Session: 04-20 Combustor Design II

Paper Number: 123364

123364 - SGT5-4000F Hydrogen Capability – High Pressure Combustion Rig Tests Part II 

Gas turbines with their grid stabilization capabilities will play an important role in the future energy mix with a growing but volatile share of renewable energy sources. With more than 350 units in operation and ~20Mio accumulated operating hours, the Siemens Energy heavy duty gas turbine SGT5-4000F constitutes one of the largest heavy duty gas turbine fleets in the world. Since its introduction in 1997, several evolutionary steps enhanced the engine performance and allowed to meet increasingly challenging NO_x and CO emission requirements and operational flexibility demands. With increasing CO2 certificate prices and the challenging path to a carbon-neutral future, the development focus now turns towards minimizing the CO2-footprint of both the installed fleet and new units.

In addition to further efficiency enhancements, the transformation of fuel gas from pure natural gas to mixtures of hydrogen and natural gas is an obvious path to achieve the desired CO2-reduction. Likely scenarios foresee hydrogen contents in the fuel gas of up to 30%vol in the near future and mid-term operation in the range of 30%vol to >50%vol H2. This appears to be feasible with the existing SGT5-4000F combustion architecture.

Building upon previous, promising results, further combustion tests with hydrogen mixtures with varying H2 content have been performed at the Siemens Energy Clean Energy center (CEC) under realistic thermodynamic boundary conditions in a single burner high pressure test rig. Robust hydrogen combustion limits for the real-world engine application were established by forced flashback tests, substantiating the potential of SGT5-4000F operation at elevated H₂ content without significant burner hardware changes. A flashback stability map was derived based on the test data and theoretical considerations[GP1] , defining potential operation regimes with respecting risk of flashback for the SGT5-4000F. Complementary ignition tests at ambient pressure assessed the engines start capability on hydrogen mixtures, indicating that reliable ignition at high H₂ content is feasible if the ignition conditions are carefully chosen to avoid flame stabilization in the pilot burner. Finally, first engine experience with up to 15%vol H₂ enables improved understanding of the transferability of the test data to engine conditions.

This paper provides an overview of the test results and theoretical considerations of hydrogen capability of the SGT5-4000F fleet.

Presenting Author: Lutz Blätte Siemens Energy

Presenting Author Biography: .

Authors:

Lutz Blätte Siemens Energy
Dominik Goeb Siemens Energy
Pascal Gruhlke Siemens Energy
Bernd Prade Siemens Energy
Kai-Uwe Schildmacher Siemens Energy
Holger Streb Siemens Energy
Daniel Vogtmann Siemens Energy