Mixing hydrogen with natural gas to form a bridge between today’s technology and a zero-carbon future has been a popular concept for some time. A demonstration project in the largest grid-connected, gas-fired engine to date reinforces the concept’s potential.

The project team ran a 20 MW engine at the Upper Michigan Energy Resource Corporation’s A.J. Mihm Generation Station on up to a quarter hydrogen with no safety issues and no detected leaks, Maxson said. Blending hydrogen into the engine’s fuel supply had negligible impacts on the engine’s performance. The hydrogen increased the plant’s efficiency by 1% when operating at half capacity thanks to the more complete combustion of the hydrogen compared to natural gas. However, the engine could only run at 95% capacity at 25% hydrogen fuel.

(…) Beyond the immediate implications for the performance of hydrogen-gas blends, the test also pointed to the potential use of engines — as opposed to the larger combustion turbines—in decarbonization strategies, Maxson said. Engines are more flexible than turbines and can ramp production up or down more quickly in response to variable load, he said. Some, including the model used in the test, can also accommodate either liquid or gaseous fuels. This could allow utilities or other power generators to store a hydrogen on-site in a liquid form, such as ammonia, for use in an engine as a source of backup power.

Maxson said EPRI is interested in conducting more field tests at larger power plants and with higher percentages of hydrogen fuel.

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