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GAS POWER
Electrolysis Technology
The Berlin factory will produce stacks
based on proton exchange membrane
(PEM) technology, which Siemens Energy
says is particularly good at following
intermittent renewable energy supply.
In Europe, a number of low-carbon and
renewable large-scale hydrogen projects
are already under development.
One, the Air Liquide Normand'Hy 200MW
electrolyzer project, is under construction
near Port-Jérôme, France. The
Normand'Hy project is expected to be
one of the first projects supplied with
equipment from the Berlin facility. Siemens
Energy is also working on several
other large-scale electrolyzer projects,
such as Kassø in Denmark and FlagshipONE
in Sweden, which will both
provide hydrogen at least partly for the
synthesis of e-fuels for shipping.
Meanwhile, Mitsubishi Power is developing
other hydrogen production
technologies, including solid oxide electrolysis
cells (SOEC), anion exchange
membrane (AEM) water electrolyzers,
and next-generation turquoise-hydrogen
production technology that produces
hydrogen without emitting CO2
through the pyrolysis of methane into
hydrogen and solid carbon. Mitsubishi
Power is developing these fundamental
technologies at the company's Nagasaki
Carbon Neutral Park, and plans
to achieve commercialization following
hydrogen production validation at its Takasago
Hydrogen Park.
Mitsubishi Power has a long history
of validating its gas turbine technology
in a demonstration plant, known as TPoint,
at its Takasago Machinery Works
facility, located about 50 kilometers
west of Kobe, Japan. The hydrogen
park was recently added to the site; it
entered full-scale operation in September
2023. Mitsubishi Power said the
park " aims to improve product reliability
through the validation of hydrogen
co-firing and 100% hydrogen firing of
gas turbines, while also implementing
successive expansion with the introduction
of next-generation hydrogen
production technologies. "
Takasago Hydrogen Park (Figure 1) is
divided into sections according to three
hydrogen-related functions: hydrogen
production, storage, and utilization. In the
production area, an alkaline electrolyzer
manufactured by HydrogenPro AS of
Norway with a hydrogen production capacity
of 1,100 normal cubic meters per
hour (Nm3/hr), which Mitsubishi Power
said was the highest in the world when
April 2024 | POWER
2. The 830-MW High Desert combined cycle power plant in San Bernardino County, California,
recently completed FX performance upgrades and advanced ultra-low-NOx (ULN)
combustor upgrades on its three Siemens Energy SGT6-5000F gas turbines. The ULN combustor
modifications allow for the utilization of hydrogen as a fuel source in the future.
Courtesy: Siemens Energy
it entered service, is operational. The hydrogen
produced is stored in equipment
with a total capacity of 39,000 Nm3.
End-Users Need Advanced
Technology
As hydrogen availability expands, gas turbine
owners are starting to demand the
flexibility to use it in varying degrees (Figure
2). " The industry is absolutely asking
for: 'We want units to be able to burn
hydrogen. We want to make sure they're
future-proof. We want to show that we
actually have the tangible real capabilities
to do this,' " Jermark said. " If you
look across our entire product portfolio
of gas turbines-it's around 20 different
products that we support today-and
each and every one of them has some
aspect of hydrogen co-firing-either development,
rig testing, field testing-
that's either in progress or taking place. "
And the interest is global. " We're not
seeing, necessarily, geographic pockets
of developments, and customer push
and interest, " noted Jermark. " It's really
happening around the world. "
Mitsubishi Power has plans to operate
a commercial unit on up to 30% hydrogen
very soon. That's why the validation
of 30% hydrogen co-firing at the T-Point
2 combined cycle power plant validation
facility in 2023 was so important. The
testing was done with a Mitsubishi Power
JAC large-frame gas turbine (450-MW
class). " We announced 30% hydrogen
by volume late last year, where we ran
on a 1,650-degree-Celsius firing temperature
in the gas turbine, " stated Thomas.
The Pioneering ACES Project
The first project Mitsubishi Power's validation
work supports is the Advanced
Clean Energy Storage (ACES) project in
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3. In June and July 2023, Mitsubishi Power
delivered two M501JAC advanced-class gas
turbines to the Intermountain Power Project
Renewed project, which is under construction
in Utah. Courtesy: Mitsubishi Power
19
Delta, Utah. " We are going to be running
hydrogen in a commercial unit next
year-2025, " Thomas proclaimed, in reference
to the ACES project. " This project
is real. It's happening. It's going into hot
commissioning and the salt caverns are
being solution-mined right now. "
The ACES hub has been designed to
convert about 220 MW of renewable
energy to 100 tonnes per day of green
hydrogen, which will then be stored in
two massive salt caverns capable upon
startup of storing more than 300 GWh of
dispatchable clean energy. The hub will
support the Intermountain Power Project
(IPP) Renewed project (Figure 3).
IPP originally included two coal-fired
units with a combined capacity of 1,900
MW. The IPP Renewed project involves
the retirement of the existing coal-fueled
units; construction of an 840-MW
hydrogen-capable gas turbine combined
cycle power plant; modernization of

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