HYFLEXPOWER world first: gas turbine operation on 100% green hydrogen
2 February 2024Installed on the site of paper-based packaging manufacturer Smurfit Kappa at Saillat-sur-Vienne, France, the HYFLEXPOWER project consists of producing, storing and “re- electrification” of 100% renewable hydrogen. The hydrogen is produced by a 1 MW electrolyser on-site, stored, and used to fire a Siemens Energy SGT-400 industrial gas turbine.
Above: HYFLEXPOWER, the basic scheme
In 2022, an initial series of tests enabled the industrial gas turbine to operate with a 30% H2/ natural gas blend. The power-to-hydrogen-to-power demonstrator has now shown that state-of-the-art turbines with dry low emissions technology can be fuelled with up to 100% H2 as well as with any blend of natural gas and H2.
The HYFLEXPOWER consortium includes Siemens Energy, ENGIE Solutions, Centrax, Arttic, DLR (German Aerospace Center), and four European universities.
The project has received substantial funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 innovation and research programme.
Above: SGT-400 gas turbine
Consortium lead, Siemens Energy, supplied the electrolyser for the project and developed the hydrogen ready gas turbine. ENGIE built the hydrogen production, storage and supply facilities for the demonstrator. Centrax was responsible for the gas turbine package upgrade to ensure safe operation with hydrogen fuel. DLR and the universities, Lund (Sweden), Duisburg-Essen (Germany), and University College London (UK), contributed to the hydrogen turbine technology development. Arttic supported the operational project management, while NTUA in Athens (Greece) carried out economic and environmental analysis of the concept.
“The interaction between electrolysis, storage, and hydrogen conversion at one site has been impressively demonstrated, and now it’s a matter of scaling the results,” said Karim Amin, Member of the Executive Board of Siemens Energy.
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