Using Hydrogen as Gas Turbine Fuel Available to Purchase

This paper addresses the possibility to burn hydrogen in a large size, heavy–duty gas turbine designed to run on natural gas, as a possible short-term measure to reduce greenhouse emissions of the power industry. The process used to produce hydrogen is not discussed here: we mainly focus on the behavior of the gas turbine, by analyzing the main operational aspects related to switching from natural gas to hydrogen. We will consider the effects of variations of volume flow rate and of thermo-physical properties on the matching between turbine and compressor and on the blade cooling of the hot rows of the gas turbine. In the analysis we will keep into account that those effects are largely emphasized by the abundant dilution of the fuel by inert gases (steam or nitrogen), necessary to control the NOx emissions. Three strategies will be considered to adapt the original machine, designed to run on natural gas, to operate properly with diluted hydrogen (VGV operations, increased pressure ratio, re-engineered machine). The performance analysis, carried out by a calculation method including a detailed model the cooled gas turbine expansion, shows that moderate efficiency decays can be predicted with elevated dilution rates (nitrogen is preferable to steam under this point of view). The combined cycle power output substantially increases if not controlled by VGV operations. It represents an opportunity if some moderate re-design is accepted (turbine blade height modifications or HP compressor stages addition).