On November 18, 2023, SXTG launched its first liquid hydrogen specialized stainless steel product and passed relevant certification, becoming the only supplier of this type of product in China. It signed batch orders with the world’s largest hydrogen infrastructure leading enterprise, and the product was applied to Asia’s largest hydrogen energy project.
The development of specialized stainless steel for liquid hydrogen has successfully filled the gap in stainless steel for civilian liquid hydrogen pressure vessels in China, promoting the construction and improvement of relevant material standards in China.
On a global scale, the storage and transportation of hydrogen energy is mainly in high-pressure gaseous and low-temperature liquid states. Liquid hydrogen has a high hydrogen storage density, with 1m3 of liquid hydrogen equivalent to 800m3 of gas hydrogen. In the absence of large-scale pipeline hydrogen transportation technology, compared to high-pressure storage and transportation, liquid hydrogen storage and transportation have advantages such as low transportation cost, high hydrogen purity, and convenient measurement, making it more suitable for large-scale storage and transportation. The future prospects are more promising.
At present, developed countries mainly focus on the storage and transportation of liquid hydrogen (over 70%). However, due to China’s insufficient research on the low-temperature structure and properties of materials in liquid hydrogen environments, and the lack of theoretical support and unified standards for material selection, liquid hydrogen in China is mainly used in aerospace and other fields, with almost no civilian use.
SXTG actively participates in the design and development of materials and promotes the formulation of relevant material standards. After a year of development, we have successfully developed a series of stainless steel materials (plates, tubes, and shapes) for liquid hydrogen containers. The chemical composition and ultra-low temperature performance (-269 ℃) of the products fully meet the strict requirements of the liquid hydrogen environment.