GE is ready with a gas turbine that can run on hydrogen

 GE has done its part in the hydrogen economy game. It is ready with a gas turbine that can be powered by hydrogen, reports Business Line newspaper.

GE has developed advanced premixed combustors to run gas turbines. Combustors are basically fuel injectors with walls to contain the flame. Through a delicate balancing of fuel and oxygen, the flame is stabilized so that the gas turbine can accelerate easily and perform optimally. Combustors then feed the high pressure, hot gas stream in turbine components and blades spin to generate power.

                                           Image credit: GE

GE’s DLN family (DLN 2/2.6/2.6+/2.6e) (Dry-Low NOx) of combustion systems enables GE’s F-and H-class gas turbines to reduce NOx emissions while enabling high plant efficiency plus extending outage intervals.

Premixed combustors at play

GE collaborated with the US Department of Energy in their Advanced Hydrogen Gas Turbine Program from 2005-2015 to develop a low nitrogen oxide-hydrogen combustion system that significantly increased the efficiency of its gas turbines.

In GE’s advanced premixed combustors, hydrogen and air are mixed in an optimal ratio and burned to get more heat energy. Emissions reduce because the fuel is premixed well, and the combustor releases thermal energy with less nitrogen oxides.

In this process, nitrogen oxide released is merely 25 ppm, well within World Bank emission norms and those specified under individual country regulations.

Further, these 3D-printed advanced premix combustors have small bundles of tubes for even better fuel mixing and further reduction of emissions. GE’s experience in developing gas turbines for airplanes helped them develop this technology.

GE’s latest gas turbine, the 9HA 0.2, uses precision-engineered, advanced premix combustors that have the capability to burn up to 50% hydrogen by volume blended with natural gas with technology pathway to 100%. The net efficiency level of a power plant powered by 9HA.02 gas turbine in a combined-cycle mode is more than 64%, meaning they can convert 64% of a drop of fuel into electricity. In comparison, the average car engine only manages 40% efficiency.

The efficiency gains help reduce fuel costs and carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. In fact, GE holds two world Records for gas power plant efficiency. It accounts for a third of the world’s installed power base, with more than 10,000 gas and steam turbine generating units, representing more than 1,000,000 MW of installed capacity in 120 countries.

In the Indian context, GE’s new generation of combustion systems, better known as advanced premix combustors, enable hydrogen to burn at higher temperatures, helping produce highly efficient energy – electricity at around Rs 4 per kWhr, with low emissions.

Hydrogen in the wind-solar mix

In India, solar power is abundant and peaks between 12 noon and 2 PM. The excess power generated in the afternoon can’t be sent to the electricity grid, but renewable energy farm owners can use it to generate hydrogen from water. In turn, this hydrogen can be stored in batteries as fuel and used to generate power from gas turbines when the sun sets, producing power round the clock.

GE, a world leader in gas turbine fuel flexibility, including more than 75 gas turbines that have (or continue to) operate on fuels that contain hydrogen. This fleet has accumulated more than 6 million operating hours and produced more than 450 Terawatt-hours of electricity.