POWER September 2023 - 29

HYDROGEN
cannot be easily electrified. That includes,
among other things, heat generation
in hard-to-abate industries such
as steel and cement. For example, the
Salcos project aims to nearly eliminate
the use of natural gas with the help of
green hydrogen.
Another application area is the replacement
of fossil feedstock in the
chemical industry, such as using green
hydrogen to produce methanol. Finally,
green hydrogen can also be used to produce
various types of synthetic fuels like
e-kerosene, e-methanol, and e-gasoline,
which supports the decarbonization of
the aviation, shipping, and heavy-road
transport industry. One example is Haru
Oni in Chile, the world's first integrated
industrial-scale hydrogen plant for making
synthetic climate-neutral fuels. All
this is attractive to corporations that have
committed themselves publicly-alongside
governments-to reach carbon neutrality
by mid-century, such as General
Motors, Cemex (a cement manufacturer),
and Honeywell, just to name a few
among many.
Looking Forward: Power Plants
These industrial markets have commercially
lower hydrogen breakeven prices
and should therefore materialize first.
But the use of hydrogen in power plants
should also pick up due to the regulatory
pressure to fully decarbonize the power
sector, which will see conventional fuels
become more expensive due to CO2
penalties. Several countries have also
pledged to become carbon-neutral before
2050. Sweden and Germany, for example,
are aiming for 2045. The Group
of Seven (G7) leading industrial nations,
meanwhile, committed to decarbonize
their power sector by 2035.
And while the U.S. intends to reach
overall net zero emissions by 2050, it
has also set a goal of carbon-pollutionfree
electricity by 2035. In addition, the
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
(EPA) proposed a new emission regulation
that will implement nearly 100vol%
cofiring of low-carbon hydrogen in the
power sector by 2038. In line with
this, Siemens Energy has observed increased
interest in both industrial and
heavy-duty size turbines capable of firing
100vol% hydrogen.
Opening the Door for
Hydrogen-Ready Power Plants
This push for decarbonization in the power
sector lays the groundwork for hydrogen-ready
gas-fired power plants. Today,
September 2023 | POWER
more and more of the global electricity
demand is met by renewables. In addition,
many countries still see nuclear as
an important supplier of baseload power.
However, gas-fired power plants can be
used for residual load when renewable
output wanes or when demand peaks.
The natural gas these power plants
use today should be considered as a
transition gas to clean fuels such as
green hydrogen. In fact, the demand for
natural gas is expected to increase its
share of global energy demand over the
next 10 to 15 years, making it the only
fossil fuel with an upward trajectory. To
prepare for this transition, given a gas
turbine's lifecycle, it makes sense to
start installing new hydrogen-ready gas
turbines, or modify existing turbines to
make them hydrogen-ready. They can be
retrofitted quickly once low-carbon hydrogen
becomes available at scale and
for a reasonable cost.
The Color Shades of Hydrogen
It is worth noting that not all hydrogen
is cut from the same cloth. Hydrogen is
classified by different colors, from blue
to yellow to pink to turquoise, depending
on the production path. Currently, more
than 90% of hydrogen is produced conventionally
from natural gas with steam
gas reforming (grey), lignite (brown), or
bituminous coal (black) using coal gasification.
These processes are the most
carbon intensive.
The next step is blue hydrogen produced
from natural gas with most of the
generated CO2
captured and sequestered
in underground aquifers, depleted
oil and gas fields, or used in industry.
Finally, green hydrogen is produced
with zero CO2
emissions, such as with
electrolysis using electricity from 100%
renewable sources.
According to the International Energy
Agency's special report Net Zero by
2050: A Roadmap for the Global Energy
Sector, blue and green hydrogen are the
future-and they will coexist for a considerable
timespan. By 2050, approximately
half of hydrogen production is predicted
to come from reforming of fossil fuels
with CCS (carbon capture and storage,
blue) and half from renewable sources
(green), with green hydrogen becoming
more competitive over time.
A Path Forward for Hydrogen
Clearly, there is a path not just for the
industrial use of hydrogen, but for gas
power plants as well. And while on pure
commercial grounds wide adoption of
www.powermag.com
2. The Donaustadt combined heat and
power plant is one of Austria's largest
thermal power stations. Originally fired by
natural gas, it is being upgraded to run on
blended hydrogen. It is one of the first such
upgrades of a major heavy-duty gas turbine
in commercial operation. Courtesy: Wien
Energie/Johannes Zinner
hydrogen would not be expected to happen
this decade, regulatory measures
and programs like the IRA will help to
achieve positive business cases within
the next few years.
So, it is unsurprising that the groundworks
for the re-electrification of hydrogen
are already being laid down. There
are smaller demonstration and pilot
projects, such as Hyflexpower, an industrial
power plant at a paper factory
in Saillat-sur-Vienne in France, which
has successfully tested cofiring hydrogen.
In the beginning of 2023, a large
Siemens Energy SGT6-6000G turbine,
with only minor modifications, also operated
on a blend of 38vol% hydrogen
in a power plant in the U.S., making it
the largest operating gas turbine in the
world to achieve this percent blend.
And finally, at the Austrian Donaustadt
combined heat and power plant (Figure
2), the first test run with a fuel blend
of 15vol% hydrogen took place in July
2023. For the next stage, the test will
double the hydrogen content to 30vol%.
It Will Take Time-but Must Still Be
Fast Tracked
Finally, while nothing we achieve this
decade will be enough, today's progress
will be critical to the eventual success
of hydrogen adoption. And we need to
be patient. Today, we should neither be
surprised nor disheartened by the status
quo. We are just at the beginning of utilizing
hydrogen to decarbonize our emissions-intensive
economy. And just as oil
infrastructure was built over many decades,
hydrogen infrastructure will also
take time. Still, it is essential that we fast
track its development. ■
-Chris Ferraro is head for New Products,
North America, at Siemens Energy.
29
http://www.powermag.com
POWER September 2023

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of POWER September 2023
