Dive Brief:

• The New York Power Authority on Friday announced it successfully mixed green hydrogen with natural gas and used the fuel to generate electricity with reduced emissions from a retrofitted General Electric combustion turbine. The demonstration project also involved the Electric Power Research Institute and Airgas, a subsidiary of French-based Air Liquide.
• NYPA experimented with fuel blends from 5% to 44% hydrogen, according to Sept. 15 report on the hydrogen cofiring project. 
• The state has mandated a zero-emission electricity sector by 2040, and low-carbon fuels “may be part of the solution,” said Steve Bellone, county executive for Suffolk County, where the project is located. “We are looking at all ways to decarbonize.”

Dive Insight:

There are turbines already capable of burning hydrogen, but the New York project is notable because officials say it is the first time an existing U.S. gas facility has been retrofitted to use the fuel.

The demonstration project, at the Brentwood Small Clean Power Plant on Long Island, “can help us as we make plans for our energy system to continue to meet the demand for electricity while we move toward net-zero emissions by 2050,” Bellone said.

With the Brentwood facility generating 47 MW, EPRI’s report shows carbon dioxide emission rates were reduced about 14% with a fuel blend containing 35% hydrogen. Hydrogen cofiring “was not performed during unit startup and shutdown operations,” the analysis notes.

“Engine control was stable throughout the duration of the test and combustion equipment was in good condition before, during and after the test,” NYPA said.

In addition to demonstrating that the fuel blend could generate electricity with lower carbon emissions, NYPA found that under certain conditions, other emissions, including nitrogen oxides, carbon monoxide and ammonia, “were maintained below regulatory operating permit limits” using the existing selective catalytic reduction and CO catalyst post-combustion control systems.

NYPA’s green hydrogen demonstration project and others like it “are vital to validate the important role that hydrogen can play in lowering carbon emissions from power generation while also providing reliable and affordable power,” said Eric Gray, president and CEO of GE Gas Power.