Gas Compression Station on-site H2NG blend tests
Proceedings Publication Date
Presenter
Federica Furcas
Presenter
Company
Author
Federica Furcas, Marco Baldini, Antonio Asti, Marco Tarenzi, Massimiliano Cimmino
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Abstract

The Pipeline Technology Community has long been evaluating the blend of hydrogen into the gas distribution grid, as a means of reducing the carbon footprint of this existing energy infrastructure. Ideally, hydrogen would be produced by using renewable energy, delivering net carbon footprint reduction; alternatively, any other low-carbon hydrogen production route would apply.

The Baker Hughes and Snam Companies have already partnered in 2020 to verify the blending on a real production gas turbine, in internal test in Firenze (Italy). In November 2022, the same Companies have taken the same collaboration one step further, by verifying the blend operability at a real and operational pipeline compressor station. The selected station was Istrana (Italy), where two (2) PGT25 DLE in operation since 1997 and two (2) NovaLTTM 12 new units just installed. Gas Turbines H2 readiness of technologies developed in XX e XXI centuries were compared.

Thanks to a dedicated blending skid, the turbines were verified in their operability with variable mixtures in the range 0-10%vol of hydrogen, including transients in various operating modes, with particular focus on emissions compliance and efficiency. With respect to the benchmark emissions with natural gas only, H2 blends up to 10%vol provided areas of additional stability (reduced combustion pressure pulsations) and very limited NOx increase, without changing mapping parameters. The additional stability, as well as the CO reduction, showed opportunities to further optimize NOx when allowing the change of mapping parameters. As a result of 10% H2 blending, CO2 footprint reduces by approximately 4%. This may look a small gain at station-scale but would be a significant improvement at European Union scale.

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