A safe "core" for green energy storage

In 2015, the domestic production and sales of new energy vehicles experienced explosive growth. From January to September, the cumulative production of new energy vehicles was 156,200, an increase of nearly three times year-on-year. However, the news of multiple electric bus fires made people cheer and have a cold thought about their safety. Whether it is high-speed rail, mobile phones, electric vehicles or new energy wind turbines, energy storage is inseparable from our lives today. While new technology benefits mankind, it also brings many new security risks. Is it a blessing or a curse? How can we enjoy the convenience brought by new technology in a safe and environmentally friendly way?

For this reason, the reporter of "CEConline" interviewed Chen Yucheng, the world's major aluminum capacitor manufacturer, super capacitor expert, and managing director of Hong Kong listed company Wanyu Technology Group.

World-class problems

Chen Yucheng has been in the industry for 20 years. He pointed out that there are many reasons for the recent explosion of electric buses and self-balancing vehicles. In addition to three-null or counterfeit products, electric vehicles that have passed the factory inspection will not only explode if charged for a long time, but may also cause battery explosion and combustion due to damage to the charger, poor power contact, and excessive use of the battery. Tesla CEO Elon Musk said as early as 2011 that batteries in traditional electric vehicles are obsolete and will be replaced by new cars powered by supercapacitors in the future.

Shi Dinghuan, chairman of the China Society for Renewable Energy, pointed out that the supercapacitor has fast charging speed, good safety, no problems such as explosion and fire, and is more suitable for use in electric buses. In addition, the life of the super capacitor can be synchronized with the life of the car, and there will be more room for development.

"The energy issue is a major proposition in today's society. The clean energy revolution with the goal of 'low carbon economy' is booming. Solar energy, wind energy, tidal energy, biomass energy and other new energy power generation are not enough. Stability makes it difficult to access the Internet and causes great waste." Chen Yucheng said, "The supercapacitor module we developed can well solve the problem of unstable renewable power and large volatility after grid connection."

The energy storage system is still a difficult problem to completely overcome. Scientific research institutions in various countries are looking for suitable solutions. As the group's young commander, Chen Yucheng does not have the habit of being the boss of the group, but personally checks the group. New business, always pay attention to the latest trends in the industry. He pointed out that after 5-6 years of continuous testing and application, the ANGA POWER supercapacitor module developed by Man Yu Group can improve or even replace the existing rechargeable batteries, making energy storage more environmentally friendly and faster. At present, it has been successfully applied to national large-scale electromechanical projects such as hybrid buses, large-scale wind and solar generator sets, and EMU power systems. In addition to winning the Environmental Protection Excellence Award issued by the Hong Kong government for many years, it also won the Hong Kong Import and Export Enterprise Award and Excellent Award in 2014. Electric Vehicle Supercapacitor Producer Award. Chen Yucheng told reporters, "The Group will invest more resources in the research and development of high-tech energy-saving and energy storage application solutions to get involved in the global fast-growing renewable energy industry."

Safe and efficient production

Just after the new year, the reporter of "CEConline" came to Fu Huade Electronics (Dongguan) Company of Man Yu Group in Chang'an Town, Dongguan to learn about the secrets behind ANGA POWER super capacitors. This is Wanyu's largest R&D and production base in China. The factory area and living area covering an area of more than 10 acres are separated by a cement road. Across the water, you can see the aircraft taking off and landing at Shenzhen's new airport.

Yao Xinwei, CEO of Fuhuade Electronics, has been in charge of the research and development, certification and promotion of supercapacitor projects since he joined Wanyu Group in April 2010. He told reporters, "Because we have been engaged in the manufacturing industry for a long time, our company has always Keep a low-key and pragmatic working attitude. Although super capacitor products have obtained more than 30 patents and passed the US UL 810a safety certification and EU EN-61000 EMC certification, this is the first time to accept media interviews and reports.”

As a supercapacitor manufacturer with the strongest comprehensive strength and largest production capacity in China, in order to ensure the product safety of supercapacitors, Fu Huade Electronics uses the existing aluminum foil production plant of Wanyu Group to Groups, circuits, capacitance management systems (CMS), and even application circuits and overall application solutions can be done in-house. The current annual output reaches 2 million 3000F monomers. Become the largest supplier of King Long, the second largest electric bus manufacturer in China.

Yao Xinwei took reporters to understand the entire production process of super capacitors. These employees come from Hunan, Sichuan, Jiangxi, Guangxi and other places. Many of them have a bachelor's degree or above. The company also employs retired production managers from Japan's Panasonic As a lean production consultant, slogans like "Work hard to implement QCC will not be hard work" can be seen everywhere on the production line.

In order to solve the problem that the manual welding of supercapacitor modules is easy to weld, they have purchased a number of automatic laser welding machines worth millions of yuan from abroad. The welding work can be completed in an efficient manner, and each machine only needs one worker to take care of it, and the efficiency is higher than the workload of 7 workers in one day. The process of filling the electrolyte in full vacuum is also an important step to ensure the safety of super capacitors. For this reason, Fu Huade Electronics has invested several million yuan to purchase advanced foreign equipment, and strengthened the training of operators to make the whole work process smooth. Error free. Yao Xinwei pointed out, "Our sales staff must work on the production line for a full year. Integrated production not only saves labor, but more importantly ensures high efficiency and error-free, and workers are more responsible for the repair and maintenance of machinery and equipment." The factory with as many as 4,000 people has introduced automated production equipment to optimize the production process, and the current number of employees has been reduced to more than 2,000. In the production process, we continue to deepen energy conservation and emission reduction. Among them, the project of putting green coats on aging equipment to achieve cooling and energy saving has won an environmental protection award from the Hong Kong government.

Although supercapacitors currently only account for 5% of the group's sales, its profits are considerable. In 2014, the output value reached 30 million, and the export value exceeded 10 million. In addition to promoting production automation and reducing production costs, in order to continuously improve the industrial chain, Wanyu Group has opened factories in Dongguan, Qingyuan, Guangdong, Ya'an, Sichuan and Wuhan, Hubei in recent years to ensure the environmental protection and safety of products from the source.

Successful model of school-enterprise cooperation

Due to the late start of supercapacitor research and development in my country, foreign countries impose strict power restrictions and technical blockades on supercapacitors exported to my country. Policy subsidies for new energy vehicles have been reduced, and the market outlook has become confusing. As the world's second largest polymer capacitor market manufacturer, Wanyu Group is implementing a transformation strategy, continuously strengthening the research and development capabilities of new products in the field of new energy, and cooperating with many well-known universities such as Tsinghua University and Hong Kong Polytechnic University to quickly enter the market. Rapidly growing renewable energy market.

Chen Yucheng told reporters that Shenzhen and Hong Kong have their own strengths in innovation resources, R&D institutions, innovative industries and services, and are highly complementary. Talking about the group's new energy storage battery project selected into the Shenzhen-Hong Kong innovation circle, Chen Yucheng said happily: "This project is a collaboration with the Shenzhen Research Institute of Tsinghua University and the Hong Kong Polytechnic University, among which Tsinghua is very unique in the application of new graphene materials. , and Hong Kong Polytechnic experts are more in line with international standards and are good at application. However, universities can only complete 80% of the research of the project, and the final commercialization process still needs to be realized by our own technology and R&D personnel.”

Chen Yucheng pointed out that the domestic market demand for energy conservation and environmental protection is very large, and many companies cannot invest more time and energy in energy-saving research and development for large-scale equipment, so we provide a variety of solutions, in addition to choosing to fully use super capacitors In addition to energy storage, the original power system of the equipment can also not be changed, only adding a set of capacitor modules and making minor adjustments can achieve an energy saving effect of about 30%, which is cost-effective.

Today, supercapacitors usher in a period of rapid development, and the compound annual growth rate is expected to reach 21.3% in the next five years. Among them, the demand for supercapacitors in the Chinese market reached 2.86 billion yuan, accounting for about 12.1% of the global market. At present, only about 10% of the cars equipped with super capacitors are equipped, and about 60% still rely on imports. "One-third of China's carbon emissions come from large-scale equipment, and a small investment can save nearly 40% of energy consumption. Therefore, supercapacitors have great potential in energy saving and environmental protection." Chen Yucheng is full of confidence in the future.

Photo/Provided by Man Yu Group