The Office of Fossil Energy and Carbon Management of the US Department of Energy (DOE) has chosen two GE proposals worth more than $12 million as part of its efforts to speed the transition to a hydrogen-only future. This financing will enable GE to develop technologies that will allow it to integrate larger volumes of hydrogen into its gas turbine platforms—with a particular focus on GE’s F-class gas turbine fleet—and speed up the transition to a zero-carbon energy future.
The DOE announced six initiatives totaling $25 million in government financing last week, including GE’s. These awards are a significant step forward in GE’s efforts to enhance hydrogen technology for gas turbines and combined cycle power plants, which will help reduce carbon emissions significantly. In Hannibal, Ohio, GE collaborated with Long Ridge Energy Terminal to commission and demonstrate the first advanced class hydrogen-burning power plant. The facility is powered by a GE 7HA.02 gas turbine that can initially burn up to 20% hydrogen by volume in the gas stream, with GE’s technological roadmap developing to more in the future.
“We welcome the DOE’s leadership, commitment, and investment in hydrogen combustion,” says Jeffrey Goldmeer, Emergent Technologies Director at GE Gas Power, adding, “We applaud the DOE’s leadership, commitment, and investment in hydrogen combustion.” The funds will be used to speed up the development and testing of retrofittable F-class combustion systems that can run on 100 percent hydrogen utilizing a combination of micromixer and axial fuel staging technology.”
GE contributes a heritage of experience to the issue of high hydrogen combustion through its Gas Power business and Research Lab. The GE Gas Power engineering team in Greenville, SC, and the GE Research Lab in Niskayuna, NY, are a world-class combustion team with decades of hydrogen knowledge and fully equipped build-and-test facilities for investigating hydrogen combustion and flame characteristics.
“As everyone close to hydrogen technology knows, the technical challenges are considerable when it comes to being able to run a turbine on 100% hydrogen,” says Keith McManus, who leads the Combustion Team at GE Research and is leading GE Research’s project. We are well aware of the various obstacles that hydrogen combustion technologies face, and we have made significant progress over time. We’re optimistic that by working together with the DOE, we can make even greater progress toward 100 percent.”
The $7 million projects will investigate the functioning of hydrogen-fueled turbine components on customized rigs in GE Research’s combustion test facility in Niskayuna. The researchers will look at how gas turbine efficiency might be enhanced for both simple and combined-cycle power production.
The roughly $6 million grant from GE Gas Power will be used to research highly reactive hydrogen fuels and the issues that come with such combustion dynamics. The project team will design and test gas turbine components with natural gas-hydrogen fuel mixes and up to 100% hydrogen as part of their program.
GE has worked with DOE to investigate and develop combustion technologies for more sustainable power generation in recent years. As part of the DOE’s High Hydrogen Turbine initiative, GE developed the DLN2.6e combustion system, which is standard on current GE HA gas turbine offers. The DLN 2.6e combustion system can now run on natural gas and hydrogen mixtures thanks to this technology. GE has also devised a technical roadmap for achieving 100% hydrogen in this platform within the next decade. More than 100 GE units have logged more than eight million operational hours on hydrogen and other low-BTU fuels.
In the next weeks, the details of the project award selections will be negotiated and confirmed with the DOE.
