MHPS tests large-scale high-efficiency gas turbine fuelled by 30 per cent hydrogen mix

• 6 years ago (2018-02-02)
• David Flin

Asia 847 Gas 371

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Mitsubishi Hitachi Power Systems (MHPS) has tested a large-scale gas turbine, which passed a firing test using a 30 per cent hydrogen fuel mix. The test indicated MHPS’s proprietary burner, developed to burn hydrogen, could attain stable combustion even when hydrogen is mixed with natural gas. Using a 30 per cent hydrogen mixture achieved a reduction in CO2 emissions of 10 per cent compared to natural gas-fired power generation.

The mixed hydrogen firing test was carried out at MHPS’s Takasago Works, using actual pressure combustion testing facilities, as part of a project of Japan’s New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organisation (NEDO), aimed at developing technologies for realising a hydrogen society.

The firing test conditions involved a turbine inlet temperature of 1600°C, using the premix combustor of the natural gas-fired J-series gas turbines, which have an efficiency of above 63 per cent in combined cycle mode. Stable combustion was demonstrated with a hydrogen mix of 30 per cent while satisfying operable threshold values for emissions and continued combustion.

The stable hydrogen-mixed firing technology applied in the large-scale gas turbine uses MHPS’s proprietary dry low-NOx combustor developed for this project as an improved version of the company’s natural gas-fired combustors. The combustion method is premixing, which involves the combustor’s fuel nozzles creating a rotational airflow that enables the formation of a more uniform premixed gas, leading to low NOx emissions. Other than the combustor, the equipment currently in place cab be used without modification, reducing costs of converting a natural gas-fired power plant to a hydrogen plant.