Enel’s Fusina hydrogen-fed power generation
plant
M. Balestri*, G. Benelli*, F. Donatini*, F. Arlati ** , G.Conti**
* Enel GEM/AT Ricerca, Via A.Pisano 120 56100 Pisa, (Italy)
** ENEL GEM/SRI, Milano, (Italy)
Abstract -- The project foresees the erection of a 12 MWe
hydrogen-fed gas turbine cycle able to couple high efficiency
fuel utilization with low nitrogen-oxide emissions. The
project will be put into practice at Enel’s coal-fired Fusina
power plant.
The aim of a first demonstrative phase is to verify the
correct operation of the gas turbine with pure hydrogen as
fuel and to acquire know-how of hydrogen combustion,
safety aspects and control technologies in gas cycles. In a
second phase of the program, the goal will be to optimize the
combustion technology, paying particular attention to NOx
emissions.
At this stage the final design of the plant has been
completed, the public and statutory permission for
construction has been obtained and the gas turbine has been
chosen and ordered. This paper will present the final design
of the plant as well as the on-going development program
for the design and testing of the low NOx hydrogen-fed
combustion chamber.
Index Terms — Hydrogen, hydrogen cycle, hydrogen
turbine, power generation
I. NOMENCLATURE
GE: General Electric Nuovo Pignone (FI)
CREAR: Centro Ricerca Energie Alternative e
Rinnovabili (University of Florence)
CPR: Consorzio Pisa Ricerche
DIMSET: Dipartimento di Macchine Sistemi Energetici
e Trasporti (University of Genova)
DIM: Dipartimento di Ingegneria Meccanica
(University of Padova)
DIMS: Dipartimento di Ingegneria Meccanica e
Strutturale Laboratorio di Ingegneria
(University of Trento)
IRC-CNR: Istituto di Ricerche sulla Combustione del
CNR (Napoli)
CFD: Computational Fluid Dynamics
HRSG: Heat Recovery Steam Generator
LHV: Low Heat Value
II. INTRODUCTION
In industrialized countries, many people think that the
future of energy lies in a hydrogen economy since it
offers a better quality of life for those living in large cities
and could be a force towards achieving sustainable
growth.
The use of hydrogen fuel cells in the future for transport
and distributed generation is generally accepted to be a
way of decreasing pollution inside city centres and
positive for the people who live there.
1-4244-0632-3/07/$20.00 ©2007 IEEE.
There is in fact a wide social acceptability in the public
opinion for hydrogen economy for the following main
reasons:
• When used, hydrogen generates water as the main
by-product and not CO2, which is generally
considered the cause of the greenhouse effect
• It’s generally considered a “zero emissions” clean
fuel if used with fuel cells
• Its typical use will be transport and stationary
generation in urban centres to ecologically generate
electric power and heat on a small scale
• In energy conversion, hydrogen, unlike electricity,
can be considered “intermediate in time” because it
“stores” the energy spent generating it and can, in
turn, be stored; in essence, it functions like a battery
and could be a strategic asset for the energy market
for storing the excess energy produced overnight in
base coal or nuclear power plants or energy
produced by renewable sources that is discontinuous
in time
• Hydrogen, like electricity, can be considered
“intermediate in space” because it carries energy
anywhere, for use in a distributed way
• It is generally also considered “intermediate in
process”, encouraging the diversification of energy
fonts because it can be produced by both fossil and
renewable sources through several different
processes and even by many small-size units
distributed across the territory
For these reasons, hydrogen is almost unanimously
considered the strategic clean energy carrier of the future
that will coexist with electric energy and natural gas;
more and more research is focusing on technologies
enabling its use in every possible field, and the main
industrialized countries (USA, Japan, EU and Canada)
have financed large research and development programs
to sustain the start of the hydrogen economy.
The main problem is how to economically produce the
necessary hydrogen for distributed uses without
increasing environmental pollution and CO2 emissions.
Possible future means of production are through:
1) chemical processes (reforming or coal gasification
or others) starting from fossil fuels in large
advanced centralized plants with CO2 sequestration
2) advanced electrolysis processes, but only if the
necessary electricity is produced in a clean way
(zero emission plants if possible) and limiting CO2
emissions (e.g. with renewable sources, nuclear
source, fossil sources with CO2 sequestration)
456
This will probably be the long term future for energy, but
it is very difficult to arrive at this hypothetical scenario
directly mid term due to the large number of technical
and economic difficulties and barriers. In order to get
there, an intermediate period will be necessary in which
all processes and technologies aimed at increasing
production and use of hydrogen and the diffusion of its
transfer network must be accepted, encouraged and
economically sustained to start up this new economy,
which is also a long way from the real start up point.
As far as power generation is concerned, fuel cells seem
to be the best choice, as they couple the highest
conversion efficiencies with no pollutant emissions, but
their massive use can only be expected in the medium to
long-term future and they will probably only be used for
distributed and small scale power generation. On the
contrary, the future technological frontier for large scale
power generation appears to be coal gasification
integrated with advanced combined cycles including CO2
separation and hydrogen production; both the FuturGen
project in the USA (275 MW of equivalent power) and
the RWE project in Germany are moving in this
direction.
III. THE STRATEGIC MOTIVATIONS OF ENEL ABOUT
HYDROGEN
All energy dealers recognise the great importance of
renewable resources for the future and Enel intends to be
a leading energy company that strongly cares about
environmental problems with its 2007-2011 programme
for “Research, Innovation and Renewable Resources”.
In December 2006 Enel launched a large investment
project that shows its real commitment towards research,
technological innovation and development of renewable
resources.
Enel’s mission statement is “Not changing the world”,
which emphasises its strategic vision to reinforce its
attention towards protecting the environment.
The size of the investment shows that this is a concrete
commitment, which has few paragons throughout the
world.
For this reason, Enel will be developing a large
investment programme over the next five years (2007-
2011) for over four billion euros. The majority of this
(3.3 billion euros) will be destined to developing
renewable sources, building new plants to provide a total
of about 1700 MW, to which about 800 million euros are
to be added for investments in highly innovative new
projects.
This plan will avoid the production of over four million
tones of CO2 emissions a year.
To reach this scope, Enel is committed in three main
areas:
x renewable sources
x energy efficiency and distributed generation
x “zero emissions” and hydrogen frontier
ENEL’s investments planned in this third area are for
about 330 million euros assigned to research activities
and demonstrative innovative plants in the following
fields:
457
x innovative combustion systems
x CO2 capture and sequestration
x hydrogen
Starting from these general motivations, ENEL, being
one of the main European electric energy and gas
operators and having a long-term strategic view, has
decided to take an active part in hydrogen research and is
working on a program dealing with both hydrogen
production and utilisation, thus contributing towards
starting the transition to the new hydrogen economy, and
it intends to lead this transition in Italy using its Research
Department.
Since ENEL’s core business is the production of electric
energy, ENEL Research has given priority to the use of
hydrogen for medium size power generation, but it also
deals with hydrogen production through coal gasification,
hydrogen storage, fuel cells and hydrogen-natural gas
mixture for transport.
When ENEL started to work on a hydrogen-fed power
generation plant in 2005, there were also short-term
economic incentives for the company to begin. At that
time, by considering hydrogen to be a renewable source
of energy, Italian regulations made incentives available
for hydrogen power generation by providing utilities with
a form of Green Certificate. This fact would in practice
have allowed the energy producer to almost triple its
hydrogen-made electricity sale proceeds compared to
profits made from fossil fuels, but this advantage has
been recently cancelled and at the moment, without any
economic help, hydrogen generation power plants are still
not economically profitable. In spite of this not
insignificant change in economic circumstances, Enel has
decided to go on with its hydrogen project, demonstrating
its real long-term strategic interest in this new energy
carrier.
The medium-period goals of the Enel hydrogen project
are:
x To acquire direct know-how of hydrogen
combustion and NOx emission control
technologies in gas cycles (technological
feasibility, efficiency, long-term reliability,
availability)
x To start acquiring know-how about all other
aspects concerning hydrogen as a possible energy
carrier in the future, used either pure or mixed
with methane (safety, landing, transport, storage,
etc.)
x Already having coal logistic infrastructures in its
power plants, to evaluate the opportunity in the
medium term to extract hydrogen from coal in an
ecological and economical way with a
simultaneous production of electric energy
through IGCC systems in innovatively designed
thermal power plants with CO2 separation
x To evaluate opportunities in the long term to use
innovative hydrogen cycles with high efficiency
and zero emissions
 IV. HYDROGEN PARK
An interesting opportunity for a real demonstration of
hydrogen-fed power generation technology presented
itself in Veneto about 3 years ago.
The petrochemical plants of the Marghera industrial area
near Venice produce a significant amount of hydrogen at
acceptable costs as a by-product from other existing
processes and most of this hydrogen is only used to
produce process heat. This can be easily replaced by
natural gas, and so hydrogen could be made available to
be used in a more innovative and efficient way in order to
start up new frontier technological applications.
In this industrial context, with the aim of promoting the
development and application of hydrogen technologies in
the transport and stationary generation sectors, a new
consortium, named Hydrogen Park, was founded in 2003
at this site in Venice, joining the forces of both private
companies (Sapio, Berengo, SAE Impianti, Unindustria
Venezia, EVC Italia, etc.) and public companies (Vega,
Venezia Tecnologie). ENEL, with its interest in hydrogen
technology applications and with two important coal fired
power plants on this site (Fusina and Marghera), saw the
possibility of playing a concrete role in this field and
decided to enter the consortium at the beginning of 2004.
A new associated company was constituted in April 2005
from the transformation of the Hydrogen Park
consortium, keeping the same name and aim, and under
Enel control (51% stake).
This associated company has the potential to really drive
the expansion of the largest experimental park in Italy to
create a full-scale hydrogen-based economy in the
following years by performing both research and
experimental activities and new applied technologies,
providing opportunities for the entire site.
In this context, ENEL is working on a large scale
program for the development and testing of advanced
hydrogen technologies.
As a first step of the program, ENEL decided to build a
medium-size hydrogen-fed demonstration plant for the
production of electric energy on the site of Enel Fusina
coal-fired power plant. It will be the first in the world in
terms of size and innovative technologies employed.
The Fusina hydrogen-fed generation power plant is
envisaged in the future to be a full scale experimental
research station, further new innovative components can
also be tested for use in hydrogen technology. All these
research activities will be carried out through a close
collaboration of the Enel Research Department with
Hydrogen Park.
V. BASIC PROCESS WITH CO-GENERATION
The initial idea of the project 1 was to design an
independent hydrogen-fed gas turbine-based co-
generative cycle, in which steam injection in the gas
turbine would be adopted to couple high process
efficiencies with very low nitrous oxide emissions. This
kind of plant would have been able to provide densely
1
References n° 9 and 10
458
populated areas with electricity and heat with very low
additional side effects to the environment.
As the project feasibility study progressed in Marghera,
practical difficulties were found in using the co-
generation heat for other civil or industrial uses so Enel
decided to adapt it to increase the efficiency of its coal
fired generation power plant at Fusina.
VI. THE PLANNED HYDROGEN DEMONSTRATION POWER
PLANT
The above mentioned hydrogen demonstration power
plant will consist of a 12 MWe hydrogen-fed gas turbine
cycle, closely integrated with the existing Fusina coal
power plant units and able to couple high efficiency fuel
utilisation with low nitrogen-oxide emissions.
Some critical aspects in the project have appeared since it
started:
x the hydrogen supply guaranteed by producers
x the development of critical innovative
components
x the engineering phase of the different innovative
aspects together with the gas turbine maker
towards reaching the stage of erecting and
commissioning an industrial demonstrative plant
x the economic aspects for long term operation in
the absence of public support.
VII. THE FUEL
The presence at the Marghera/Fusina site of such a
complex industrial area with several chemical plants
producing hydrogen as a by-product, combined with the
presence of large generation power plants has provided
an important technical and economical opportunity that
has driven the installation of innovative hydrogen-fed
plants.
The hydrogen required to feed the new turbine will be
supplied by the chemical plants operating close to the
power production site.
The short distance between the Enel Fusina coal power
plant and the hydrogen producers means the hydrogen
can be carried by simply crossing a channel using an
existing industrial bridge; the relative positions of the
facilities are shown in Figure 1. The purple line shows the
boundary of the Enel coal power plant. The yellow line is
the hydrogen pipeline. Possible close hydrogen producers
are indicated in red.

Fig. 1. A view of the area
At the moment, Enel has already placed a contract to
obtain hydrogen from Polimeri Europa and business
negotiations are underway with other producers to
increase the amount of hydrogen available for the project.
VIII. UPGRADING SESTA STATION FOR COMBUSTION
EXPERIMENTAL TESTS
The development of innovative components such as
hydrogen-fed gas turbine combustors will make heavy
demands on full-scale hydrogen combustion tests.
The chosen solution has therefore been to upgrade the
capabilities of Enel’s Sesta experimental station in
Tuscany, which has been utilized for many years for full-
scale combustion tests by all the main gas turbine makers
throughout the world (Siemens, GE, Ansaldo, MHI).
Enel was able to perform syngas and pure hydrogen tests
here in the past, but the best performances obtained were
not sufficient for the new needs of full scale plants.
The necessary new investments have just been made and
the Sesta feed system upgrading was completed in
February 2007, making it now available for use both for
Enel’s hydrogen project and, in the future, for other
customers’ tests.
The Sesta facility is now able to perform the necessary
full scale tests, firing both pure hydrogen and gas
mixtures up to 0.36 kg/s at 20 bara thanks to the following
upgradings:
x Hydrogen storage capacity: has been increased from
2 to 4 bottle track bunkers, reaching a total storage of
18000 Nm3 (4500 Nm3 at 200 bar for each bottle
track)
x Hydrogen mass flow: a new 4" feed line in AISI 304L
ANSI 600 has been installed, increasing the total
hydrogen mass flow up to 0.360 kg/s at 20 bara
x Natural gas storage: a new bottle track bunker has
already been installed and monitored, increasing the
total number of available bottle tracks from 4 to 5.
x Steam mass flow and pressure: the steam feed plant
has been upgraded and a new 4" feed line in AISI 316
ANSI 1500 has been installed from the boiler to each
test cell (1&2), permitting a total steam mass flow of
459
10 t/h to be achieved for each test cell with minimal
pressure losses.
Fig. 2 shows a panoramic image of ENEL’s existing
facilities at Sesta, which are specifically dedicated to
testing different kinds of gas turbine combustion
chambers.2
Fig. 2. The gas turbine combustor test facilities at Sesta
Enel’s researchers have already gained direct experience
of hydrogen combustion with previous tests at Sesta and
Livorno as references show 3 and they will work in close
collaboration with the gas turbine maker.
Particular attention shall also be paid to safety aspects
due to the presence of the large amount of hydrogen.
IX. THE ENEL RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM
FOR A PURE HYDROGEN-FED GAS TURBINE
The whole programme foresees a close connection
between investment and research activities.
The joint outstanding research activity will be only
partially sustained by funds from the Italian Ministry of
the Environmental (MATT) and Veneto Region. The
amount available for the “zero-emission cycle
development with hydrogen combustion” research project
is a maximum of 2 980 000 euros at 50 % to be divided
between the Enel Research Department and the other
research partners involved (GE, CREAR, CPR, DIMSET,
DIMS, DIM , IRC). This funded research project started-
up in June 2006 and it has an expected duration of three
years.
Mathematical computer simulations and atmospheric tests
will be carried out by the Enel Research Department in
Pisa and Livorno respectively. The most promising
burner solutions will also be tested under pressure with
pure hydrogen in full scale burner tests planned at the
ENEL Sesta experimental station (Siena) starting from
next summer.
The research activities will be divided into the following
tasks:
x conceptual development
2
Reference n° 7
3
References n° 3, 4, 6 and 8
 x preliminary activity concerning advanced Marghera petrochemical plants. The gas turbine chosen
diagnostic instruments for monitoring was GE 10 by GE Oil & Gas N. Pignone, originally
components during the tests (such as a new designed to run on natural gas. This gas turbine is quite
innovative flame vision system able to see in simple and has only one vertical combustion chamber.
the ultraviolet and visible fields and guarantee The original gas turbine to be modified is shown in Fig.
on-line flame vision) 3.
x mathematical computer simulations (to be
performed by CREAR)
x fluid dynamic atmospheric tests (planned in
Enel’s laboratories in Livorno) and CFD
analysis (to be performed by Enel and CPR 4)
x hot tests at Enel’s laboratories in Sesta for
promising combustor chamber prototype
geometries
x integration studies of the new hydrogen
combustion system in the existing gas turbine
(mainly performed by the gas turbine maker GE
and also by DIMSET5 and DIM 6 )
x long term experimental tests and continuous
operation of the hydrogen-fed power generation
plant at Fusina (charged at Enel)
x development of a second phase version of the Fig. 3. The natural gas turbine GE10 to be modified 9
combustion system
x preliminary studies for new technology low NOx XI. PLANT CYCLE DESCRIPTION
hydrogen combustion system (prevalently
The complete plant design foresees two different
performed by Enel and also by DIMS 7, IRC 8
pipelines that carry the hydrogen to the plant; one is un-
and GE )
purified hydrogen at 27 barg and the other is pure
The first step of the program is to modify the existing
hydrogen at 5 barg. It is necessary to raise the pressure of
original natural gas burner and the combustion chamber
the pure hydrogen before mixing it with the other to
in order to run the original machine with pure hydrogen
obtain a final mixture entering the combustion chamber
with only minor modifications, limiting the NOx
with 97.5 % purity (percentage by volume).
emissions to 200 ppmv , which is the contractual value for
The hydrogen cycle will be closely integrated with the
the GE order. In any case, ENEL researchers are still
existing coal fired power station.
confident of reaching below 100 ppmv with only minor
A simplified scheme of the process is shown in Fig. 4.
modifications.
The second step is to develop a new burner that will
allow the hydrogen gas turbine to run with NOx emission H2

Electric output
values under 50 ppmv 11.44 M W e net from H2
In the medium term, the goal of the project is to arrive at
Comp. GasTurb. Gen.
a highly efficient hydrogen turbine with even lower NOx
Air 15°C
emission values (near zero emissions). Steam
Steam 340 °C 31 bar
Unit 4
320 M W e
w ith coal
In a long-term strategic view, this zero emission H2O

hydrogen burner could become a prototype of burners to Exhaust Increase of

be used by makers for future large hydrogen turbines. M ostly N2 e O2
H2O 140 °C gross thermal
cycle efficiency
H2O 53 °C from 45.25%
to 45.85%
41 °C H2O 33 °C in unit 4
X. THE HYDROGEN–FED GAS TURBINE
41 °C

The size of the gas turbine (about 12 MWe) was chosen Condensate recovery

according to the availability of hydrogen from the

Fig. 4. General scheme 10

4
CPR will be involved in CFD simulations of the diffusion The exhaust flue gas coming from the turbine exit is sent
combustion chamber using Fluent, a commercial modeling program to a heat recovery steam generator (HRSG) to produce
5
DIMSET will be mainly involved in heat exchange studies
concerning both the gas turbine blades (in the presence of high
steam. Part of this steam is re-used in the gas turbine
temperature fluids with high steam concentrations) and the heat combustion chamber with the aim of both minimizing the
recovery steam generator (where steam condensation is expected) NOx formation and increasing the efficiency of the cycle.
6
DIM will be mainly involved in computer simulations of the
combustion chamber thermoacustics
7 9
DIMS will be involved in studies of innovative new materials in Source: GE commercial brochure
10
the field of transpiration and effusion The 320 MW unit gross thermal cycle efficiency values reported
8
IRC will be involved in studies of catalytic combustion systems in the scheme are defined as the ratio between the electrical power
using pure hydrogen or hydrogen-natural gas mixture; new recently produced (measured at the output terminals of the main generator) and
developed materials will be studied. the thermal power adsorbed by the fluid in the boiler

460
The residual steam is sent to the coal fired power station, some (14 %) is re-injected at 140°C after the third low
thus contributing to an increase in the thermal efficiency pressure pre-heater and the remainder (5 %) is
of the plant. In the second part of the HRSG, the transformed into steam at 340 °C and mixed with the
condensate from the power station is heated-up before steam coming from the medium pressure turbine. There is
being re-sent to the plant. A considerable amount of heat also a residual amount (2 %) of water that enters the
is recovered from the wet gas thanks to the condensation combustion chamber of the hydrogen-fed gas turbine
of most of the water present, which will be re-injected which has to be re-integrated.
after treatment into the cycle of the nearby 320 MW coal
34 ata 538°C
fired power plant. Thanks to this integration, the 170 ata 538°C

hydrogen cycle will be able to produce up to 16 MW of 7,03 ata

electric power (about 12 MWe produced by the gas- Boiler

turbine and about 4 MWe as extra power produced by the

BP BP AP
existing power station burning the same amount of coal) MP

with a total gross thermal efficiency of about 43 %.

More details of the base full load case with air
temperature at 15°C are presented in Fig. 5. 11
Cond.

DEG AP
BP BP BP AP AP
P 1 2 3
1 2 3
0,36 kg/s
H2 97,51 %v 36,85 MWt
CH4 1,738 %v 101.823 kJ/kg
N2 0,628 %v 11.893 Nm3/h cvt
CO 0,124 %v 0,1095 kg/Nm3 Thermal efficiency 31,06 % P
PM 2,455
20 bar 70°C Heat rate at ISO condition 11.590 kJ/kWh
Steam/fuel mass ratio = 3,37
H2 Steam/air mass ratio = 2,64 %

16 bar 4,57 kg/s

417 °C CC Steam H2O H2O H2O Steam
84,3 kg/ s 66,5 kg/ s 12,0 kg/ s 4,6 kg/ s
11,445 MWe
30 bar 53°C 140°C 340°C
CO GT GE 33°C 27,5 bar 25 bar 31 bar
Steam
47,76 kg/s
30,2 bar N2 70,98 %v PM 27,39 25,0 bar
240°C 140°C
Air 1,22 kg/s O2 14,61 %v
H2O 13,37 %v H2O 12,01 kg/s
Ar 0,85 %v
1,09 kg/s CO2 0,19 %v 340°C 31 bar
15°C 17,8 kg/s 27,5 bar
46,18 kg/s
60% relative umidity
101,3 kPa
inlet pressure losses 100mmH2O
5,79 kg/s H2O 53°C
66,51 kg/s Fig. 6. The existing 320 MWe unit 4 in Fusina Enel power plant
N2 77,30 %v Exhaust
O2 20,74 %v 0,10 kg/s losses 1,57 kg/s Exhaust
H2O 1,01 %v 250 32,5 bar 45,76 kg/s 41°C
Ar 0,92 %v mmH2O 238°C 228°C
CO2 0,03 %v 4,8 bar N2 75,80 %v
O2 15,60 %v
PM 28,85

150°C
H2O
Ar
CO2
PM 28,03
7,50 %v
0,90 %v
0,20 %v In this case, there is an increase in Unit 4 gross thermal
H2O
35 bar
150°C
5,89 kg/s
472°C 442°C 248°C 210°C 85°C 41°C
H2O
cycle efficiency 13 from 45.25 % to 45.85 %.
0,13 kg/s 5,75 kg/s

1,99 kg/s 41 °C
33 °C
30 bar
84,31 kg/s
On the contrary, calculations have demonstrated that if
Auxiliary power: 482 kW
the coal feed remains the same, it is possible to obtain
Condensate
recovery about 4 MWe of extra power.
The complete plant design foresees similar connections to
Fig. 5. Detailed scheme coal-fed unit 2. The hydrogen turbine will be able to run
connected alternatively with either unit 4 or unit 2.
Referring to our old preliminary scheme12 that foresaw
operation with injected steam-to-air ratios of around 10 % XIII. PREDICTED PERFORMANCE
in weight, the amount of steam that can be injected in the The following Table I and Table II show the predicted
combustion chamber is limited by the characteristics of base performance of the plant.
the existing GE10 turbine and by real problems that still The efficiencies refer to the fuel LHV (Low Heat Value).
have to be solved (flame stability, surge margin,
mechanical resistance and heat transfer issues). An TABLE I
acceptable steam-to-air ratio value is below 3 % and this GE 10 NOMINAL PERFORMANCE WITH H2 AS FUEL
limits the efficiency of the thermodynamic cycle.
Electric power in H2 gas turbine 11.44 MWe

XII. INTEGRATION OF THE HYDROGEN GAS TURBINE

CYCLE WITH THE COAL FIRED UNIT Thermal efficiency just in the H2 gas turbine 31.1 %
The connections between the new 12 MWe hydrogen-fed
plant and the existing 320 MWe coal-fed plant are shown Thermal efficiency with integration with Unit 4 14 42,9 %
in Fig. 6.
The detailed balance shown refers to a case in which the
Heat use index with integration with Unit 4 97.8 %
amount of electric power generated by the existing unit 4
remains the same and the coal consumption decreases
thanks to the introduced heat. Part of the condensate from
the power station condenser (more than 300 t/h) is
heated-up. Most of this water (70 %) is re-injected at
53°C to the plant before the first low pressure pre-heater,

11 13
At the moment the amount of hydrogen already guaranteed by As defined before in the note
contract is only 5 000 Nm3/h, not enough to run the gas turbine at full 14
The thermal efficiency with integration with unit 4 is defined as
load; if this amount doesn’t increase it might be necessary to run the gas the ratio between the electrical power (produced in the hydrogen plant
turbine at a lower load or with a hydrogen-natural gas mixture plus the 320 MW plant extra power) and the hydrogen thermal power
12
References n° 9 e n° 10 burning the same amount of coal

461
 TABLE II The technical goals of this research project are in order of
EXISTING COAL-FIRED UNIT 4 PERFORMANCE WHEN INTEGRATED WITH
H2 GAS TURBINE
time:
• Hydrogen combustion technology development
Reduction in thermal input 10.11 together with the gas turbine maker, arriving at
from coal MWt an adaptation of the existing gas turbine to run
with both pure hydrogen and hydrogen-natural
Case 1 Reduction in coal 1.43 t/h gas mixtures
Running at the same consumption • Optimization of the integration between the
electric load existing power plant and the H2 cycle to utilize
(about 320 MWe) the available exhaust heat as much as possible
Reduction in CO2 emissions 3.43 t/h
• Second-phase optimization of a combustion
technology, paying particular attention to
Increase in thermal cycle 0.6 % emissions and efficiency
efficiency
• To test the cycle with long period tests.

Case 2 XVI. TIMING OF THE PROJECT

Burning the same amount Increase in electric load 4.37
of coal MWe During the second half of 2006, all ready component
orders were stopped by Enel, while they were waiting for
the definitive signing of the hydrogen supply contracts.
XIV. FINAL DESIGN OF THE HYDROGEN PLANT This problem has now been overcome. The entire plant
An overview of the future hydrogen plant in the existing investment and research program was definitively
Fusina power station is shown in Fig. 7. The 3D approved by the ENEL managing director in December
representation shows the relative positions of the main 2006.
components. The current situation is as follows:
The presence of three chimneys (bypass chimney, x basic plant design was completed in December
intermediate chimney and dry flue gas chimney) is 2005
motivated by the need for operation flexibility, research x the gas turbine was chosen and design order was
reasons and to have the possibility of running without any sent to GE in December 2005
integration with the existing coal power plant. x public and statutory consent for plant
construction was obtained in June 2006
x hydrogen supply contract with Polimeri Europa
was signed in February 2007
x basic design of pipelines for carrying hydrogen
to the Enel plant has been defined
A summarised schedule of the project is shown in Fig. 8
2007 2008 2009
Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4

Placing H2 supply contracts

Test hydrogen burner design and supplying
Hydrogen burner development tests
Detailed design
Placing contracts and procurement
Gas turbine supplying (GE) First synchronised

GVR supplying
Gas turbine assembling on site Nominal load
Fig. 7. Main components of the plant Construction (Civil works and assembling)
Preliminary Set-up (Natural Gas as fuel)
Final Set-up (Hydrogen as fuel)

XV. THE TECHNOLOGICAL INNOVATION Commercial operation and long-term tests

The main innovative aspects of the thermal cycle process IPC Notice to proceed to GE First firing TU

can be synthesized in the following points:

Fig.8. Timescale
• Pure hydrogen as base fuel 15
• Tests with hydrogen-natural gas mixtures with
ENEL hopes to have the first firing with hydrogen as fuel
different rates of hydrogen
by the end of May 2009.
• A great deal of steam injected in the combustion
chamber together with the hydrogen to reduce
XVII. CONCLUSIONS
emissions and increase efficiency
• A new burner configuration At Fusina (Venice), Enel will be able to run its hydrogen-
• Significant heat recovery from the gas turbine fed gas turbine with very low emissions and high
exhaust to increase efficiency, including efficiency. This concrete result will be obtained thanks to
condensation of the steam present in the exhaust the company’s strategic vision aimed at industrial
innovation and applied research in order to reduce
pollutant emissions from its plants and achieve
15
Worldwide there are as yet no gas turbines tested in a continuous sustainable growth.
operation with pure H2 as fuel

462
This demonstration project will be an important step in
the development of the hydrogen economy.
In the Venice area, furthermore, it may be possible to
create the largest hydrogen district in Italy, and ENEL is
fully involved in trying to reach this goal.
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