Hydrogen-fueled Gas Turbine Research Articles

Analysis of NOx Formation in a Hydrogen-Fueled Gas Turbine Engine

A commercially available natural gas fueled gas turbine engine was operated on hydrogen. Three sets of fuel injectors were developed to facilitate stable operation while generating differing levels of fuel∕air premixing. One set was designed to produce near uniform mixing while the others have differing degrees of nonuniformity. The emission performance of the engine over its full range of loads is characterized for each of the injector sets. In addition, the performance is also assessed for the set with near uniform mixing as operated on natural gas. The results show that improved mixing and lower equivalence ratio decrease NO emission levels as expected. However, even with nearly perfect premixing, it is found that the engine, when operated on hydrogen, produces a higher amount of NO than when operated with natural gas. Much of this attributed to the higher equivalence ratios that the engine operates on when firing hydrogen. However, even the lowest equivalence ratios run at low power conditions, higher NO was observed. Analysis of the potential NO formation effects of residence time, kinetic pathways of NO production via NNH, and the kinetics of the dilute combustion strategy used are evaluated. While no one mechanism appears to explain the reasons for the higher NO, it is concluded that each may be contributing to the higher NO emissions observed with hydrogen. In the present configuration with the commercial control system operating normally, it is evident that system level effects are also contributing to the observed NO emission differences between hydrogen and natural gas.

Research and development of international clean energy network using hydrogen energy (WE-NET)

In the WE-NET phase I project, a conceptual design of a total system, the energy balance, and the cost of electricity were verified. The performance of SPEM water electrolysis with a high efficiency of 90% was satisfied in the hydrogen production technology. The power generation system of hydrogen-fueled gas turbine with the thermal efficiency of 60% (HHV) and the demonstration test of the combustor, cooling blades were successfully carried out under a temperature of 1700°C. In the WE-NET phase II project, distributed technology such as the hydrogen-refueling station and the metal hydride tank system for vehicle are being prepared for the field demonstration test. Besides, the fundamental technologies of safety measures and hydrogen production systems are also being developed.

A novel gas turbine cycle with hydrogen-fueled chemical-looping combustion

In this paper we have proposed a novel gas turbine cycle with hydrogen-fueled chemical-looping combustion, and the system study on two hydrogen-fueled power plants, the new gas turbine cycle and an advanced gas turbine cycle with H 2/O 2 combustion, has been investigated with the aid of exergy principle (EUD methodology). The hydrogen fueled chemical-looping combustion in the new gas turbine cycle consists of two successive reactions: hydrogen fuel is reacted with metal oxide (reduction of metal oxide), and then instead of air or pure oxygen, the reduced metal is successively oxidized by the saturated air. As a result, the new hydrogen-fueled gas turbine cycle has a breakthrough performance, with at least about 12 percentage-point higher efficiency compared to the gas turbine cycle with H 2/O 2 combustion, and will be environmentally superior due to complete elimination of NO x formation. The promising results obtained here indicated that this novel gas turbine cycle with hydrogen-fueled chemical looping combustion could make a breakthrough in efficient use of hydrogen energy in power plants.

Optimization of the precooler of hydrogen fueled gas turbine

Liquid hydrogen is expected to be an alternative to fossil fuel. In this study, the gas turbine cycle with the precooler and hydrogen turbine is proposed to utilize the cryogenic exergy contained in the liquid hydrogen effectively. Since the geometry of the precooler greatly affects the performance of the system, it is optimized to give the maximum specific work output and/or the maximum exergy efficiency. In addition, the mass flow rate of hydrogen in the precooler is not restricted to that used for combustion. The ratio α of hydrogen mass flow rate is introduced as a measure indicating the precooling effect. The surplus hydrogen is assumed to be consumed in the external gas turbine system. The effect of α on the output and the exergy efficiency of the total system is made clear.

Characteristics of hydrogen-fueled gas turbine cycle with intercooler, hydrogen turbine and hydrogen heater

The performances of a hydrogen-fueled gas turbine cycle equipped with an intercooler, regenerator, hydrogen turbine and recuperative hydrogen heater are analyzed. The intercooler is very effective to prevent the condensation and freezing of water vapor in cooling the suction air. The operation of hydrogen turbine in low-temperature range can also be prevented by adopting hydrogen heater. Thermodynamic analysis has revealed that the thermal efficiency and the specific output are considerably improved compared to those of the simple gas turbine cycle.