At the start of the year of “Ox”， Yinlong hydrogen fuel cell running horse buses set sail on the street of Wuhai City in Inner Mongolia, as new members of the No.20 bus route fleet. all dressed in “Chinese New Year Red”. Yinlong hydrogen fuel cell buses, powered by hydrogen-titanium power train and equipped with brand new bus configuration, are able to work under ultra-low temperature down to -40℃. They are part of an effort to “stepping up” the development of Wuhai as a demonstrative city for fuel cell bus and optimizing its public transportation system. At this special time during the Chinese New Year, they surely add to the festive atmosphere.

Hydrogen-Titanium Power Provides New Way of Developing Green Transportation

During the “Two Sessions” held by the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region this year, it was proposed that the region develop hydrogen economy and build demonstrative cities of fuel cell automobiles in Wuhai and other cities. During the “13^th Five Year Plan” period, in order to pursuit ecological environmental protection, Wuhai successfully completed various transportation project targeted at energy saving and emission reduction and was the first city in the region to be awarded the title “National Green Transportation City”. A new chapter for hydrogen economy development in Wuhai begins as the “14^th Five Year Plan” is launched. Building on the unique advantage of hydrogen economy, Wuhai actively explores new ways of development. For this purpose, it introduced the Yinlong fuel cell running horse buses into its transportation system.

Recently, Wuhai held a ceremony in honor of the official launching of the hydrogen fuel cell buses. At the ceremony, the vice mayor said that “as the first city in the region in putting hydrogen fuel cell buses to use, Wuhai municipal government is steadfast in its commitment to pursuit a high quality  development that “prioritizes ecological environmental protection and pursuits green way of development”. It is a significant measure in grasping the strategic opportunity in the development of hydrogen energy industry. By the same token, it is critical to accelerating structural adjustment and transformation of the industry, building a green transportation system and a key hydrogen energy industrial base and national demonstrative city of hydrogen economy in the western part of the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region.”

The Yinlong hydrogen fuel cell buses being delivered take the shape of “running horses”, complementing the “horseback culture” of Inner Mongolia.

Being 10.5 meters in length, 3.34 meters in height, and 2.5 meters in width, this model of bus has a rated passenger capacity of 80 people. It is equipped with the hydrogen-titanium power train technology developed by Yinlong, which comprises of “hydrogen fuel cell power generator unit and LTO power batteries”. The power train combines the advantage of hydrogen fuel cells, which have high energy conversion efficiency, and the advantage of LTO batteries, which have high power density. Its maximum hydrogen filling weight is 26Kg, which allows for a drive range of 400km. The advantages of the hydrogen fuel cell buses include long range, strong power, wide environment adaptability, low noise in operation and zero pollution from emission, which is consistent with its commitment of “prioritizing ecological environmental protection and pursuing green way of development”.

Resistant to Low Temperature Down to -40℃, Leading the New Trend

Wuhai City is located in the upper reaches of the Yellow River, the junction of the economic zone of “Ningning, Mongolia, Shaanxi and Gansu” and the central area along the Yellow Economic Belt. It is located in the northern frontier area, where it is hot in summer and cold in winter and there is a significant temperature difference between day and night. Under extreme climate conditions, the highest temperature in this area reaches 40℃ and the lowest -36℃. However, hydrogen fuel cell system can operate normally under such temperatures, while regular lithium batteries would fail to fully charge or discharge when temperature drops below zero. Systems with lithium batteries experience dramatic charge attenuation under low temperature, which renders disappointing performance for fuel cell power system equipped with lithium battery system. Problems such as ignition failure and vehicle breakdown are also likely to happen at low temperature.

The common “cold sick” problems of electric vehicles concern the majority of consumers and drew attention to relevant governing department, which urges EV and battery manufacturers to quicken the pace of technological breakthroughs to improve EV performance at low temperature and ultimately customer experience. In the mean time, the stable performance of LTO battery at low temperature provides solutions to this problem. The spinel structure of LTO material has a 3D lithium ion transmission channel and it hardly forms passive film on solid liquid interface. Also, short-circuit is unlikely to happen during charging process and neither is lithium dendrite which can cause deterioration of cathode.

Yinlong hydrogen fuel cell running horse bus employs hydrogen-titanium power train technology, which combines the advantages of LTO battery system and hydrogen fuel system in providing power for the vehicle. The bus can operate stably at temperature from as low as -40℃ to as high as 60℃, which accommodates to areas like Wuhai, which experience extreme coldness in winter, and other places in the world with similar problems. Apart from that, the bus adopts state-of-the-art intelligent drive assist safety system and multiple electronic safety technologies to realize informatization of vehicle data. Along with standard safety equipment, driver and passenger safety are guaranteed at all fronts.

With the development of hydrogen fuel cell vehicle industry and the improvement of hydrogen refueling stations and other basic supporting facilities, Wuhai will continue to optimize the configuration of public transportation tools in Wuhai, promote the application of more hydrogen fuel cell buses, and promote the green development of public transportation in Wuhai with “green power”.

Hydrogen fuel, as a pollution-free, efficient and recyclable new energy, is a strategic choice for the country to realize energy conservation and emission reduction and the changing of development mode of the automobile industry.

In 2019, the first hydrogen refueling station of Wuhai Chemical Company was put into operation; in 2020, China's first large-scale civil liquid hydrogen production line was put into operation in Wuhai Chemical Company. In 2021, Wuhai launched Yinlong hydrogen fuel cell running horse bus into official use......

Step by step, Yinlong Energy will continue to strengthen the research and development of hydrogen and titanium power technology to help the further development of the hydrogen energy industry in Wuhai and Inner Mongolia.