The Flexibility for Hydrogen project, often known as “FLEX4H2,” has officially begun. The Clean Hydrogen Partnership and the Swiss Federal Department of Economic Affairs, Education and Research, State Secretariat for Education, Research and Innovation (SERI) are both contributing funding to the project, which is being headed by Ansaldo Energia.
The estimated 8.7 million euro ($9.7 million) FLEX4H2 project will last for four years, from January 2023 to December 2026.
The aim of FLEX4H2 is to help Europe’s ambitious climate ambitions to reduce reliance on fossil fuels. Utilizing hydrogen in this situation presents a rare opportunity to decarbonize the power production industry dependably, regardless of the season or the weather, supporting ongoing efforts to combat climate change and enabling CO2-free, dispatchable power generation.
By creating a fuel-flexible combustion system, FLEX4H2 will support the EU Green Deal’s goal of decarbonizing the electric power industry.
The aforementioned purpose translates into the project’s primary goal, which is to design, develop, and validate a combustion system that is safe, effective, and extremely fuel-flexible and can run on any percentage of hydrogen blend up to 100% H2. This goal must be pursued in the most difficult hydrogen combustion conditions, i.e., at H-Class operating temperatures, which are necessary for the best cycle efficiency, while still meeting emission targets without the use of diluents. Ansaldo Energia’s Constant Pressure Sequential Combustion technology (CPSC) will serve as the foundation for the combustor design, which will be step-by-step demonstrated under complete gas turbine operating circumstances (TRL6).
Existing gas turbines can be completely retrofitted with the new, improved combustor design, opening up several possibilities for asset renovation. The project’s results will also be fully exploitable through the use of FLEX4H2, which will also provide the groundwork for a significant contribution to the EU Green Deal’s goal of decarbonizing the electric power industry by 2030 and beyond.
Nine partners from six European nations are a part of the FLEX4H2 consortium: Ansaldo Energia (IT), Arttic Innovation (DE), Center for Advanced Research and Training in Scientific Calculation (CERFACS), DLR (DE), Edison (IT), ETN Global, Sintef Energi (NO), Ansaldo Energia Switzerland (CH), and Zurcher Hochschule for Applied Sciences (ZHAW) (CH).
