Hydrogen operation in Siemens industrial gas turbines

Published 20 April 2023

Lines and various, looks like a schematic. The text Siemens is written large on top. Illustration.

A gas turbine is a combustion engine that can convert fuel to mechanical power. This mechanical power can be used for producing electric power and generating thrust in a jet aircraft. We are all well familiar with climate change, global warming and the urgent need to reduce greenhouse gases. The use of hydrogen in the process industry, e.g., for steel production, in the power industry for electricity production, and in the transport sector (i.e., heavy-duty internal combustion engine-based vehicles) can play a significant role in the effort of achieving the goals of zero net greenhouse gas emissions.

Increasing demands to use a broader range of alternative and renewable fuels in gas turbines make it necessary to consider operational ﬂexibility, efﬁciency, fuel ﬂexibility, and emissions when designing modern industrial gas turbine engines.

One key challenge of gas turbine combustion is to achieve high efﬁciency combined with low emissions for operation with different fuels and loads. Currently, manufacturers design stationary gas turbine engines to operate under lean premixed conditions to reduce the formation of the nitric oxide pollutant by lowering the ﬂame temperature. However, this approach can lead to undesirable flame instabilities, which may cause local ﬂame extinction, thermoacoustic oscillations, and poor combustion efﬁciency.

We study gas turbine flames employing laser-based/optical techniques to improve our understanding of
    • The flame stabilization
    • Turbulent flow-flame interactions
    • Fuel flexibility
    • Influence of the burner geometry
    • Burner operability limit
    • Flashback

These investigations are enabling the increased use of hydrogen in gas turbine engines.

Arman Subash - portal.research.lu.se

Christian Brackmann - portal.research.lu.se