Over 70% of China's electricity has always come from fossil fuels, and effectively reducing carbon emissions in the power industry is the key to achieving China's dual carbon goals. As one of the important paths for low-carbon power generation, gas turbines are an important symbol of a country's high-tech level and technological strength, playing an important role in fields such as national defense, transportation, and energy. The use of hydrogen rich fuel to generate electricity through gas turbines is of great significance for China to reduce its dependence on natural gas and decrease carbon dioxide and nitrogen oxide emissions in the power generation sector.

On May 13th, the Carbon Neutrality Research Center of the Science and Technology Research Institute of the State Power Investment Corporation organized a "Gas Turbine Hydrogen Power Generation (P2G) Theme Seminar", inviting nearly 40 industry experts from more than 10 units including the Hydrogen Energy Branch of the China Industry Development Promotion Association, the Energy Institute of the China Macro Economic Research Institute, Tsinghua University, and Huatian Aviation Power Co., Ltd. to participate in the meeting. They conducted in-depth discussions on hydrogen combustion utilization and gas turbine hydrogen power generation technology. Chen Xueqian, Deputy Secretary General of the Hydrogen Energy Branch of the China Industry Development Promotion Association, was invited to attend the meeting.

In terms of gas turbine hydrogen power generation, Lu Yanghui, Executive Deputy Director of the Carbon Neutrality Research Center of the Science and Technology Research Institute of State Power Investment Corporation, mentioned that hydrogen energy, as a green and clean energy source with abundant sources and broad application prospects, can help large-scale consumption of renewable energy, achieve large-scale peak shaving of the power grid, and store energy across seasons and regions. Hydrogen (ammonia) gas turbines, as the main equipment of future new power systems, will play an important role in future energy systems.

From a policy perspective, the development of gas turbine hydrogen power generation is in line with the three major positioning of China's hydrogen energy industry, "said Deputy Secretary General Chen Xueqian. In the context of China's rich coal, poor oil, and scarce gas, hydrogen gas turbine power generation technology can develop in parallel with hydrogen fuel cell technology, effectively supporting hydrogen energy to participate in the construction of China's future energy system and achieving a clean and low-carbon transformation of energy terminals.

The mixed hydrogen and pure hydrogen combustion of gas turbines are important technological paths to achieve carbon neutrality, which has been widely recognized worldwide, "said Gao Xin, CTO of Huatian Aviation Power Co., Ltd. Currently, gas turbine manufacturers around the world, such as GE, Siemens, Mitsubishi Hitachi, etc., have turned their attention to hydrogen rich fuel combustion technology and conducted extensive research and verification work. China has a certain industrial foundation for hydrogen combustion technology, which is not much different from the technological level of foreign countries. Currently, the localization rate of hydrogen turbines with a mixed hydrogen concentration of 60% has reached 100%, and their components are based on the domestic supply chain, fully possessing independent intellectual property rights

He also mentioned that gas turbines themselves have fuel flexibility, as long as the fuel meets the corresponding requirements of the combustion chamber in terms of calorific value and pressure, it can operate safely and stably. Therefore, a small amount of mixed hydrogen combustion only requires minor adjustments to the entire gas turbine system. With the increase of hydrogen concentration, the requirements for gas turbine systems will also become more stringent. Currently, some technical difficulties still need to be overcome, such as anti backfire technology, suppression technology of thermal shock, temperature control technology of flames, material technology for preventing "hydrogen embrittlement", controller technology for thermal expansion coatings, etc.

Rich hydrogen combustion is an important means of energy conservation and carbon reduction. The technology of using industrial by-product hydrogen to replace part of coal combustion is relatively mature and has achieved large-scale commercial applications. With the continuous maturity of natural gas hydrogen blending combustion technology, it will further promote the development of the entire hydrogen energy industry chain. Associate Professor Zhang Yang from Tsinghua University said that at present, we should consider how to further integrate the standards of hydrogen and natural gas from the standard level, which also requires more technical verification and industrial practice support.

Chen Xueqian concluded that the future development of hydrogen gas turbines needs to focus on the following aspects:one isIn the development of hydrogen rich and pure hydrogen gas turbines, the focus is on addressing the issues of self-sufficiency and reliability;twoEstablish a low-cost and large-scale hydrogen fuel supply system to support the demand for gas turbine power generation through the development of green hydrogen production, storage, and transmission technologies;three isExplore feasible and technically economical low emission nitrogen oxide technology solutions;Four isEstablish upstream and downstream patent system and technical standard system.