Preliminary Numerical Study of Methane-Hydrogen Co-Combustion Effects on Heavy-Duty Gas Turbines

The use of hydrogen as a fuel for gas turbines is certainly an opportunity to limit greenhouse gas emissions, despite the still not-negligible limitations related to materials and the management of combustion processes. This work aims at proposing a numerical model, developed by the Authors by means of the link between MatlabTM environment and Aspen HYSYSTM environment, able to evaluate the performance of commercial gas turbines with a set geometry in response to the co-combustion of CH4 and H2 for different fuel mixture compositions. The purpose of this study is therefore to propose a modelling approach to assess the use of hydrogen injection in the combustion chamber of commercial gas turbines, already in operation, as a short-term strategy for reducing carbon emissions. The preliminary results obtained by the simulation process show that the increase in the hydrogen content in the fuel mixture, up to a maximum of 62% by volume, corresponds to a slight decrease in the performance of the machine, in particular net electrical power and efficiency, of about 3%, but also to a reduction in CO2 emissions of more than 30%.