Siemens Power Seals Deal for Hydrogen-Prepared Coal-to-Fuel Change

European power large EnBW will pilot switching a 114-year-old coal-fired waste incineration and district heating energy plant in Stuttgart-Münster, Germany, to gas-fired know-how whereas making certain the regionally vital plant shall be able to combust hydrogen “as rapidly and fully” as potential.

Siemens Power on Nov. 17 sealed an settlement with the utility for an general bundle that can guarantee all programs on the conversion in Germany’s southwestern state of Baden-Württemberg shall be designed “from the very starting” to allow the pure fuel challenge, which could possibly be operational by 2026, to be fueled with hydrogen.

The duty will contain putting in two Siemens Power 62-MW SGT-800 fuel generators to exchange the Stuttgart-Münster mixed warmth and energy (CHP) plant’s three coal boilers, in addition to a downstream waste warmth restoration system, the businesses stated in a joint assertion on Thursday. “Pipelines, management programs, and boiler know-how additionally must be transformed as rapidly and simply as potential when inexperienced hydrogen is obtainable,” stated EnBW engineer Diana van den Bergh.

A Hydrogen-Prepared Industrial Turbine

Siemens Power says its present technology of fuel turbine fashions is already capable of burn blended fuels containing 30% to 75% hydrogen. The fuel turbine producer has got down to allow a 100% hydrogen combustion functionality for all its fuel turbine choices by 2030.

The corporate’s SGT-800 fuel turbine, notably, is a compact and modular industrial mannequin that’s broadly used for CHP installations. Every single-shaft SGT-800 has a 15-stage compressor and 3-stage axial stream turbine, with a rated output of 45 MW and a easy cycle effectivity of 37%. The turbine’s design incorporates an annular combustion chamber with 30 DLE (dry low emissions) burners which can be able to gasoline flexibility, together with for high-content inert gases, hydrogen, and heavy hydrocarbons within the fuel gasoline composition, with out a upkeep impression.

Beneath the settlement signed with EnBW on Thursday, Siemens Power offered an “assurance” that the brand new generators will have the ability to course of as much as a 75% hydrogen admixture from the time they’re shipped in 2025, however that the general bundle shall be ready to deal with 100% hydrogen. Siemens Power’s assurances are bolstered by unbiased certification of its energy plant “H2-Readiness,” which it obtained from inspection and certification agency TÜV SÜD in November 2021.

EnBW, nonetheless, acknowledged that the challenge’s full conversion to 100% hydrogen combustion may not be achieved for 10 to 12 years owing to hydrogen provide constraints. “We are able to’t but reliably predict when inexperienced hydrogen shall be obtainable in adequate amount and at reasonably priced costs,” famous EnBW Managing Board Member Georg Stamatelopoulos. “However the know-how ought to be in place by that point. We’re not going to place the cart earlier than the horse. Which, by the best way, is the target in all our gasoline swap initiatives.” 

EnBW Banking on Coal-to-Fuel-to-Hydrogen as Decarbonization Technique

The challenge is a vital pilot for the EnBW, which needs to finish its gradual phaseout of coal and obtain local weather neutrality by 2035. By 2030, the utility plans to decommission roughly 2.5 GW of coal energy and obtain “hydrogen readiness” as a part of preparations to change its fuel energy crops to make use of hydrogen. Its plans issue within the looming retirement of the 1.4-GW Neckarwestheim II, a nuclear plant that produces a few sixth of Baden-Württemberg’s complete electrical energy consumption.

Whereas primarily pushed by sustainability initiatives, EnBW has additionally got down to scale back its dependence on deliveries of Russian coal. And whereas the corporate in 2021 acquired 8,249 GWh of pure fuel to generate energy and warmth, it plans to cut back its fuel gasoline dependency on Russian suppliers. “Actions within the [liquefied natural gas (LNG)] sector are one thing that can develop into more and more vital sooner or later,” it stated in its 2021 annual report launched this April. “They may typically open up entry to extra sources of provide from international exporters of fuel and LNG.”

Together with the conversion at Stuttgart-Münster, EnBW plans gasoline switches at Heilbronn, a 1-GW arduous coal plant in Heilbronn, and Altbach-Deizisau, a 1.2-GW CHP plant in Altbach. “By switching from coal to fuel in Altbach/Deizisau and Münster, we’re phasing out coal for all the so-called ‘Mittlere Neckar Line.’ Which means that the largest overarching district heating system in southern Germany shall be coal-free by 2026,” the corporate stated final yr.

Stuttgart-Münster, inbuilt 1908, includes a coal-fired energy plant with three coal boilers, a waste incineration plant with three waste boilers, two steam generators, and a fuel turbine plant. The plant has an output of 154 MW and a complete thermal output of 450 MWth.

“The remedy capability of the waste-to-energy plant quantities to 420,000 tonnes per yr (reference calorific worth 11,000 kJ/kg). EnBW thus makes an vital contribution to dependable, environmentally pleasant, and economical residual waste disposal in Baden-Württemberg,” the corporate stated. “Residual waste is and can stay a very powerful power supply in Münster,” it famous. “Town recycles roughly 450,000 metric tons of this waste yearly and converts it into electrical energy and warmth.”

“The gasoline swap from coal to fuel in Münster is a vital constructing block that can enable us to proceed to have adequate energy producing capability within the coming years,” stated Stamatelopoulos. “That is the one method we will help the enlargement of renewable power. Immediately’s settlement reveals that we’re taking the subsequent step very critically. Over the medium time period, we’ll be changing fuel as a fossil gasoline with hydrogen. We’re already laying the groundwork right this moment. This contributes to our objective of first considerably decreasing our firm’s CO₂ emissions after which changing into climate-neutral by 2035.” 

—Sonal Patel is a POWER senior affiliate editor (@sonalcpatel, @POWERmagazine).