Gas Turbine Combustion Technologies for Hydrogen Blends

Abstract

The article reviews gas turbine combustion technologies focusing on their current ability to operate with hydrogen enriched natural gas up to 100% H2. The aim is to provide a picture of the most promising fuel-flexible and clean combustion technologies, the object of current research and development. The use of hydrogen in the gas turbine power generation sector is initially motivated, highlighting both its decarbonisation and electric grid stability objectives; moreover, the state-of-the-art of hydrogen-blend gas turbines and their 2024 and 2030 targets are reported in terms of some key performance indicators. Then, the changes in combustion characteristics due to the hydrogen enrichment of natural gas blends are briefly described, from their enhanced reactivity to their pollutant emissions. Finally, gas turbine combustion strategies, both already commercially available (mostly based on aerodynamic flame stabilisation, self-ignition, and staging) or still under development (like the micro-mixing and the exhaust gas recirculation concepts), are described.

Comparative Technical and Economic Analyses of Hydrogen-Based Steel and Power Sectors

“…As the current study's 100% hydrogen-fired gas turbine model requires 4643.67 tons of hydrogen per year for the demands of the CHP, these sources of hydrogen and ammonia can be used in the power sector to replace fossil fuels. Future scenarios for 2030 from previous studies by Giacomazzi et al [33,34] also mention the possibility of reducing NO x emissions below 25 ppmvd at 15% O 2 with 100% hydrogen combustion. Moreover, an issue related to the flashback phenomena of hydrogen combustion in a gas turbine must also be considered before transforming the existing gas turbine units from conventional fuel to hydrogen [86], and lastly, because hydrogen storage under high pressure in this study showed high costs, including expenses on the compression unit, ammonia-based hydrogen storage can also be considered as a potential option based on previous studies [87][88][89].…”

“…One method of reducing CO 2 emissions in the power sector is to replace fossil fuels with hydrogen, biofuels, ammonia, and other alternative fuels [29][30][31][32]. Simultaneously, incorporating hydrogen into a gas turbine will contribute to bolstering electrical grid stability amidst the growing integration of renewable energy and the shift towards sustainable, carbon-neutral power generation [33][34][35]. The combustion of hydrogen in a gas turbine has been studied for many decades.…”

Direct Numerical Simulation of a Reacting Turbulent Hydrogen/Ammonia/Nitrogen Jet in an Air Crossflow at 5 Bar

“…Despite the decreasing temperature with increasing strain rate up to the quenching, NO concentration increases. In fact, the NO Thermal formation path becomes less important as the temperature decreases, while the weight of the fuel pathway increases, as shown in Figure 2, which depicts the normalized NO formation rate for each reaction distinctive of different pathways [41]. The panel of Figure 2 depicts the relative importance [42] of each path in the NO formation for two different strains.…”

Impact of Oxygen Content on Flame Dynamics in a Non-Premixed Gas Turbine Model Combustor

“…With the increasing performance requirements of combustion chambers and increasingly stringent emission regulations [1][2][3][4], gas turbine combustion chambers are required to operate at high temperature and high pressure [5][6][7][8][9], which usually leads to the occurrence of combustion instability [10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17]. The combustion instability phenomenon will be accompanied by pressure pulsation and exothermic pulsation in the flow field inside the combustion chamber [18][19][20][21], which leads to vibration of the combustion chamber components and affects the safe operation of the engine [22][23][24].…”