By Li Hui
Not only gas oil and diesel oil can be taken as the drive for autos, but also coal-based methanol, ethanol, electric power and fuel cells can be taken as alternative fuels. On the 11th China Beijing International High-tech Expo and the International Forum on Energy Utilization & New-energy Development both held in the same period, reporters understood that with the increasingly strengthened pressure on energy and environmental protection, China's auto industry was seeking transformation under the pressure---manufacturing clean energy autos had been the development orientation in the auto industry and an industrialization pattern for new-energy autos also emerged.
"Alcohol ether fuels, especially coal-based methanol fuels, have been utilized in such provinces with rich coals like Shang Xi Province for more than 20 years. Practice proved that it was a kind of energy that can realize an effective substitution with a large scale and it was expected to play a leading role. " He Xiaochi, Director of Fuel Methanol and Methanol Auto Leading Group Office, expressed with excitement when interviewed by a reporter.
Shanxi Province is the province entering the field of research and development on fuel methanol and methanol autos earliest under the guideline of China's central government. As early as the mid-80s of the 20th century, related departments under China's central government and Shanxi Province co-initiated a demonstration project of the mix burning of M15 methanol gas oil in carry cargo vehicles. Recently, after the application and R&D for over 20 years, such key technologies for methanol fuel engines, entire methanol autos and exhaust gas cleaning devices have been solved successively.
It is introduced by He Xiaochi that for the moment, the promotion for methanol fuels in Shanxi Province had entered from "trial demonstration stage" to "industrialization promotion stage". By the end of 2007, the aggregated sales volume of methanol gas oil in Shanxi Province was more than 500,000 tons, the consumption volume of methanol gas oil was more than 130,000 tons and over 770 methanol filling stations was established, including 17 high-content methanol filling stations. There were 30 million vehicles joining in the mix burning and 260 middle buses joining in the demonstration with the longest driving mileage of 360,000 kilometers.
"China has a rich coal reservation. By the end of 2006, the proved up reservation has arrived to 114.5 billion tons, occupying 12.6 percent of the gross proved up reservation in the world." Rong Huikang, a commissioner of expert committee of China Association of Automobile Manufacturers, believed that, "Compared with petroleum, under the condition of having a large scale, the coal-based methanol is of strong competitive competency in terms of the economy."
He introduced that the methanol as a kind of vehicle-used alternative fuel has many advantages, such as having rich resources, mature technologies and cheap costs, so a large-scale alternation can be realized. "In terms of the production economy, methanol can be produced by inferior high sulfur coals. Due to multiple production ways and basically mature technique routes, the production cost can be controlled at around RMB1, 000 yuan per ton. Meanwhile, in terms of the utilization economy, at present, the retail price of petroleum is about RMB6, 670 yuan per ton while methanol RMB2, 850 yuan per ton, so it is very economic obviously."
Relying on the abundant coal resources and increasingly mature R&D technologies, methanol autos are showing a promising future with a wide market. For the moment, some domestic auto companies have researched and developed methanol cars. For instance, Chery Automobile Co., Ltd has developed a kind of economic type cars with a flexible use on methanol fuels and an emission capacity of 1.6L, which was proved better than gasoline autos in terms of driving power, emission capacity and economy by the expert assessment meeting held last year and the emission capacity of which has satisfied Chinese Phase Emission Standard. After two times of experimental running in Taiyuan City of Shanxi Province, such cars have been prepared to put into the taxi market. And Shanghai Maple Automobile Co., Ltd has developed M100 methanol cars, which will also be put into the market in Shanxi.
In terms of the engines of methanol autos with great horsepower, R&D and production are also under the way urgently. It is understood that Shanxi Province has inked an agreement with Faw Jiefang Automotive Company, Ltd, on which Shanxi Faw Jingye Engine Manufacture Company will be set up as soon as possible and high-content methanol engines with 90 to 280 great horsepower will be developed and manufactured. Methanol trucks correspondingly developed by Faw Jiefang Automotive Company, Ltd will also debut in the market.
For the moment, despite such methanol autos based on coals in China, remarkable progresses have also been embodied in terms of ethanol autos, mixed power autos, gas autos and pure electric autos, and an industrialization pattern for new-energy autos has emerged.
Rong Huikang introduced that there have been 9 provinces and municipalities in China promoting the utilization of ethanol autos, and the annual consumption of ethanol is about 1.3 million tons. In terms of mixed power autos, many auto enterprises, such as Faw Group Corporation, Dongfeng Motor Corporation, Chery Automobile Co., Ltd, Geely Holding Group and Changan Group Co., Ltd, have developed relevant auto types, and CV11-type mixed power autos by Changan Group Co., Ltd have rolled off the production line and are about to realize industrialization. In terms of gas autos, there have been dozens of types made by nearly 10 companies, such as Faw Group Corporation, Shanghai Automotive Industry Corporation (Group), Chery Automobile Co., Ltd, Dongfeng Motor Corporation and Geely Holding Group. A competition pattern has come into being. In terms of pure electric autos, BYD Company Ltd has made an important breakthrough on the development of battery integrated performance, solving many important issues on the battery life-span of electric cars, fast charging and travel distance, and tackling such technical challenges as the highest speed and the acceleration time in terms of the entire cars, which have created favorable conditions for realizing industrialization; moreover, Shanghai Automotive Industry Corporation (Group) and State Grid Corporation of China have co-developed electric carriages successfully. At present, ten No.825 Route electric buses have been applied in Shanghai successfully.
The industrialization for new-energy autos is a general trend. Ren Yong, Project Director of Changan Group Co., Ltd, believed that currently, all of the major countries and auto manufacturers in the world attach great importance to the R&D and marketing promotion for new-energy autos; for China's auto industry, to develop new-energy autos vigorously was not only a countermeasure for increasingly serious challenges on energy resources and environmental protection, but also an inevitable choice for seizing the culmination in the global competition of auto industry and realizing a leap-forward development for the industry.
The updated No. 29 Bulletin of 2008 named Auto Manufacturers and Products (the 164th batch) publicized by State Development and Reform Commission on April 25 indicated that seven types of new-energy autos including the Passat fuel cell cars made by Shanghai Automotive Industry Corporation (Group) will obtain production licenses this year; the production approval for such seven types of new-energy autos has people see a promising future of the industrialization for China's new-energy autos.
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