Development of a Hydrogen-Fueled Combustion Turbine Cycle for Power Generation

Consideration of a hydrogen based economy is attractive because it allows energy to be transported and stored at high densities and then transformed into useful work in pollution-free turbine or fuel cell conversion systems. Through its New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO) the Japanese government is sponsoring the World Energy Network (WE-NET) Program. The program is a 28-year global effort to define and implement technologies needed for a hydrogen-based energy system. A critical part of this effort is the development of a hydrogen-fueled combustion turbine system to efficiently convert the chemical energy stored in hydrogen to electricity when the hydrogen is combusted with pure oxygen. The full-scale demonstration will be a greenfield power plant located seaside. Hydrogen will be delivered to the site as a cryogenic liquid, and its cryogenic energy will be used to power an air liquefaction unit to produce pure oxygen. To meet the NEDO plant thermal cycle requirement of a minimum of 70.9 percent, low heating value (LHV), a variety of possible cycle configurations and working fluids have been investigated. This paper reports on the selection of the best cycle (a Rankine cycle), and the two levels of technology needed to support a near-term plant and a long-term plant. The combustion of pure hydrogen with pure hydrogen with pure oxygen results only in steam, thereby allowing for a direct-fired Rankine steam cycle. A near-term plant would require only development to support the design of an advanced high pressure steam turbine and an advanced intermediate pressure steam turbine.