First fully hydrogen gas turbine in world tested in France
October 23, 2023The project’s initial testing took place in Saillat-sur-Vienne at a paper packaging plant.
The HYFLEXPOWER consortium led by Siemens Energy has now successfully tested the first 100 percent hydrogen gas turbine.
The turbine is capable of running on natural gas, H2, or a combination of both fuels.
The HYFLEXPOWER project is a European consortium with funding from the EU Horizon 2020 program. Its goal is to demonstrate the viability and broad spectrum of applications for using renewable hydrogen gas as a reliable, clean source of energy to be used for generating electricity or heat.
The test took place at a paper packaging plant based in Saillat-sur-Vienne, a location owned by one of the top corrugated packaging, containerboard and “bag in a box” packages in Europe. That plant hosts an SGT-400 industrial gas turbine from Siemens Energy which was altered to operate with as much as 100 percent H2.
The first test used a blend of natural and hydrogen gas and took place back in 2022.
At that time, the H2 was at 30 percent, with the remainder comprising natural gas. This most recent test involved using 100 percent H2 with the low emissions technology. As the test was deemed successful, it showed that existing power plants can be modified to use H2 without compromising efficiency or performance.
Siemens Energy executive board member Karim Amin explained that the HYFLEXPOWER project is providing substantial advancement for an H2 economy. Amin went on to say that the test demonstrates how companies can use existing turbine fleets in their transition toward decarbonization through the use of H2. Amin also underscored how well the combination of electrolysis, storage and hydrogen gas conversion at a single location can work, suggesting that they can move forward in broadening the outcomes.
The European HYFLEXPOWER consortium
The consortium is composed of Siemens Energy, the German Aerospace Center (DLR), Centrax, ENGIE Solutions, Arttic, and four universities in Europe.
The partners in this project intend to broaden the scope of the project in order to focus on industrial heat production and to look into possibilities for commercializing the technology by scaling it up.
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