Mitsubishi Power, a power solutions brand of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI), successfully executed a fuel blend of 30 per cent hydrogen and natural gas demonstration at partial load and full load using a grid-connected state-of-the-art 1,650°C class J-series Air-Cooled (JAC) gas turbine.

 

The demonstration took place at the T-Point 2 Combined Cycle Power Plant Validation Facility with a rated output of 566 megawatts (MW) within Takasago Hydrogen Park, within its Takasago Machinery Works in Takasago City, Hyogo Prefecture in west central Japan.

 

Using hydrogen produced at Takasago Hydrogen Park, this demonstration was the world’s first power generation test on a large frame gas turbine using a fuel mixture of 30 per cent hydrogen while connected to the local power grid and using hydrogen produced and stored on the same site.

 

 Mitsubishi Power will continue utilising Takasago Hydrogen Park—a facility that makes the integrated validation of hydrogen production, storage, and utilisation (power generation) possible—to establish hydrogen-fired gas turbine technology and facilitate the arrival of a carbon-neutral society.

 

The demonstration was conducted using results obtained through a project subsidised by Japan’s New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organisation (NEDO), using a Dry Low NOx (DLN) combustor.

 

The demonstration verified the achievement of the same low nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions and stable combustion during hydrogen co-firing, and that switching fuels from natural gas to hydrogen fuel blending is possible during partial-load and full-load operation.

 

In 2024, Mitsubishi Power plans to conduct a 100 per cent hydrogen-firing demonstration using a small- to mid-sized H-25 gas turbine (40 MW class) that had been previously installed for compressor driving at the combustion test facility in the park.

 

 Additionally, Mitsubishi Power will proceed with the expansion of the hydrogen storage facility and perform a demonstration using a 50 per cent hydrogen blended fuel.

 

Takashi Tozawa, Senior Fellow, Senior General Manager, GTCC Business Division of Energy Systems at MHI, said, “We see Takasago Hydrogen Park making a significant contribution to the implementation of hydrogen power generation through improvements in product reliability based on verifications and accelerated commercialisation. The 30 per cent hydrogen co-firing demonstration with the JAC gas turbine is an unprecedented and significant milestone toward the energy transition, and we are proud that MHI is able to play such an important role.”

 

The MHI Group is pursuing the Energy Transition as an engine for corporate growth based on its declaration of “Mission Net-Zero,” targeting carbon neutrality by 2040. The MHI Group will continue to leverage Takasago Hydrogen Park to accelerate the development and actual equipment validation of hydrogen production and power generation technologies. Through its highly reliable products, the MHI Group will continue to contribute to the stable supply of electricity worldwide and the rapid realisation of a carbon-neutral society. --OGN/TradeArabai News Service