Pre-Combustion Capture System Coupled With Hydrogen-Fueled Gas Turbines for Peaking Generation

Abstract

Hydrogen (H2) supply is widely recognized as a key hurdle to replacing natural gas (NG) in gas turbine (GT) power generation. This work analyses the full H2 chain in a carbon-free scenario, including production via steam-methane reforming (SMR) with CO2 capture and subsequent use in 100% H2-fired GT engines. A realistic peaking application with an electric request within 100 MW is considered, using two SIEMENS SGT-800 units in simple-cycle mode.

The novelty lies in the integrated assessment, coupling the thermodynamic behavior of the 2×GT system - required to follow a variable peak-load profile under changing ambient conditions - with detailed modelling of the upstream blue H2 production section. The reformer is simulated together with the amine CO2 capture units, exploiting full thermal integration. Both syngas-side and flue-gas-side capture are included, maximizing overall CO2 removal.

Results show that H2 adoption strongly influences system operation. The SMR runs at constant nominal load, while H2 storage accommodates daily GT variability. The daily energy balance indicates that the main efficiency loss stems from NG-to-H2 conversion, whereas adding 96% CO2 capture introduces only a limited extra penalty thanks to optimized heat integration. As a result, the daily efficiency of blue H2 (24.9%) remains close to that of gray H2 (27.2%), but still far from that of an equivalent NG-fueled GT (39%).