Main project: Supporting energy transition with hydrogen assited gas-turbines for carbon-capture systems
The dangers posed by climate change have pushed institutions to fund novel solutions to help achieve a carbon-neutral green energy sector. Renewable energy sources will replace conventional fossil fuel-based systems, but the energy transition process will see gas turbines play a significant role especially in the hard-to-abate sectors where Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) solutions will permit to significantly reduce carbon footprint when using fossil fuels. The TRANSITION project aims to offer a solution by developing novel gas turbines for natural-gas-fired power plants that can efficiently utilise CCS technologies. The solution proposed is to revise gas-turbines combustors with the use of hydrogen-assisted flames that will allow to stably operate with high levels of Exhaust Gas Recirculation enabling highly efficient CCS solutions.
Transition Hop-On
The achievement of the EU targets established for 2030 for a more sustainable, cost-effective and environmentally-neutral energy production will not only require increasing the penetration of renewable energy sources (RES) into the actual mix, but necessarily point to reduce the carbon footprint of the conventional technologies based on the use of natural gas which is required to complement and compensate intermittent availability of RES. TRANSITION objective is to pave the way for carbon-neutral energy generation from natural gas-fired power plants using gas turbines (GT), by enabling a highly efficient Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) process in the post-combustion phase. This will be achieved by the development of advanced hydrogen assisted combustion technologies capable to permit stable engine operations with high Exhaust Gas Recirculation (EGR) rates leading to high CO2 content in the exhaust gas sent to the CCS unit. Two distinct scenarios will be considered, by #1) validating up to TRL4 a retrofit hydrogen-based burners targeting 50% EGR rate and #2) proving more aggressive technologies adopting hydrogen/oxygen flame piloting to reach 60% EGR. The TRANSITION-HOP-ON project will permit to improve the final TRL of TRANSITION objectives in Scenario #2, by providing experimental validation of non-conventional piloting solutions based on the combined use of hydrogen and pure oxygen/pure air localized injections. A final TRL4 will be reached with respect to the planned TRL 3 of the parent project. Experimental tests will be carried out on a single cup rig up to moderate pressure levels, using the same EGR simulation strategy and measurement techniques adopted in the tests panned at UNIFI and DLR in the parent project. Provided data will allow a direct validation of numerical results allowing to explore possible further optimizations of the piloting process.
