Siemens Energy North America President Rich Voorberg was optimistic and upbeat as he sat down to speak with us at POWERGEN International back in January.

Voorberg has attended POWERGEN for nearly 30 years but still buzzes about walking the show floor or learning the latest technologies.

“It’s about working together,” said Voorberg, “and it’s about learning from each other.”

This kind of collaboration is crucial as the power sector faces the pressures of net-zero carbon goals and unprecedented load growth.

Big changes are happening already. A growing number of utilities and power generation owners have committed to cut carbon emissions 80% by 2030.

The U.S. bulk power system is becoming more renewables-heavy, thanks largely to coal-fired plant retirements and huge growth from utility-scale solar. The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) is projecting that renewables’ share of electricity will increase three percent in just one year, from 22% in 2023 to nearly 25% in 2024.

Demand for power is also exploding. Many utilities are increasing their load forecasts, in no small part from new manufacturing and the rise of energy-intensive data centers using AI. Duke Energy Carolinas, for example, recently told regulators its current projected peak demand growth by 2030 is approximately eight times what it projected in the company’s 2022 Carbon Plan.

Voorberg said an all of the above approach is needed in the face of these challenges. This includes more solar, wind and battery installations, but also advancements in clean firm power technologies like hydrogen and small modular reactors, he said.

Conventional power sources will still be needed “for the foreseeable future,” Voorberg said.

The gas turbine remains the workhorse of power generation, and previous efforts have been aimed at extending time between outages and the life of equipment. Now, the focus turns to burning cleaner fuels like hydrogen, which is no longer simply a hypothetical situation.

Voorberg pointed to a hydrogen-blending test at Constellation’ Hillabee Generating Station, a 753 MW natural gas combined-cycle (NGCC) in central Alabama. Constellation blended 38 percent hydrogen by volume, with the demonstration occurring on a Siemens Energy SGT6-6000G gas turbine.

Researchers said only “minor modifications” were required for the blending test. Constellation said it added an inlet for the hydrogen to be blended, a control valve and calibrated instrument to measure fuel flow.

But Voorberg acknowledged that long-term trial runs are needed to see how parts on the backend are truly affected.

“We’ve theoretically got it,” he said. “But we’ve got to get these machines running and prove it out to ourselves over a longer and longer period of time.”

But at the end of the day, it’s about the business case.

Tax credits and other incentives have been established to support scaling up the production, transportation, storage and end-use of clean hydrogen. Siemens Energy itself opened a gigawatt-scale electrolyzer production facility in Berlin last year.

Establishing a functioning hydrogen economy in the U.S. is not without its headwinds. It’s a microcosm of the greater challenge of getting to net-zero by 2050 and the reality that we might not yet have all the tools commercially available to get there.

That’s why Siemens Energy spends more than $1 billion annually in R&D, aimed at bringing newer, cleaner innovations to market.

“It’s going to be difficult, and it’s going to really push out our engineers,” said Voorberg. “We believe only half of the technology exists today in a commercial mandate to get to 2050.”

All the more reason it takes a village to reach net-zero.

Hydrogen, as an alternative fuel for gas turbines, will play a role in decarbonizing traditional power generation, however, concerns have been raised by industry leaders about whether there is a sufficient supply of green hydrogen to sustain this green transformation.

“I get into conversations about hydrogen co-firing [and] the thing that comes up almost every time is ‘are we really going to have supply’?”

This was the question posed by Jason Jermark, vice president of Global Services Operations at Siemens Energy, who refers to the hydrogen supply issue as the “elephant in the room”.

Jermark was joined by industry heavy hitters, such as Jeffrey Goldmeer, Emergent Technologies Director – Decarbonization, GE Vernova and Benjamin Thomas, senior manager of Hydrogen Production Engineering of Mitsubishi Power Americas for a panel discussion on the future of gas turbine decarbonization.

Decarbonizing gas assets with hydrogen and ammonia was front and center of the discussion at POWERGEN International, which took a candid turn to explore some of the headwinds facing the sector.

Hydrogen as an alternative

“To be honest, years ago I was skeptical of it,” said Jermark.

“If you think about the scale that’s going to be required, to be able to support the vast amount of [gas] generation that we have, is it going to be possible… and is this really the best use of the hydrogen molecule?”

According to Jermark, there has been a four-fold increase in hydrogen supply projects globally in the last few years. An increase in projects in action and an increase in the speed of production prove the industry is asking for hydrogen to future-proof generation, he suggests.

“Because of the continued interest in the production front, it leads us to believe the supply will happen.

“It may not happen at the scale and speed that some would like, it also may happen in pockets, based on local availability, but it is going to be there.”

Hydrogen as an alternative to gas is not new. Siemens Energy has been using hydrogen in various applications for over four decades, with about 2.5 million operating hours accumulated across that time frame.

The market is maturing, said Jermark, spurred on by the [Inflation Reduction Act] and applicable tax credits in the US, as well as other carbon tax regulations in the EU and Asia.

However, even if supply is available, the panelists questioned whether hydrogen in co-firing is the best use of the molecule.

The role of ammonia

Jermark stated that while the hydrogen gas turbine market is more mature than ammonia, ammonia has a higher energy density and a broader available network to transport it.

“Ammonia is also an interesting application…there’s a lot of discussion about using it as alternative co-firing for gas turbines – our focus is how can we have the infrastructure in place to be able to transport it.”

Benjamin Thomas added that the outlook is quite complex in Japan, where LNG is currently being imported. The country needs products that can work in a variety of situations. There are different grid profiles to respond to in Japan, as wind and solar are developed, which is why there is a big focus on developing ammonia, a big focus for countries without a large hydrogen supply.

Also, in South Korea, a country focused on decarbonizing its gas-fired combined cycle plants, it’s critical to secure the hydrogen required and to transport it effectively. “The best way to do that is with ammonia as the carrier,” added Thomas.

Thomas explained that this drive for decarbonization is opening up opportunities for partnerships and wider developments such as that of zero carbon propulsion systems, providing support for the international maritime organization remit in reducing emissions.

Jeff Goldmeer highlighted that when it comes to ammonia, there is a technology challenge and an economics challenge.

“Study after study has shown that if you want to move hydrogen over long distances, you don’t want to do it as hydrogen, you need to move it as another molecule.

“Ammonia tends to be one of the simplest and cheapest molecules, a lot of people want to talk methanol but then you need to source carbinol. Ammonia just needs nitrogen, which is easily available.”

According to Goldmeer, from an economic perspective, ammonia makes the most sense.

There are technical challenges, however, emphasized Goldmeer. “We acknowledge ammonia does have a toxicity issue,” adding that even small amounts of ammonia will create a NOx problem.

“You need to be 99.9% ammonia-free in your hydrogen to avoid a NOx problem, so face the NOx problem and say I need a new combustor.”

Despite these technical challenges, Goldmeer and the other panelists agreed that there’s a well-established industry in the production and safe use of ammonia.

Currently 15-20 million metric tons of ammonia are moved by ship around the world and many ports already have ammonia bunkering capacity, proof of the molecule’s technical and economic viability.

No matter the molecule or path to decarbonization, the industry experts agreed that it’s a complicated journey and requires time and collaboration.

Concluded Jermark: “I don’t think there’s a one-size-fits-all answer [to that] which is why the situation is so complicated.”

Listen to this episode of the Energy Transitions Podcast with Javier Cavada, President and CEO of Mitsubishi Power EMEA, for insights into achieving speed and scale in decarbonizing generation.

Corre Energy designs, develops, builds and operates utility-scale Long Duration Energy Storage (LDES) projects in Europe and North America. This collaboration agreement aims to accelerate the roll-out of the company’s CAES and renewable energy infrastructure projects.

Corre Energy is already active in North America and plans to use Siemens Energy’s CAES technology for a 280 MW CAES project in West Texas.

“Our partnership with Siemens Energy allows us to accelerate the deployment of our CAES solution in North America,” Chet Lyons, president of Corre Energy US Development Company LLC, said. “We are particularly impressed with Siemens Energy’s groundbreaking progress in demonstrating the ability of its turbines to run on hydrogen which is key to our clean energy plans.”

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and several partners recently signed an MOU aimed at accelerating the commercialization of long-duration energy storage.

Long-duration energy storage is becoming increasingly important as more renewable energy sources are added to the grid. LDES systems can store and discharge a significant amount of energy, from hours to days or even weeks. Different conventional and novel technologies are being explored and developed, including compressed air energy storage, flow batteries, pumped hydro and thermal energy storage.

Goals of the MOU include the dissemination of knowledge about the technological, economic and resilience benefits afforded by long-duration energy storage, and providing access to specific DOE and national lab core competencies in energy storage and infrastructure integration for supporting research, development, demonstration and deployment purposes.

The successful demonstration took place at the HYFLEXPOWER project site at the Smurfit Kappa paper packaging plant in Saillat-sur-Vienne, France.

The project aims to show that it’s possible to convert an existing gas-fired power turbine to operate using renewable hydrogen and that hydrogen can be used as a flexible energy storage medium.

According to Siemens Energy, in 2022, initial tests saw the gas turbine operate with a 30% hydrogen content, mixed with natural gas. Now the power-to-hydrogen-to-power demonstrator has proven that turbines with dry low emissions technology can be fueled with up to 100% hydrogen as well as with natural gas and any blends in between.

“The knowledge and experience gained from the HYFLEXPOWER project where we installed the 1st gas turbine to run on 100% hydrogen will help us to continue develop our entire gas turbine fleet for a hydrogen-based future. The interaction between electrolysis, storage and hydrogen conversion at one site has been impressively demonstrated, and now it’s a matter of scaling the results,” says Karim Amin, member of the Executive Board of Siemens Energy.

HYFLEXPOWER project

The HYFLEXPOWER consortium includes Siemens Energy, ENGIE via its subsidiary ENGIE Solutions, Centrax, Arttic, the German Aerospace Center (DLR), and four European universities.

For the demonstrator project, hydrogen is produced by a 1 MW electrolyzer on-site, and then stored in an almost one-ton tank and used to power a Siemens Energy SGT-400 industrial gas turbine.

The project, which has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Framework Program for Research and Innovation, is now looking to extend its operation to industrial heat production and the consortium is exploring ways of scaling up and commercializing the project.

Frank Lacroix, ENGIE executive vice president in charge of Energy Solutions, commented on the achievement: “At ENGIE, we are very proud of this world first. The HYFLEXPOWER project is remarkable for many reasons: for the exceptional collaboration it has enabled between several European partners, for the forward-looking technologies it has tested, and for the promising prospects it opens up for the use of renewable hydrogen in the industrial sectors most difficult to decarbonize. We look forward to continuing this decisive work for the future of decarbonized industry with our partners.”

“We’re proud that our Saillat paper mill has been the host for this project because trialing new and emerging technology, such as hydrogen, aligns with our decarbonization strategy and Better Planet 2050 journey. Today’s announcement is a great milestone that puts us in good stead,” says Garrett Quinn, chief sustainability officer at Smurfit Kappa.

Smurfit Kappa is one of Europe’s leading producers of corrugated packaging, containerboard and ‘bag in box’ packages.

Originally published on Power Engineering International.

The e-fuel economy takes another important step towards industrialization. Construction is about to start on Europe’s largest commercial plant to produce green methanol for marine purposes.

Siemens Energy contributes 70MW electrolyzer capacity, plant-wide electrification, automation systems and digitalization as well as process gas compressors. The project is also a milestone on the way to the mass production of green hydrogen.

Hydrogen is a core element of a future decarbonized energy system. If the world’s nations and companies are to meet their climate pledges, the production of green hydrogen and derivatives such as e-methanol, e-ammonia or other e-fuels must be massively scaled up to industrial levels.

A green hydrogen economy requires renewable energy and electrolyzers to produce hydrogen from renewable electricity and water. Dedicated power-to-x facilities can process this green hydrogen and carbon dioxide (CO2) into green alternatives to the fossil fuel products from oil and natural gas.

E-methanol is one of the most promising electricity-based synthetic compounds. It is easy to store and transport and compatible with existing infrastructure. It can be used in a variety of industrial processes and as a fuel additive or alternative to fossil fuels.

In addition, the marine sector, which accounts for 3% of global CO2 emissions, is looking at e-methanol to become carbon neutral.

According to the International Maritime Organization, international shipping alone emitted 740 million metric tons of CO2 in 2018. Vessels with ‘dual fuel’ engines that can run on either e-methanol, conventional fuel, or a mixture of both are already available and are being ordered at large scale by the shipping industry.

Electrolysis and power-to-x processes are well known but have not been established for industrial-scale production. Nor are complete e-methanol plants, including electrolysis, CO2 capturing and methanol synthesis, anywhere near an off-the-shelf product. As a result, synthetic fuel is currently unavailable in sufficient quantities.

Europe’s largest commercial e-methanol production plant

The new facility called FlagshipONE, created by the Swedish company Liquid Wind AB and to be built by the energy company Ørsted, sets out to change that. It is located on a biomass-fired combined heat and power plant site in Örnsköldsvik, Sweden.

FlagshipONE will be powered by low-cost renewable electricity and consists of four proton exchange membrane (PEM) electrolyzers, a methanol reactor and a CO2 capture unit at the biomass plant. The setup ensures that the e-methanol produced meets all requirements to be certified as green.

FlagshipONE will be the largest commercial e-methanol production plant in Europe, generating 50,000 tons of e-methanol annually and thus preventing 100,000 tons of CO2 emissions per year.

PEM electrolyser marks a milestone towards GW target

At the heart of the plant are four 17.5MW proton exchange membrane (PEM) electrolyzers from Siemens Energy. The company is also supplying all the plant’s electrification and automation, innovative digitalization solutions, plant wide power distribution and process gas compressors.

The electrolyzers in FlagshipONE have a name plate hydrogen production capacity of more than 1.3 tons per hour, which is compressed to approximately 90 bar for the subsequent synthesis process.

Thanks to its fast dynamics, PEM electrolysis technology is ideally suited for processing volatile energy generated from wind or solar. Although FlagshipONE receives a stable power supply from the grid, the use of PEM technology enables the facility to offer capacity for frequency stabilization services and other grid stabilization measurements

With the modular concept of Silyzer 300, Siemens Energy can serve projects up to gigawatt scale producing double digit metric tons of hydrogen per hour. In 2023, a highly automated production facility for electrolysis stacks will open in Berlin. It marks the switch to mass production and is planned to ramp up to an annual capacity of more than 3GW by 2025.

The delivery of the 70MW Silyzers for FlagshipONE is the latest milestone towards these goals.

Innovative blueprint concept makes investment decision easier

Siemens Energy’s goal to scale-up hydrogen production is in line with the approach of Liquid Wind, the original project developer and inventor of the flagship concept. Specialists for electrolysis, carbon capture and methanol production are working closely to design and produce a scalable blueprint for e-methanol plants.

FlagshipONE is the first blueprint. Its ownership has now been acquired by Ørsted. Construction will begin in spring 2023, and hydrogen production is expected to start in 2025.

The next plant, FlagshipTWO, is under development by Liquid Wind and will be able to supply 100,000 metric tons of e-methanol using a 140MW capacity electrolyzer.

About the company:

Siemens Energy is one of the world’s leading energy technology companies. The company works with its customers and partners on energy systems for the future, thus supporting the transition to a more sustainable world. With its portfolio of products, solutions and services, Siemens Energy covers almost the entire energy value chain – from power generation and transmission to storage.

About the Author:

Engelbert Schrapp, Principal Corporate Account Manager Liquid Wind & Flagships at Siemens Energy & Nima Pegemanyfar, Head of Sales Europe for Sustainable Energy Systems at Siemens Energy.

Constellation said the 38 percent mark nearly doubled the previous blending record for similar generators. The blending test at Hillabee occurred May 18 on a Siemens Energy SGT6-6000G gas turbine.

Constellation said only “minor modifications” were required for the blending test. The company said it added an inlet for the hydrogen to be blended, a control valve and calibrated instrument to measure fuel flow.

The company said nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions did not increase during this blending test.

NOTE: We are currently accepting speaker submissions for presentations at POWERGEN International on January 23-25, 2024 in New Orleans. Topics include hydrogen co-firing through our track Unlocking Hydrogen’s Power Potential. Submit an abstract for a chance to join our speaker lineup here.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recently released new rules aimed at reducing carbon emissions from the electric sector, citing hydrogen co-firing as a primary technology to help decarbonize the U.S. power sector and achieve the nation’s climate goals.

Constellation said it will use the results from this test to inform its plans for transitioning its natural gas facilities to carbon-free technology in the coming years. The company has a large nuclear fleet and produces nearly 90 percent of its energy from carbon-free sources, with a goal of achieving 100 percent carbon-free electricity generation by 2040.

Hillabee Generating Station is a three-unit plant that began operating in 2010. The plant is fitted with Selective Catalytic Reduction technology, which significantly reduces nitrogen oxide emissions.

Siemens Energy and Georgia Institute of Technology will research technologies to enable the flexible use of hydrogen fuels to help decarbonize energy systems.

The initiative is part of a larger agreement signed by the partners this week at Siemens Energy’s Innovation Center in Orlando, Florida.

With the inauguration of its Innovation Center earlier in 2022, Siemens Energy announced its intention to expand its work with universities on a broad range of energy technologies.

Georgia Tech and Siemens Energy will conduct research together, as well as support each other’s independent research. The agreement will also allow the university to conduct contract work in support of Siemens Energy-led research projects and Siemens Energy to more effectively serve as an industrial advisory board member for Georgia Tech’s research initiatives.

CEF-Trumbull is a consortium made up of Korea Southern Power Co. (KOSPO), Korea Overseas Infrastructure & Urban Development Corp. (KIND) and Siemens Energy.

The combined cycle power station will consist of two Siemens Energy SGT6-8000H gas fired, high efficiency, combustion turbines with two heat recovery steam generators and a single steam turbine. 

The project was first proposed in 2015 with a projected in-service date of 2020. The pandemic slowed progress as did details related to property acquisition, foreign ownership and water supply agreements. The plant now may enter service in 2026.

Gemma is an EPC services company that has been involved in 15 GW of installed capacity including combined cycle and simple cycle natural gas power generating plants, biomass-fired power plants, solar facilities, wind farms, biofuel plants and other environmental facilities. 

The facility will consist of two combined cycle combustion turbines (3,025 mmBtu/hr heat input turbine at ISO conditions and 237 mmBtu/hr heat input duct burner) with dry low NOx combustors, selective catalytic reduction, and catalytic oxidizer, a 37.8 mmBtu/hr natural gas fired auxiliary boiler with low-NOx burners and flue gas recirculation, a 1,140 kW (mechanical) emergency diesel-fired generator, a 300 hp emergency diesel-fired fire pump, and a 10-cell wet cooling tower equipped with a high efficiency drift eliminator.

The combined cycle combustion turbines will be equipped with dry low NOx combustors, selective catalytic reduction, and catalytic oxidation. The auxiliary boiler will be equipped with low-NOx burners and flue gas recirculation. The wet cooling tower will be equipped with a high efficiency drift eliminator.

Project finance was recently finalized, allowing the notice to proceed to occur. The project received a 100%, 15-year local tax abatement, but the company agreed to make payments in lieu of taxes to the Lordstown Local School District and to the village. The district and village will also evenly split income tax from the power plant.

NOTE: Be sure to watch our POWERGEN+ network webinar: “How the fast-ramping SGT6-9000HL at Duke Energy’s Lincoln Station supports solar and the path to net-zero.”

Duke Energy’s Lincoln Combustion Turbine Station is now certified with the Guinness World Records title for the “most powerful simple-cycle gas power plant.”

The plant, powered by a Siemens Energy SGT6-9000HL turbine, achieved an output of 410.9 MW during testing on Jan. 30.

Siemens Energy is currently testing the 60Hz SGT6-9000HL turbine at the Lincoln site, located near Denver, North Carolina. In April 2020, the company synched the unit to the grid for the first time.

Siemens Energy plans to turn the unit over to Duke Energy in 2024. It would become the most efficient simple-cycle combustion turbine in the utility’s fleet and 34% more efficient than the other turbines at the Lincoln site.

The SGT6-9000HL is based on four generations of technologies and five previous models, starting with the SGT-2000E in the 1980s. It is designed to run longer between maintenance cycles.

The HL-class’s engine architecture is composed of an air-cooled four-stage power turbine, hydraulic clearance optimization for higher efficiency at full load while facilitating immediate restart, a steel rotor design with Hirth serrations and a central single tie rod and a “can annular” combustion system, according to Siemens Energy.

The advanced can-annular combustion system with dual fuel capability allows for higher firing temperatures and more operational flexibility. Twenty-five premix burners improve the fuel/oxygen mixing, and the ACE combustion system allows for GT turn-down to 30 percent GT load.

The turbine has fast-responding capabilities, with a ramp up and down rate of about 85 MW per minute. This is an important quality when integrating with renewables.

Duke Energy started construction on its Lincoln expansion project in September 2018. The 16-unit power plant was selected because its 746-acre site allowed room for expansion.

AWS’s capabilities are expected to better enable MDR’s technology to collect and analyze large volumes of data to monitor for cyber threats.

Secure cloud capabilities that can integrate digital applications and leverage sensitive data – such as real-time monitoring and detection – add an important and cost-effective tool to the defensive arsenal for industrial security analysts, Siemens Energy said.

And, Jeff Miers, director of Partners and Alliances, Energy & Utilities Business Unit at AWS, said that cloud “is accelerating innovation across the energy value chain and a key enabler to more resilient energy infrastructure.” 

The Siemens software is an AI-driven cybersecurity monitoring and detection service for industrial operating technologies (OT). As designed, MDR creates and monitors a data stream. It then uses machine learning to learn and monitor the relationships between variables in clients’ OT workflows, flagging anomalies for human analysts. A rules-based engine is intended to enable MDR to prioritize the most consequential alerts and focus human attention where it is needed. 

MDR is built on the Eos.ii plaform and is intended to be vendor-agnostic, standardizing inputs from multiple machine languages.

In operation, analysts can refer to site architecture – both the digital network, and the 3-D relationships between physical equipment – or can examine the operating history of a particular device, its operating parameters, and any threats known to affect its specific make and model.

MDR incorporates threat intelligence feeds and information needed to evaluate if newly identified threats affect defended systems. Its design also is intended to detect novel attacks on OT and prioritize alerts based on anticipated consequences. 

Siemens said that MDR monitoring and detection also can help identify some maintenance issues.

More information is available here.