To Achieve Carbon Neutrality
An eco-friendly hydrogen combustor for domestic gas turbine that reduces carbon dioxide emissions has been developed and will be undergoing field test.
The Korea Institute of Machinery and Materials (KIMM), an institute under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Science and ICT, announced on Oct. 18 that it has developed a hydrogen co-firing combustor for gas turbines used in power generation. This is the first time that such technology has been developed in South Korea, and KIMM has plans to perform a demonstration of its application to power plants.
Since July 2020, the research team led by Kim Min-kuk, head of the Department of Zero-carbon Fuel and Power Generation at the KIMM Institute of Carbon Neutral Energy Machinery, has been developing an eco-friendly combustor for domestic gas turbines with 30% hydrogen co-firing, in collaboration with 13 industrial, academic, and research partners. A project for field demonstration will be started in 2023 with Korea East-West Power Co. and Doosan Enerbility.
Hydrogen is a highly reactive fuel, so there is a risk of high temperatures and flashback. In order to prevent such risks, KIMM improved a fuel injection method, including fuel split, staging and modifying fuel holes. These were applied to the heavy-duty gas turbine developed by Doosan Enerbility. As a result, it was possible that NOx and combustion instability were suppressed to the same level as the original LNG gas turbine while burning a mixture of 30% hydrogen fuel.
In the past, many efforts were made to promote the development of hydrogen co-firing combustors, but performance verification was difficult because there were no proper combustion test facilities in South Korea. So the combustor developed by KIMM was transferred to the German Aerospace Center (DLR) during the development process and successfully passed combustion tests in a high-pressure environment. These conditions mimic the actual operating conditions of the gas turbine, and its performance was verified accordingly. The development of hydrogen co-firing technology by domestic research institutes and its application to domestic gas turbines is a meaningful moment on the road to carbon neutrality in South Korea.
When gas turbines use fuel blended with 30% hydrogen, CO2 emissions can be reduced by 10.4% compared to 100% LNG power generation. KIMM plans to increase the percentage of hydrogen contents in fuel over 50% thereby 21.4% reduction of CO2 by 2024. In addition, the team is a focusing its research efforts with the goal of developing a 100% carbon-free hydrogen combustion technology by 2030.
KIMM also held a briefing on the development of a 300MW class gas turbine hydrogen co-firing combustor at the main office in Daejeon on Oct. 12. During this meeting, the institute shared the details of its work on the core technology of modifying the hydrogen combustor. They also shared the results from Doosan Enerbility’s high-pressure combustion test results and announced plans by Korea East-West Power Co.’s Korea Institute of Future Convergence Technology to conduct power plant demonstrations of the hydrogen gas turbine.