The Race to Create a Completely Clean and Safe Hydrogen Gas Turbine
Source：fuelcellsworks
TU/e coordinates this EU research project that combines fundamental and applied research in the field of hydrogen turbines. This HELIOS project has now been nominated for a European 'Best Success Story' award.
The European HELIOS project brings together fundamental research on hydrogen gas turbines with their technical applications in industry. In the project that Roy Hermanns has set up and coordinates himself, we are working hard to be a leader in the introduction of gas turbines that run cleanly, safely, and purely on hydrogen. The project has now been nominated by the EU Clean Hydrogen Partnership, the subsidy provider of the project, together with partner project FLEX4H2, for its own Best Success Story Award election.
Green hydrogen is one of the energy carriers being researched as an alternative to fossil fuels in the industry. Hydrogen can be produced using electricity from solar energy, wind energy, or hydropower. And then transport it somewhere else, where it can serve as fuel for industry or power plants (for electricity production).
Hydrogen as a fuel may be inherently clean, but its supply chain presents several challenges. There is the challenge of effectively generating green hydrogen with smart electrolyzers. In addition, the hydrogen generated in areas with abundant clean energy, such as around the equator, must be transported to regions with high energy demands, like Europe.
And finally, that hydrogen must be converted efficiently and cleanly into electricity in so-called gas turbines. In these turbines, burners running on hydrogen provide hot air. These are used to rotate a large fan while electricity is generated close to the shaft in large copper coils. The hydrogen turbines currently on the market do not yet operate entirely on hydrogen.
A race to the first hydrogen turbine
The gas turbines currently used by the industry primarily burn natural gas, at least partially. “We would like to change that with our HELIOS project,” says Roy Hermanns, researcher in the Power & Flow group at the Department of Mechanical Engineering.
“There is now a fierce race going on worldwide to make the first working and one hundred percent hydrogen-fired gas turbine. I believe that we should be able to do that in Europe. This is why I have put together this HELIOS consortium with such care.”
This is also why the European Clean Hydrogen Partnership funded this project with almost four million euros. In addition to coordination by Hermanns and project management of HELIOS by Suzan van Dongen, TU/e also undertakes the modeling and theoretical research. To this end, Stijn Schepers is involved in the project as a PhD student, and TU/e’s Jeroen van Ooijen and Rob Bastiaans are staff. TU Delft handles the setups in the lab and oversees experimental research. Together, the universities make sure that the required fundamental knowledge is being built up.
The bulk of the budget goes to industry partner Thomassen Energy B.V.. That company will build the test models and design and make the turbine parts, based on the knowledge shared by the universities.
Finally, partners DLR (Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt e.V.) and CCA (Centro Combustione Ambiente S.p.A.) are part of the consortium to test the optimization under realistic conditions.
DLR has a test rig for testing gas turbine combustion systems in both aerospace and industrial applications under realistic conditions and high pressure. Hermanns: “This is one of the few labs in the world and the only one in Europe where these specific gas turbine conditions can be tested and properly measured. Additionally, DLR is used to deal with confidentiality, because many companies use their labs and the competition between them is fierce.”
The CCA offers similar facilities, but at atmospheric pressure levels. However, they are specialized in measuring acoustics (so-called ‘rattling’ or air pressure differences, ed.) caused by combustion. In this way, each partner contributes to the knowledge that is built up within the consortium.
A stable flame
“You have to build a consortium like HELIOS carefully,” Hermanns explains. “It is important that each partner brings in its own expertise and knowledge to the table that you cannot find elsewhere. But it is equally important that there is no overlap and no lack of knowledge.”
One of the biggest challenges for the project is creating a stable flame in the burner. The speed of hydrogen combustion makes certain properties of the flame more difficult to control. One of them is flashback.
Hermanns: “By adding hydrogen, the combustion rate in the flame will be significantly higher. Additionally, the diffusion of hydrogen near the walls of the combustion chamber plays a significant role. Because the hydrogen is lighter and faster than the other gases, it can accumulate in certain places near the burner in the gas turbine.”
“And near the walls of the chamber in which the burner is located, the typical gas velocities are very low. Both effects ensure that flame flashback ('rattling' of a flame, i.e., not burning evenly but in fits and starts, ed.) in those areas poses a risk that must be avoided. Due to the high combustion rate, the time for an operator to react and intervene is extremely short. That means that we have to consider this in the design phase.”
Additionally, it is known that nitrogen compounds can form in hydrogen burners. These can then end up in the air via the exhaust gases and precipitate in nature, which is unfavorable for the environment. Keeping the flame burning at the perfect speed and controllable conditions is therefore of great importance.
Sharing the workload
Hermanns: “It is a balance to ensure that excellent scientific research is done at the universities. Research that we can also share and publish. At the same time, Thomassen's competition is lurking, and it is precisely their designs that are hugely protected in order to guarantee the competitiveness of the company, and by extension, Europe.”
“The project is now at its halfway point, and we are awaiting some exciting results from our Italian test partner CCA. These will be shared within the consortium in mid-December. These results will determine the rest of our path and whether we can share results with the rest of the world then, or only after further research.”
Recognition
That is precisely why it is so exceptional that the project has already been nominated as Best Success Story by the EU Clean Hydrogen Partnership, even before the project's completion. “We are all very impressed that our funding provider already sees us as a success story together with FLEX4H2. It is also a really nice project that is going well, so we see it not only as appreciation for the results, but also for our collaboration,” Hermanns concludes.