Hanwha Impact clinches order to turn gas turbine in Linden into mixed hydrogen combustion

By Lim Chang-won Posted : December 1, 2021, 17:12 Updated : December 1, 2021, 17:12

[Courtesy of Hanwha Impact]

SEOUL -- Hanwha Impact, a unit of South Korea's Hanwha Group, has clinched an order to turn a  gas turbine at a power plant in Linden, a city in New Jersey, into a mixed hydrogen combustion system that burns natural gas together with hydrogen to generate electricity and reduce carbon dioxide emissions.

Hanwha Impact, formerly known as Hanwha General Chemical, said in a statement on December 1 that it would convert a 172-megawatt natural gas turbine into hydrogen mixed hydrogen power generation in Linden by 2022. Along with a new nitrogen oxide treatment system, by-products generated at nearby oil refining facilities will be recycled as fuel to lower fuel costs and minimize pollutant emissions.

For the first time in the world, a hydrogen mixing rate of 40 percent will be applied to a gas turbine in service, Hanwha Impact said, adding that along with a triple fuel system using natural gas, by-product gas and ultra-low sulfur diesel oil will be applied in preparation for a power stoppage caused by hurricanes. If gas supply is stopped due to natural disasters, power generation is possible with liquid fuels.

To upgrade technologies, Hanwha Impact has acquired two gas turbine companies, Power Systems Mfg (PSM) and Ansaldo Thomassen (ATH), which are affiliates of Ansaldo Energia, an Italian power engineering company, and possess combustion technologies using the mix of natural gas and hydrogen. The company aims to reduce carbon dioxide by 100 percent by gradually replacing natural gas with hydrogen.

In March 2021, Hanwha Impact joined hands with Korea Western Power, a public power supplier, to develop and demonstrate mixed hydrogen combustion technologies. Korea Western Power provides an 80-megawatt gas turbine in Pyeongtaek, about 60 kilometers (37 miles) south of Seoul. Hanwha Impact aims to increase the hydrogen mixing rate of the gas turbine to 55 percent by the first quarter of 2023. 

Gas turbines have become one of the most widely-used power generating technologies because they reduce the emission of fine dust and other air pollutants. A South Korean government task force was launched in November to speed up the commercialization of technologies using hydrogen and ammonia for power generation. The government aims to commercialize mixed combustion technologies that burn more than 30 percent of hydrogen with natural gas by 2035. 

Doosan Heavy Industries & Construction is involved in a project to demonstrate a gas turbine using green hydrogen that can be produced through electrolysis, a process of passing an electrical current through an electrolyzer to split water and release only hydrogen and oxygen.
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