Yingde Gases contributes to the successful implementation of a First for China: The Use of High-Level Hydrogen Fuel Blend in a Commercial Gas Turbine
Yingde Gases Group (hereinafter referred to as: Yingde Gases) helped Beijing Heavy Fuel Duty Turbine Hubei Branch, a subsidiary of State Power Investment Corporation, successfully achieve power generation by burning a 30% hydrogen fuel blend at a combustion project of China Power Jingmen Green Energy Company on September 29, 2022.
Beijing Heavy Duty Turbine Company, a subsidiary of the State Power Investment Corporation, was responsible for the overall planning, organization, and implementation of this project. This is the first time that the results of scientific research, testing and refining of fuel blend containing high levels of hydrogen have been applied to an actual unit at a heavy-duty gas turbine facility in China. It is also a global first: the first successful example of a high-level hydrogen fuel blend burned in circulating and thermoelectric cogeneration facilities.
Yingde Gases Group is a leader in China's industrial gas sector. In July of 2021, Yingde Gases signed a strategic partnership agreement with Beijing Heavy Duty Turbine Company, the Hubei Branch of the State Power Investment Corporation, and State Power's Jingmen Clean Energy Company. With its leading edge in clean energy technology and resources, Yingde Gases became the exclusive supplier and service provider of hydrogen gas for the project using a hydrogen and natural gas blend to generate power. With Yingde Gases' full support and resources, power generation was achieved using a 15% hydrogen fuel blend in December 2021, after which another breakthrough was made when power was successfully generated using a 30% hydrogen blend, providing a major boost to the development and implementation of hydrogen gas turbines in China.
The Chinese government's pledge to reach a carbon dioxide peak by 2030, and carbon neutrality by 2060, has ushered in a new low-carbon era, providing Chinese corporations leadership and guidance in the effort to constantly upgrade and transform facilities, from which they achieve greener, more sustainable development goals. Hydrogen gas turbines will clear the roadblock stymying progress in the domestic gas turbine sector (caused by a scarcity of natural gas), in effect paving the way for greater advancements in the production of high-end equipment for gas turbine power generation. Adding hydrogen functionality to existing natural gas turbine facilities not only mitigates the natural gas supply problem and ensures a steady supply of warmth through the winter, it also has the added effect of significantly reducing carbon emissions. Using a fuel blend with 30% hydrogen gas, a single 54-megawatt unit at Jingmen (operating at nominal output in winter, and 44 megawatts in summer with a hydrogen blend) can reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 18,000 tons in just one year.
As an essential means to further decarbonization, hydrogen power is poised to become a vital link in the security of power supply in China. Diversification at suppliers downstream has already become a full-blown trend. At present, Yingde Gases operates factories in the provinces of Jiangsu, Hubei, Shandong, and Henan, and has a strong command of production processes such as hydrogen extraction from coal, natural gas, water electrolysis, and methanol pyrolysis, as well as hydrogen extraction from the purification of industrial by-product exhaust.
Through the R&D and application of digital technology, Yingde Gases is actively exploring new uses for green energy, while helping companies improve efficiency in the fuel burning process, constantly striving to lower the energy consumed during production, raise the percentage of clean energy used in production, and research new ways to capture and reuse carbon, while developing the green hydrogen sector, providing all the right conditions for a green and low carbon industry.