production by electrolysis of water, hydrogen production by water-gas method, hydrogen production by methanol cracking, and hydrogen production by natural gas. Each of the above four methods has its own advantages and disadvantages. Hydrogen production by electrolysis of water is the earliest hydrogen production technology. Its hydrogen production efficiency is low, only about 70%. However, because the process is relatively simple, pollution-free, and has high product purity, it can directly produce hydrogen with a purity of more than 99.7%.

The production cost of hydrogen production by water gas method is low, but the initial equipment investment is high and the product impurities are high. This process is currently rarely used; the methanol cracking hydrogen production process has low production cost, simple process equipment, simple operation, and low power consumption. , less pollution; the natural gas hydrogen production process is simple and easy to operate, and is mainly used in areas rich in natural gas.

High-purity hydrogen mainly comes from the above hydrogen production process. Since the products produced by different processes have different impurity contents, further purification is required. After purification, hydrogen will still contain trace amounts of N2, CH4, CO, H2O and other impurities, so a more precise purification process is required, which has a high threshold.

High-purity hydrogen is currently mainly used in the semiconductor, electronics industry and petrochemical industry. The electronics industry is the market with the highest application demand. It has high application demand in the production of electric vacuum materials, semiconductors, electron tubes and amorphous silicon films. In addition, high-purity hydrogen is also one of the raw materials for manufacturing fine chemical and pharmaceutical intermediate products.

According to the released “China High Purity Hydrogen Industry Market Monitoring and Future Development Prospects Research Report 2022-2026” shows that globally, High-purity hydrogen production companies include Linde Group, Air Liquide, Air Chemicals, etc. Relying on leading technology, they have a high market share in the global and Chinese markets. Companies in my country that can produce high-purity hydrogen include Jinhong Gas, Silane Technology, etc. Silane Technology’s hydrogen products mainly include industrial hydrogen (3N grade) and high-purity hydrogen (5N grade). In 2020, the company’s hydrogen business revenue was 302 million yuan, and in the first half of 2021 it was 257 million yuan.

Industrial analysts said that high-purity hydrogen is a hydrogen product with extremely high purity. It is mainly used in the electronics industry and benefits from the development of terminal industries. Demand for high-purity hydrogen applications continues to rise. The purification technology threshold for high-purity hydrogen is relatively high, and market entry is difficult. Currently, the market is highly concentrated, and foreign companies have technological advantages and occupy a relatively high share of the domestic market. With the development of the special gas industry and the improvement of purification technology, my country has achieved high-purity hydrogen production, and will gradually realize domestic substitution in the future.