In the fall of
2020, Mitsubishi began offering its Hydaptive Standard Flexibility Package for green
hydrogen which includes an electrolyser and a hydrogen storage tank to be
stored on-site at a natural gas power plant with the hydrogen to be blended up
to 30% (by 2025) and burned with natural gas in Mitsubishi’s JAC natural gas
turbines. Future planned capabilities include the ability to burn up to 100%
hydrogen (by 2045). It makes a lot of sense to make hydrogen right where it is
to be used since storing and transporting hydrogen can be costly and
logistically challenging. These systems can be used with combined cycle natural
gas plants as well as single-cycle combustion turbine peaking plants. They can
also be retrofitted to existing plants. Power plant functions and H2 blending
are integrated into their TOMINI digital AI software control system that offers
rapid response. Their power plant project in Utah is expected to be burning 30%
hydrogen in 2025.
Source: Mitsubishi Heavy Industries
Co-Combustion: Burning Hydrogen with Natural Gas in
Turbines and Engines
New
large-sized gas turbines are able to burn up to 30% or 50% hydrogen and models
able to burn 100% hydrogen are expected by 2025-2030. Hydrogen burns
differently than natural gas. Low-NOx requirements resulted in retrofitting
older gas plants with low-NOx burners that utilized water or steam injection.
Modern plants utilize staged or lean premix combustion techniques and burners
that do not require water known as Dry Low Emissions, or DLE burners. DLE
limits water costs and problems and reduces wear and tear due to water on
turbine blades. Some smaller gas turbines in the 25-57MW range can be powered
by 60% hydrogen. Manufacturers are working on both DLE combustion and steam
injection combustion versions to burn higher percentages of hydrogen. Some
small aero-derivative turbines can already burn up to 100% hydrogen. Combustion
arrangements for burning natural gas, hydrogen, and other fuels to run turbines
include the simple cycle, Rankine cycle, Brayton cycle, Allam cycle and
combined cycle. The market is tight for large turbines with about four
companies: Siemens, GE, Mitsubishi-Hitachi, and Ansaldo Energia. The pivot
toward renewables and less deployment of large gas plants in some areas keeps
the market tight. They are also competing for the high-volume hydrogen turbine
market share and are expected to possibly expand the turbine market a bit in the
future.
A consortium
led by Siemens Energy very recently (October 2023) tested successfully a large
gas turbine powered by 100% hydrogen. The HYFLEXPOWER project in France utilizes
a Siemens Energy SGT-400 industrial gas turbine, modified to operate with up to
100% hydrogen. This is a DLE burner turbine. It was tested successfully in 2022
with 30% hydrogen/70% natural gas.
Technips Energies’ Large Scale Vortex Burner (LSV) for
100% Hydrogen
Technips Energies
announced in August 2021 a successful test of its Large-Scale Vortex Burner
(LSV) to accommodate 100% hydrogen. They tout it as a cost-effective low-NOx
decarbonization solution. The technology has been deployed successfully over the
past 15 years in cracking furnace and hydrogen reformer installations. “The
burner can now be applied to different process heating applications and
combustion air supply modes and also is suitable for a wide range of fuel gas
compositions and firing configurations.” Stan Knez, Chief Technology Officer,
Technip Energies, stated: "We are very excited with the outcome of the
LSV® burner technology testing on 100% hydrogen firing. This is another example
of how we can advance the energy transition by testing new ways to reduce CO2
emissions, improve energy efficiency and set the stage for wide-application
across many industries to replace hydrocarbon-based feedstock with
clean-burning hydrogen."
Other H2 Blending Project Tests and Challenges
In March 2023
a demo project by EPRI, WEC Energy Group, engine manufacturer Wärtsilä, and
other partners achieved 25% hydrogen blending with natural gas in a 20MW
engine. It did not achieve maximum output but did achieve 95% efficiency without
hardware modifications, which was better than expected. NOx emissions were less
than expected and CO2 emissions were reduced by 10% to 12%. Burning hydrogen
produces more NOx than burning natural gas. (This is perhaps one of several
reasons we may never use hydrogen at high levels in home appliances). The
system used green hydrogen so using blue hydrogen the CO2 emissions reduction
would have been much more modest at just a few percent at a 25% H2 blend. Wartsila
expects to have an engine capable of burning 100% hydrogen on the market in
2025. They point out that engines are more flexible than larger turbines and
ramp up and down faster in response to variable power loads. Engines are also
more fuel-flexible and can accommodate other liquid or gaseous fuels such as liquid
ammonia which can be stored on-site in sufficient quantities for backup.
Hydrogen
carries less energy than natural gas (60% of the energy that comes from CH4 is
hydrogen, but hydrogen has only 30% the energy content of natural gas so 1 cf
of methane = 3.3 cf of H2 in energy content) so the emissions reduction will
not be one to one, rather they will be closer to requiring 75% hydrogen in the
system to drop emissions by 50%. Since the best efficiency of hydrogen via
electrolysis is about 80% it would take about 100BCF per day of hydrogen to
replace the 30BCF per day of natural gas that produces electricity in the US.
This would require about 3100GW of (capacity-weighted) additional solar power
to run the electrolysers. Thus, to replace all U.S. natural gas used for
electricity with green hydrogen would take at least 15 times the currently
installed solar energy in the world. This is daunting and very impossible in a
reasonable time frame or any time frame at current costs. Thus, while green
hydrogen via electrolysis will no doubt increase from its current 0.1-0.3%
contribution it probably won’t really begin to get any meaningful market share
for decades, if ever. The price of H2 via electrolysis needs to drop by 80% or
to ¼ of what it is now in order to compete with wellhead prices with incentives.
Blue hydrogen will be the preferred H2 to blend in due to cost and this will decrease
the emissions reduction advantages compared to green hydrogen. Thus, H2
blending will likely be more modest than the hype suggests in reducing
emissions.
In May 2023
Constellation Energy announced a record hydrogen blending rate of 38% retrofitted
for a large 753 MW combined cycle natural gas plant in Alabama that is over a
decade old. This is an important test because major modifications of the plant
were not required as had in the past been assumed would be required beyond about
15% H2 and because NOx emissions did not increase. More tests such as these
will no doubt be occurring, probably with variable results as each power plant
is different.
In October
2023 NiSource announced plans to test a specialized blending skid to control
the mix of hydrogen and natural gas to fine-tune the fuel blending process. The
initial test is a skid-mounted blend control system responding to H2/natural
gas blend use in a model home. The goal is to keep the blend at up to 20% H2 regardless
of fluctuations in gas appliance use. They will keep the blend between 2 and
20%. The project will likely be scaled up in the future. According to Utility
Dive: “The goal, he said, is to evaluate how the blended fuel performs in
common gas appliances, and to determine how the mixed fuel impacts maintenance
procedures like leak detection and repair. Future phases of the project will
also test the use of hydrogen blending in environments such as factories and
power plants, according to the company announcement.”
“Evans noted that the trial is not using clean or
electrolytic hydrogen made from renewable energy because NiSource was unable to
find a suitable supplier.” The goal of the current phase of the project is
to evaluate hydrogen’s effect on the natural gas, equipment, piping, and the
net change in carbon emissions from blending. Hydrogen is well-known to have a
corrosive effect on metals so testing and quantifying its effects on equipment
even in blends is very important. The mention of leak detection and repair is
important as well since H2 is the smallest molecule in the universe and thus is
more likely to leak than the CH4 that makes up natural gas.
References:
NiSource
hydrogen, gas blending project to test specialty skid to optimize mix. Emma
Penrod. Utility Dive. October 10, 2023. NiSource hydrogen, gas blending project
to test specialty skid to optimize mix | Utility Dive
Constellation
sets hydrogen-gas plant blending record, but more advances needed for
utility-scale use: experts. Emma Penrod. June 5, 2023. Constellation sets hydrogen-gas plant
blending record, but more advances needed for utility-scale use: experts |
Utility Dive
Hydrogen
blending exceeds expectations in WEC Energy Group test of Wärtsilä gas-fired
engine. Emma Penrod. March 23, 2023. Hydrogen blending exceeds
expectations in WEC Energy Group test of Wärtsilä gas-fired engine | Utility
Dive
Mitsubishi Power Cuts Through the Complexity of Decarbonization:
Offers the World’s First Green Hydrogen Standard Packages for Power Balancing
and Energy Storage. Mitsubishi Power
Americas, Inc. | Mitsubishi Power Cuts Through the Complexity of
Decarbonization: Offers the World’s First Green Hydrogen Standard Packages for
Power Balancing and Energy Storage (mhi.com)
Mitsubishi Power delivers Hydrogen-Ready Gas
Turbines to “IPP Renewed” Project in Utah to meet Decarbonization Goals in the
Western US. July 28, 2023. Mitsubishi
Power Americas, Inc. | Mitsubishi Power delivers Hydrogen-Ready Gas Turbines to
“IPP Renewed” Project in Utah to meet Decarbonization Goals in the Western US
(mhi.com)
Hydrogen Gas Turbine: All You Need to Know.
Linquip. August 9, 2021. Hydrogen
Gas Turbine: Working Principles and Function | Linquip
World first: Gas turbine successfully
operates with 100% green hydrogen. Pamela Largue. Oct 13, 2023. Power
Engineering International. World
first: Gas turbine successfully operates with 100% green hydrogen - Power
Engineering International
ISTJ
Investor, December 2. 2020. Hydrogen Vs. Natural Gas for Electric Power
Generation. Seeking Alpha. Hydrogen
Vs. Natural Gas For Electric Power Generation | Seeking Alpha
NiSource reaffirms commitment to a diverse
energy future with launch of multi-phase hydrogen blending project. NiSource. October
5, 2023. Article
- NiSource
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