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For Eco-Entrepreneurs in China, No Simple Way to Grow a Business
Zhong Jialun owns a fuel cell company in suburban Beijing. "I agree with the government," he says. "We must have our own innovative technology."
(From Zhong Jialun)
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From the headquarters of his Fuyuan Century Fuel Cell Power Co. Ltd. in suburban Beijing, Zhong Jialun has watched the ups and downs of hydrogen power plans in China with a practiced eye. Zhong, 63, has seen many things come and go in his time, and now he has put his money on hydrogen power.
"I've always been an optimistic guy," he said. "Everybody says China is the world's factory. But it's just a factory. We haven't mastered the key technologies. But we aren't going to allow things to stay that way. I agree with the government. We must have our own innovative technology. We can't just sell cheap labor."
Born into a prominent family of Red Army officers, Zhong commanded a submarine in the early days of the Chinese navy. During the Cultural Revolution of 1966 to 1976, he said, he ran into trouble with the authorities by pointing out that the upheavals of the times were a poor mix with the exacting standards of submarine technology. He was sentenced to death. His sentence was reduced to life in prison, then to 25 years. He served five years until the military brought an end to the Cultural Revolution.
After prison, Zhong found his way into business, following the advice of China's leader of the time, Deng Xiaoping. He went into metals, then restaurants and clothing. Another death sentence, for alleged corruption, was repealed. By the end of the 1980s, he was in the innovation business.
At Fuyuan Century Fuel Cell, he hired a research staff to find a way to make membranes, which are the key and most expensive element in hydrogen fuel cells. The U.S. company DuPont dominates the market for these components.
A Canadian-based Chinese scientist joined the team in 1999 and, in 2000, the company succeeded in making its own membrane, Zhong said, using a manufacturing process that is different from DuPont's. "The next step was to turn it into a product we could sell, to make money," he added.
The Beijing city government's plans for the 2008 Summer Olympics seemed to offer promise. Municipal authorities acquired three hydrogen-powered demonstration buses, assigning them to run a 12-mile route from the Summer Palace to the Wudaokou university district. Eager to show environmental credentials, it also has encouraged the building of two hydrogen filling stations, one of which produces its own hydrogen.
But the buses were bought from DaimlerChrysler. Zhong and his 60 workers have yet to get the orders they need to move their technology into production. While the government reevaluates, officials said, there are no plans for large-scale fuel-cell production in the capital.
