Optimal Design of Renewable Hydrogen Production for Gas Turbine Test Facilities

The growing attention to environmental issues has led to an increase in renewable source exploitation. These resources, in addition to their characteristic of zero emissions, can be employed where there is no connection to the electricity grid or to produce synthetic fuels (e.g. hydrogen or synthetic natural gas) via power-to-gas technologies. In the context of the ERA-Net Project ZEHTC (Zero Emission Hydrogen Turbine Center), the aim of this paper is the development of a design calculation model for the ZEHTC pilot plant, consisting in the first gas turbine test facility making use of the power produced during tests — along with renewables — for hydrogen production, integrated with batteries. The hydrogen is locally used — mixed with natural gas — to run the gas turbine, reducing its environmental impact. The developed code aims at maximizing the conversion of the renewable source into hydrogen and guaranteeing its availability for the planned tests. It includes physical-mathematical models for each component and has been used to perform a parametric analysis varying the main components size, thus estimating the total produced hydrogen. The main innovation of the ZEHTC micro-grid project consists in the use of a gas turbine — instead of a fuel cell — as system to reconvert the stored hydrogen.