Powerplant cost per kw - hydrogen power generation

[danyduclos]

Hi,

I am working on a feasability study for a client who has hydrogen as a by-product of his process.

What he would like to do is use the hydrogen to generate electricity, wich would likely be in the 2000 kW range.
Now, i would require the cost per kW of different kind of powerplant he could use (up to now, i figured a gas turbine and a steam turbine as possibilities, there may be others feel free to enlighten me)

Thanks in advance!

Regards,

 

[waross]

Several manufactures build natural gas powered internal combustion engines with or without gensets. They could probably be configured for hydrogen. You may need several sets but that is quite doable.
Try Cat or John Deere. Google is your friend.

Bill
--------------------
"Why not the best?"
Jimmy Carter

 

[ccfowler]

Hydrogen is the fuel of choice for fuel cells. It would seem wasteful and troublesome to use it in anything else.

 

[dcasto]

first off, there are no ICE engines that can burn pure H2. Boilers can be designed to burn H2 at great epence. H2 is worth more in the hydro treating process than being used to make electrical power.

 

[cranky108]

I must parden to differ. FORD did make a demo model ICE engine that would burn H2. (I don't know why that's important).

Another use for H2, is to combine with N2, to make NH4.

 

[danyduclos]

Thanks all for your answers,

The thing with this is that since hydrogen is a reject of the process of my client, it is worth exploring options to use it for something.

We contacted several fuel cell manufacturer already and they were not interested so this way of doing things was not available.

The ICE idea was looked for too, no manufacturer would commit to it.

That gives you and idea why we are looking at turbines and/or boilers.

 

[ScottyUK]

If it is hydrogen of a reasonable purity and volume would one of the gas suppliers like (e.g.) Air Products, Linde or BOC be interested in taking it from you?


----------------------------------

If we learn from our mistakes I'm getting a great education!

 

[brlewis]

You could burn H2 directly in a gas turbine if you could find a GT manufacture who would design the combustor for you. H2 gas has a lower heat value of just over 300 btu/scf. GE has large GT's with combustor designs that will work down to 135 btu/scf.
How much H2 gas do you have?

 

[FOURe]

I would like to say that hydrogen as the fuel has many good potential benefits over other fuels, but the commercialization of hydrogen fueled power generation technologies is not an easy task no matter how you look at hydrogen as the fuel and/or being an energy carrier ...

http://www.engineering-4e.com

 

[danyduclos]

The project has been put on hold due to the global economy, but just for the record your inputs have been much appreciated and i got a few contacts of gas turbine manufacturers that were interested in the project.

 

[jraef]

We contacted several fuel cell manufacturer already and they were not interested so this way of doing things was not available.

Did you try to contact Bloom Energy in Sunnyvale CA? They have some working Fuel Cells available that seem to go to great pains to extract H2 from natural gas, seems to be a no-brainer to use some that is already available.


"If I had eight hours to chop down a tree, I'd spend six sharpening my axe." -- Abraham Lincoln
For the best use of Eng-Tips, please click here -> faq731-376

 

[dcasto]

The FORD ICE engine was purely a demo project in the 1980's. Southwest reasearch in SA, Texas has done some work on an H2 ICE engine. The difficulty is in the engine timing and the cams. From my readings, the issues are all over H2's extremely fast burn rate. If the intake valve is not closed properly, you'll get backfiring and some bad results.