Mitsubishi Power (MP), Georgia Power and the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) have successfully validated fuel blending of hydrogen and natural gas at both partial and full load on a natural gas turbine at Georgia Power’s Plant McDonough-Atkinson in Georgia, US.

The project is the first and largest to validate 20 per cent hydrogen fuel blending on an advanced class gas turbine globally.

Mitsubishi Power provided full turnkey service for this project including engineering, planning, hydrogen blending hardware, controls, commissioning and risk management.

The solution will be installed at Alexandria National Refining & Petrochemicals Company’s (ANRPC) refinery plant in Alexandria, which provides 30 per cent of Egypt’s gasoline supply for domestic consumption.

Mitsubishi Power will be responsible for the design, engineering, procurement, construction, and commissioning of fuel conversion solutions for the existing 100 tonne/hour boiler, enabling it to fire up to 100 per cent hydrogen by the end of 2023.

This includes the installation of state-of-the-art hydrogen burner technology and advanced control solution to ensure efficient and safe operations.

Dry low NOx (DLN) hydrogen blending was successful at up to 20 per cent at the designed 100 per cent natural gas firing temperature, within emissions compliance for the existing air permit, and without impact on the maintenance intervals.

The landmark testing is part of a continued commitment by Georgia Power to new research and development (R&D) to build the energy grid of the future and to reduce carbon emissions across its generation fleet, with Georgia Power having already reduced its carbon emissions by more than 60 per cent since 2007.

Mitsubishi Power completed the hydrogen blending on one M501G gas turbine unit with an approximate output of 265 MW by utilising some results of a project commissioned by the New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organisation (NEDO) of Japan.