Episode 82 | Fuel Flexibility | GE
Natural gas makes up the largest single installed electrical generation source in the country, and the majority of that generation comes in the form of combustion (gas) turbines.
You'll notice I said natural gas generation is largest by installed capacity. That means many gas assets only come on to serve peak loading. As more renewable intermittent sources come online, this becomes more important for utilities to rely on generation sources like combustion turbines, which can create a lot of power quickly.
GE installed the first electrical combustion turbine in 1949. Jeffrey Goldmeer, my guest, is Director of Gas Turbine, Combustion, and Fuel Solutions for the company. I first met him at PowerGen in New Orleans last year, where he was my session chair. He described his job as developing any solution for combustion turbines that did not involve natural gas.
"Gas turbines are able to run on a whole lot of fuels beyond what we consider natural gas or LNG," he says, "and they've been doing it for decades in all sorts of power plants." Jeffrey says today about 400 GE combustion turbines run on these alternative fuels.
The most obvious option, he says, is to make use of industrial gases that are often flared off. "If it's a hydrocarbon, we most likely can burn it," he says.
Oilfields are another opportunity to reduce flares and make energy. He cites a project in Africa to produce about 25 MW from isopentane. We also discuss an aeroderivative turbine technology that can be mobilized in about 2 days for oilfields and disaster zones.
Much of our conversation focused on hydrogen, where GE is placing a lot of emphasis.
He cites the differences between Blue Hydrogen (produced from natural gas and decarbonized), and Green Hydrogen (produced from renewable electric generation). Blue Hydrogen, he says makes sense if the goal is to produce carbon-free energy.
Jeffrey says the key to a hydrogen economy consists of three factors:
- Technology—Fundamentals all exist. GE even have a turbine that has run on hydrogen for many years.
- Infrastructure—Requires significantly more than today. Would include transportation, volumes, and storage.
- Economics—Blue Hydrogen is about $20 MMBtu, Green Hydrogen - $50 MMBtu, whereas natural gas is about $2.50 MMBtu
The other issue is intermittency of hydrogen itself, especially if you are depending on renewable energy only during periods of surplus. In this case, hydrogen supply itself becomes intermittent. He also cites that a smaller 44 MW gas turbine would still consume about 40 mcf of hydrogen per day to operate.
"The infrastructure is doable with the right investment," he says. "The technology is there. It's now about the economics."
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