A hydrogen co-firing combustor for home gas turbines has been developed, and the power plant’s field demonstration is currently under progress.
By lowering carbon dioxide emissions, hydrogen fuel combustion in a gas turbine for LNG power generation is anticipated to help achieve carbon neutrality.
The “300MW Gas Turbine Hydrogen Co-fired Combustor Development Performance Report” was held at the Daejeon Headquarters, according to a report from the Korea Institute of Machinery and Materials, and a demonstration of it will begin at Korea East-West Power early the following year.
Since July 2020, the research team under the direction of Kim Min-guk, director of the Carbon Neutral Machinery Research Center, has been working with 13 businesses, academic institutions, and research organizations to develop an eco-friendly combustor for domestic gas turbines. It is possible to maintain the combustion performance of the present LNG gas turbine while burning with 30% hydrogen fuel thanks to Doosan Energy’s development of the fifth gas turbine for LNG power generation in the world.
There is a risk of high temperature and flame flashback because air is an oxidizing agent and hydrogen fuel has a strong reactivity with it (combustion chamber flame entering the fuel injection nozzle). The business was successful in enhancing the fuel injection process and regulating the amount of air and fuel mixture in order to concurrently reduce nitrogen oxide caused by high temperature and vibration caused by flame flashback.
Verification of performance was done overseas. The combustor was moved to the German Aerospace Center (DLR) to conduct a combustion test in a high-pressure environment, which is the actual operating condition of a gas turbine, and to verify its performance because, according to the Korea Institute of Machinery and Materials, there is no combustion test facility required for the development of a combustor in Korea.
In comparison to typical LNG power generation, carbon dioxide emissions can be reduced by 10.4% when a gas turbine is fired up with 30% hydrogen. It can be lowered to 21.4% when there is 50% hydrogen present.
The technology was presented at the performance report on this day, which also included the findings of Doosan Energy’s high-pressure combustion tests and Korea East-West Power’s demonstration proposal for a hydrogen-co-firing gas turbine power plant.