Kawasaki progresses with hydrogen technologies

Kawasaki has completed gas turbine DLE (Dry Low Emission) in the combustor technology where hydrogen volume reaches 40% by co-firing with natural gas.

Applying this technology to the DLE combustor of its gas turbine currently in operation will greatly contribute to the realisation of carbon neutrality by utilising hydrogen energy while effectively using existing equipment.

Hydrogen has a higher combustion speed and higher combustion temperature than natural gas, so there were technical issues such as increased NOx emissions and overheating of burner parts, especially in dilute premixed combustion in the main burner.

Meanwhile, Kawasaki Heavy Industries has installed a cogeneration facility for by-product hydrogen co-firing using the 30 MW class purely domestic high-efficiency gas turbine ‘L30A’ developed in-house at Seibu Oil Co., Ltd. Yamaguchi Refinery. Kawasaki has specialised in small and medium-sized gas turbines of 1 to 30 MW class, has already succeeded in a demonstration test of a hydrogen-only combustion gas turbine that uses hydrogen as 100 % fuel.

Moreover, Kawasaki Heavy Industries has also acquired the class of the world’s first liquefied hydrogen carrier Suiso Frontia built by the Company from the Nippon Kaiji Kyokai. Suiso Frontia is a tank for liquefied hydrogen that has achieved high heat retention performance by its heat insulation technology for liquefied hydrogen, whose volume has been reduced to 1/800 by cooling gaseous hydrogen to minus 253 C.