Goodbye gas, here is the first industrial hydrogen turbine
(sustainabilityenvironment.com) – Can an industrial gas turbine be powered exclusively with green hydrogen to produce high-efficiency electricity? Yes, with the right changes and the HyFlexPower project has just proven it. It is these days the news of the tests carried out on the first hydrogen turbine, the basic model of a future fleet of internal combustion engines suitable for the carrier.
Electricity-hydrogen-electricity
The initiative has a rich consortium that includes Siemens Energy, ENGIE through its subsidiary ENGIE Solutions, Centrax, Arttic, the German Aerospace Centre and four European universities: the National Technical University of Athens (Greece), the University of Lund (Sweden), Duisburg-Essen (Germany) and University College London. The partners, also thanks to funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 framework program for research and innovation, have built an electricity-hydrogen-electricity demonstrator in France, testing its efficiency and efficiency. In detail, the project installed a 100% renewable hydrogen production, storage and re-electrification system at a paper packaging manufacturer.
The carrier is produced by a 1 MW on-site electrolyzer, then stored in a tank of almost a ton of capacity and used to power an industrial gas turbine, the Siemens Energy SGT-400. The combustion system of the latter has been adapted to work with the H2 and tested with different mixtures since last year. The consortium started in 2022 with a hydrogen content of 30% mixed with natural gas to arrive today at the first 100% hydrogen turbine. Obviously, the engine is capable of operating with any intermediate H2-gas mixture.
read also The first gas turbine-powered by 100% pure hydrogen
A fleet of hydrogen turbines
“The knowledge and experience gained from the HyFlexPower project where we installed the first 100% hydrogen-powered gas turbine will help us continue to develop our entire fleet of gas turbines for a hydrogen-based future” comments Karim Amin, member of the Siemens Energy Executive Board, commented. “The interaction between electrolysis, storage and hydrogen on-site conversion has been successfully demonstrated, and now it’s about increasing results”.
Based on the demonstrator’s findings, the project now plans to expand the consortium to include additional members, expanding the system’s operation to industrial heat production and other modes of operation. The partners also intend to explore new ways to increase and market decarbonized electricity production.
