Gas turbines are found in aircraft, trains, ships, generators, pumps, compressors and all sorts of other places. They can run on a variety of fuels, but some 90 percent of them currently run on natural gas, a fossil fuel that produces carbon dioxide when you burn it, while also escaping into the atmosphere everywhere you pull it out of the ground, to create greenhouse conditions some 80 times worse than CO2 over a 20-year time frame.
In the race to zero emissions by 2050, gas turbines will need to adapt or die, and several organizations, including General Electric, have been looking into transitioning them to burn green hydrogen as a clean fuel source. GE has more than 100 turbines running on at least 5 percent hydrogen fuel by volume, and it says it's on the path to 100 percent.
Researchers at the University of Stavinger in Norway say they've beaten everyone to the punch, claiming that they've had a 100 percent hydrogen-burning gas turbine running since mid-May this year. The university runs its own micro gas power plant, and its gas turbine produces heat, electricity and hot water for hydronic heating.
"We have set a world record in hydrogen combustion in micro gas turbines. No one has been able to produce at this level before," says Professor Mohsen Assadi, leader of the research team. "The efficiency of running the gas turbine with hydrogen will be somewhat less. The big gain though, is to be able to utilize the infrastructure that already exists." The team's research not only focused on tuning the combustion chamber for hydrogen, but on adapting the fuel system and the existing natural gas infrastructure to handle this very different gas.
Eventually, these kinds of projects will lead to conversion kits that can keep old turbine equipment alive while moving it to zero-emissions fuel sources. But before these kinds of things become economically viable, the price of green hydrogen needs to come down substantially as carbon taxes are applied to cheaper fossil fuel solutions.
Source: University of Stavanger
Hans Joachim Pabst von Ohain (14 December 1911 – 13 March 1998) was a German physicist, engineer, and the designer of the first operational jet engine.[1] His first test unit ran on externally supplied hydrogen in March 1937, and it was a later development that powered the world's first flyable all-jet aircraft, the prototype of the Heinkel He 178 (He 178 V1) in late August 1939. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hans_von_Ohain
Imagine a future world w/ all kinds of hydrogen vehicles, tanker trucks, gas stations everywhere!
Are we seriously thinking that there will be never any accidents/leaks/ruptures/mishandling to trigger massive explosions?
Not to mention there is no need to use hydrogen for anything!
All light vehicles are already becoming electric & all heavy/big land/sea/air vehicles
(like trucks & trains & construction/mining/agriculture/military vehicles & ships & aircraft)
just need us to start producing biodiesel/biofuel at large scales from all possible industrial/agricultural/forestry waste/biomass & even trash & sewage!
@FB36 is probably a bot, it pastes the same incorrect text on every newatlas and physorg article about hydrogen.
Efficient solid-state capture, storage and capillary electrolysis have all been solved recently. It won't produce city smog like fossil and biofuels.
The energy for green hydrogen can come from renewables like solar, wind, tide, waves, hydro or even geothermal and nuclear.
Soon there will be tankers shipping clean hydrogen ( ie solid state or in liquid organic carrier oils) from places like Australia.
Gasoline and propane are more dangerous yet commonly used. Oil spills are terrible, time to phase out fossil fuels.
Neverminded all the other highly flammable fuels like gasoline, kerosene, diesel, natural gas, propane, LPG etc. what are they thinking?????
Hydrogen is actually safer since it is lighter than air & will float up and away if a tank leaks.