DEVELOPMENT OF A HYDROGEN-FUELED COMBUSTION TURBINE CYCLE FOR POWER-GENERATION

Consideration of a hydrogen based economy is attractive because it all ows energy to be transported and stored at high densities and then tra nsformed into useful work in pollution-free turbine or fuel cell conve rsion systems. Through its New Energy and Industrial Technology Develo pment Organization (NEDO) the Japanese government is sponsoring the Wo rld Energy Network ( WE-NET) Program. The program is a 28-year global effort to define and implement technologies needed for a hydrogen-base d energy system. A critical part of this effort is the development of a hydrogen-fueled combustion turbine system to efficiently convert the chemical energy stored in hydrogen to electricity when the hydrogen i s combusted with pure oxygen. The full-scale demonstration will be a g reenfield power plant located seaside. Hydrogen will be delivered to t he site as a cryogenic liquid, and its cryogenic energy will be used t o power an ail liquefaction unit to produce pure oxygen. To meet the N EDO plant thermal cycle requirement of a minimum of 70.9 percent, low heating value (LHV), a variety of possible cycle configurations and wo rking fluids have been investigated. This paper reports on the selecti on of the best cycle (a Rankine cycle), and the two levels of technolo gy needed to support a near-term plant and a long-term plant. The comb ustion of pure hydrogen with pure hydrogen with pure oxygen results on ly in steam, thereby allowing for a direct-fired Rankine steam cycle. A near-term plant would require only moderate development to support t he design of an advanced high pressure steam turbine and an advanced i ntermediate pressure steam turbine.