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GREENING
OF GAS

OEMS PREPARE FOR A WHERE RENEWABLE GAS

HYDROGEN FUTURE CAN BE A GAMECHANGER

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In this edition
78 Global Buzz: Our top reads from around the world
80 Future-proofing gas power
82 What next for natural gas?
84 Shipshape power
86 Why compromised filters mean compromised gas turbines
88 Solar: A fine balancing act
90 Turning coal plants into storage assets
Let’s talk about gas
I
f the future of energy is
decarbonised and largely
electrified, where does that
leave gas?
Isolated and yesterday’s fuel
source? Or the bridging fuel that
enables a green future?
The answer is the latter, of course,
and it’s a reality that the energy
sector has come to accept and
adopt in recent years as it takes a
holistic, collaborative approach to
achieving climate goals.
This issue of PEi examines various
aspects of the gas sector. We
look at renewable natural gas:
what it means, how we get it and
what we do with it. Its potential
is significant, particularly for
sectors such as industrial and
manufacturing which are a major
contributor to carbon emissions.
Yet there are barriers concerning
SMART ENERGY INTERNATIONAL ISSUE – 2 | 2021
84
both innovation and investment.
We highlight how these can be
overcome.
The buzz around hydrogen has
created a lifeline for the power
generation assets of gas turbine
and engine manufacturers. How
are they responding? We check
out some of the prime movers in
this space, including those that
are future-proofing themselves
via acquisitions of fuel cell
companies.
Yet let’s not forget that gas
turbine plants remain the
backbone of today’s energy
sector in countries around the
world, and their operators are
still striving for even the smallest
percentage efficiency increase. So
in this issue we also examine the
ever-important issue that filtration
plays in delivering optimal
performance.
82
86
Elsewhere, we take a deep dive
into an innovative technology
that presents the possibility of
repurposing coal-fired plants for
energy storage; delve into some
of the projects that are bringing
solar power to emerging markets;
and profile a company delivering
electricity ship-to-shore by utilising
floating power plant vessels.
I, and the rest of the PEi editorial
team, hope you enjoy this issue.
Kelvin Ross
Editor, Power
Engineering
International
77
POWER ENGINEERING INTERNATIONAL

Global Buzz:
Our top reads from
around the world
Take a trip around the world and discover our
most popular stories.
USA
Biden Administration approves
800MW Vineyard offshore wind
farm
The Vineyard Wind project has passed
the final step in the federal review
process and is set to be the first
commercial scale offshore wind farm
in the US.
EUROPE
Hydrogen production is a ‘climate
killer’ says Enel boss
The production of hydrogen today is
a “climate killer”, according to Carlo
Zorzoli of Enel Green Power. He said
some “98% of it is produced from
steam reforming and gasification. Just
2% is produced from electrolysis”.
Zorzoli stressed “electrification is by
far the cheapest and simplest way
to decarbonise our economies”, but
acknowledged that “of course you
cannot electrify everything. There is
a need to complement electrification
– and green hydrogen is definitely
a complement. We need to focus on
making green hydrogen cheaper”.
EUROPE
Green hydrogen to be produced
at Swiss hydropower plant
Swiss energy supply and trading
company Axpo plans to produce green
hydrogen for transport by building a
production facility at its 43MW Eglisau-
Glattfelden hydropower plant on the
Rhine River in Switzerland. Scheduled
to go onstream in autumn 2022, the
2.5MW hydrogen production facility is
intended to produce about 350 tonnes
of green hydrogen annually.

Since 2017, it has been through an

unprecedented public review process
that generated over 30,000 comments,
90% of which supported the project.

The wind farm will deploy GE’s

Haliade-X turbine, which has a
13MW capacity, allowing for fewer
turbines needed to deliver 800MW to
Massachusetts.
Image: Iuliia Kvasha © 123RF.com

78 SMART ENERGY INTERNATIONAL ISSUE – 2 | 2021

 POWER ENGINEERING INTERNATIONAL

UNITED ARAB EMIRATES

Meet the women engineers behind
Barakah nuclear plant
According to Hend Al Zeyoudi, reactor
operator at Nawah Energy Company,
after more than seven years’ study,
2000 hours of hands-on training at an
operational nuclear plant, and more
than 800 hours training in a state-of-
the-art simulator, the generation of
the first megawatts at Barakah was a
culmination of an incredible journey for
Al Zeyoudi and her colleagues, including CHINA
Laila Al Dhaheri, Saif Al Ketbi, and Latest development on China’s
Esmaeel Al Yousefi. largest battery energy storage
project
Finnish energy and environmental
technology company Olion has been
selected by Dalian Henliu Energy
Storage Power Station Company Ltd
to provide heat pumps for a battery
energy storage farm in Dalian, North-
eastern China. The heat pumps will
be used to cool the batteries being
installed at what is claimed to be the
largest battery energy storage farm
in China and one of the largest in the
world.

PHILIPPINES
Philippines to host South East
Asia’s first floating energy
storage solution
The Philippines is set to host South
East Asia’s first floating energy storage
solution following the signing of a
partnership deal between technology
firm Wärtsilä and utility Therma Marine
Inc. The 54MW/32MWh solution will
provide flexibility for Therma Marine
Image: Iuliia Kvasha © 123RF.com

in their ancillary service contract with

the National Grid Corporation of the
Philippines. This information was up to date at the
time this magazine went to print.

For your daily dose of industry news,

visit: www.powerengineeringint.com

SMART ENERGY INTERNATIONAL ISSUE – 2 | 2021 79

POWER ENGINEERING INTERNATIONAL
Future-proofing gas power
Dina Darshini discusses how gas-based technology developers are
embracing the potential of hydrogen.
A
s the energy sector transitions
to a more carbon-neutral and
flexible system of interconnected
distributed energy solutions,
what role will gas play in the future?
Indeed, will it have a role? Do technology
developers who have built their entire or
a significant portion of their generating
product portfolio around gas need to
weigh their future options carefully, lest
they encounter lack of market demand
and stranded asset prospects.
Already examples abound of industry
players taking steps to hedge against
such a reality.
Siemens Energy has announced its
roadmap to strengthen the hydrogen
capability across its gas turbine models
(ranging from 4MW to 500+MW) to at
least 20% by 2020, and 100% by 2030.
Like many other gas turbine OEMs, the
company has placed its bets on hydrogen
as a lifeline for gas-based power
generation assets as the world shifts away
from fossil fuels and stricter emission
regulations come into force.
Wärtsilä, a major reciprocating engine
player, is allocating R&D efforts into
developing the combustion process in
its gas engines to enable them to burn
80
100% hydrogen fuel, as well as explore
other renewable fuels. Wärtsilä engines
are already capable of combusting 100%
synthetic carbon-neutral methane and
methanol.
In 2013, MAN Energy Solutions
commissioned a methanation reactor
to produce syngas for a power-to-gas
plant on a 6MW scale for Audi AG, a
car manufacturer. Since then, MAN has
offered turnkey offerings around power-
to-X technologies.
MAN has also recently acquired H-TEC
Systems, an electrolysis technology
company, and aims to cover all processing
steps of the hydrogen economy under the
umbrella of MAN Energy Solutions.
INNIO, a provider of established
Jenbacher and Waukesha reciprocating
engines, is a new entity – carved out of
GE with the purchase of GE’s distributed
power business by Advent International.
INNIO has developed a new 1MW engine
which can run with a mix of natural gas
and hydrogen, up to 100% hydrogen.
The engine has now passed all tests to be
commercialised, with its first pilot installation
in Hamburg commissioned in 2020.
Cummins, a major player in power,
has recently acquired a fuel cell and
SMART ENERGY INTERNATIONAL ISSUE – 2 | 2021
In the short
term, we expect
hydrogen in
various forms to
still play a part
in establishing
large-scale
hydrogen
production and
demonstrate the
decarbonisation
of several
Image: Siemens Energy
sectors.
hydrogen production technologies provider
Hydrogenics Corporation.
Cummins has outlined its plans to generate
electrolyser revenues of at least $400
million in 2025. Investments have also
been poured into developing hydrogen-
ready products. For example, Cummins
received $3 million in funding in 2020
from the US Department of Energy for R&D
in their C&I scale fuel cells.
Why hydrogen? And what type?
Operational small or mid-sized power plants
running on high hydrogen content gaseous
fuels is not uncommon. These include coke
oven gas, byproduct gases from chemical
processes, or renewable sources like wood
gasification in syngas.
But it is a specific type of hydrogen that has
got industry talking: green hydrogen. ‘Clean’
hydrogen is labelled either blue or green
depending on the process used to produce it;
green H2 is produced by electrolysis of water
using renewable electricity, while blue H2 is

Diversifying vs. betting entirely on hydrogen. Different industry players will have different strategies.
We provide four examples above, but there will be many other future routes market players could
take.
natural gas derived and relies on the coupling
of steam methane reforming (SMR) and carbon
capture and storage (CCS).
There’s also grey H2 which is similar to blue
H2, but the CO2 is not captured and is instead
released into the atmosphere.
Image: Siemens Energy
While green H2 represents a means to decouple
hydrogen and natural gas, it cannot yet be
produced at sufficient scale for widespread use.
Hence, in the short term, we expect hydrogen in
various forms to still play a part in establishing
large-scale hydrogen production and
demonstrate the decarbonisation of several
sectors. In the mid- to long-term, green H2 is
needed to meet climate goals.
One of the arguments for hydrogen-based
flexible power generation assets is based
around the recognition that intermittent
renewables play a key part in the energy system
– and this will increase, as will battery storage.
However, to de-risk situations where a
long-term storage solution is needed during
prolonged low wind and solar weather
conditions, a seasonal and large gas storage
solution is useful once the smaller battery
storage is fully drained.
There are several notable case studies
of hydrogen-based power generation.
HYFLEXPOWER in France is the world’s first
industrial-scale integrated Power-to-X-to-Power
hydrogen gas turbine demonstrator.
Consortium members include Engie Solutions,
Siemens, Centrax, Arttic, German Aerospace
Center (DLR) and four European universities.
SMART ENERGY INTERNATIONAL ISSUE – 2 | 2021
POWER ENGINEERING INTERNATIONAL
The aim is to demonstrate that green H2 can
be produced and stored from renewable
electricity and then added (with up to 100%) to
the natural gas currently used within the 12MW
CHP plant at the Smurfit Kappa site. During
periods of high demand, this stored green H2
will then be used to generate electrical energy
to be fed into the grid.
INNIO’s 1MW hydrogen CHP project in
Hamburg includes the hydrogen-ready
Jenbacher engine system. The heat generated
will be fed into HanseWerk AG’s local heating
network, while electricity will be used for
recharging electric vehicles at the site when
required. The intention was to bring the CHP
plant online for natural gas operation in 2020;
hydrogen-powered generation would then
commence in 2021.
Power-to-X-to-Power in Hassfurt, Germany
(1.25 MWe) sees Stadtwerke Hassfurt, a
German local utility, partnering with 2G, a CHP
developer, to use hydrogen converted from
wind power with an electrolyser to fuel a CHP
plant.
In the plant, the hydrogen is then converted
back to electricity or heat with efficiencies of
over 85% as needed. The electricity from the
CHP plant is fed into the city’s electricity
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Dina Darshini is Principal Analyst at research and consulting
firm Delta-EE.
grid. The unit began operation in July
2019.
Australia is home to hydrogen fuel
cell projects. In central Queensland,
there are now several hydrogen energy
projects in the pipeline. The Australian
company Northern Oil was set to build
the first hydrogen fuel cell of its kind in
Queensland at its pilot biofuels refinery in
Gladstone in 2019.
The state government has also been in
talks with Japanese experts about building
a solar-to-hydrogen plant in central
Queensland that would export hydrogen
gas out of Gladstone’s port. Northern Oil
will use hydrogen to generate electricity,
but in a novel way – turning waste
products such as old tyres and weeds into
a renewable version of a traditional fossil
fuel. It needs hydrogen to do this, and
until now it has been buying it on the open
market, but that is expensive.
At Vattenfall’s Magnum power plant in
Groningen in the Netherlands, Mitsubishi
Hitachi Power Systems is working to
turn the owner’s ‘Carbon-Free Gas
Power’ project into a reality, starting with
operationalising one of the three gas
turbines to combust only hydrogen by
2024.
The hydrogen needed will be produced
by reforming Norwegian natural gas, and
the resulting CO2 from that process will be
captured and stored in natural caverns.
The largest industrial hydrogen fuel
cell power plant in the world – and the
first to use only hydrogen recycled from
petrochemical manufacturing – has
just become operational at the Daesan
Industrial Complex in Seosan, South Korea.
The 50MW plant contains 114 fuel cells.
This is against a policy backdrop of the
South Korean Government’s roadmap to
revitalise the hydrogen economy within car
and fuel cell sectors.
So, be it gas turbine or engine or fuel cells,
there are many demonstrators and projects
underway. And we only expect more to
come.
81
POWER ENGINEERING INTERNATIONAL
What next for natural
gas?
Pritil Gunjan examines the challenges and opportunities involved in the
electrification and decarbonisation of natural gas.
L
egislative pushes toward an
ambitious green economy and
sustainability measures are being
supported by cost reductions and
technological milestones, unlocking huge
decarbonisation opportunities driving the
energy transition.
Operational small or mid-sized power
plants running on high hydrogen content
gaseous fuels are not uncommon. These
include coke oven gas, byproduct gases
from chemical processes, or renewable
sources like wood gasification in syngas.
Although some decarbonisation strategies
focus on renewable technologies
supported by energy storage and
demand flexibility, others deploy low
carbon resources such as nuclear, hydro,
geothermal, bioenergy, and carbon
capture to achieve emissions targets.
As customer needs have evolved, so
has the adoption of distributed energy
resources – they are set to accelerate
at a compound annual growth rate of
10.3% until 2030 – and clean technology
resources across residential, commercial,
and industrial consumers, which has
82
blurred the demarcation between
producers and consumers.
There continues to be a debate on the role
of electrification (from mobility to buildings
to industrial production) in the global
decarbonisation journey.
Given the diversity of electrification and
decarbonisation policies and agendas
across global markets, different technology
mixes are expected to evolve to support
local needs.
On one hand, electrification is likely going
to be a critical enabler in decarbonising
the global energy ecosystem. But regional
fuel prices and capital costs of equipment
and installation are particularly strong
determinants of economic competitiveness
for electrified technologies.
On the other hand, decarbonisation can
also be achieved by integrating alternative
fuels such as renewable natural gas (RNG)
produced from sustainable waste and landfills
into existing infrastructure and gas pipelines.
The natural gas system has an important
ability to support resiliency power
SMART ENERGY INTERNATIONAL ISSUE – 2 | 2021
Image: emens Energy
needs through its inherent physical and
operational capabilities, which enable it to
meet the volatile power profiles resulting
from imbalance.
Investors and corporations are setting
ambitious targets for emissions reductions
and assessing their supply chains’
resiliency and associated infrastructure
costs. Resiliency and responsiveness are
extremely critical to ensuring that energy
providers can meet seasonal and peak
customer needs.
Decarbonisation of gas can be
achieved by blending RNG into existing
infrastructure to support decarbonisation
of the value chain.
RNG can be biomethane or biogas
produced from biomass or hydrogen
produced from renewable energy through
the electrolysis processes.
However, the RNG market is still
challenged by cost efficiency and
availability of feedstocks. Biomethane
and hydrogen are still produced in limited
quantities across key regions and need to
be scaled up to justify the economics.
 POWER ENGINEERING INTERNATIONAL

Supportive policies and subsidy schemes Energy providers need to evaluate

will likely play an important role across the economics of electrification and
electricity and gas decarbonisation. decarbonisation alternatives, such as

So what are the main opportunities for

the decarbonisation of natural gas? Let
me highlight four of them:
Power sector decarbonisation
Burning renewable hydrogen in gas
turbines for power generation can unlock
decarbonisation opportunities across the
energy sector.
Natural gas turbines and renewable
energy sources can be substituted across
baseload generations that emit higher
carbon. As investment in renewable
energy generation increases, new grid
services are required to ensure that these
resources can be integrated effectively
and that the overall operation of the grid
is as efficient as possible.
Based on Guidehouse Insights estimates,
520GW of centralised and distributed
generation technologies are going to
be annually installed in 2030, of which
400GW or 75% is expected to come from
renewable energy sources.
Image: emens Energy
new efficient heat pumps and variable
refrigerant flow systems. Although
Building electrification technologies are
headwinds
rapidly becoming more cost-effective
and reliable than fossil fuel systems in a
prevail, full
variety of planning scenarios and climatic
conditions.
electrification
faces high
Regulatory developments also stress
decarbonisation and therefore favour full transaction
electrification as a low emissions building
approach. costs, low
Although headwinds prevail, full
consumer
electrification faces high transaction costs,
low consumer awareness, lack of regional
awareness and
stock availability, and other barriers. lack of regional
Fleet decarbonisation stock availability
In the mobility sector, both battery EVs
and fuel cell vehicles are ramping up their
business cases to achieve net zero emissions.
Although momentum for plug-in EVs is
strong, the technology is not yet technically
or commercially ready to displace internal To conclude: Applications of

combustion engines in all road vehicle decarbonisation and electrification

Excess renewable energy can be used
to create renewable hydrogen that can
be used in gas turbines and stored
for application in the industrial and
manufacturing sectors.
Industrial decarbonisation
Natural gas contributes to almost 30%
of the energy used in the industry. The
industrial sector presents increasing
opportunities for transitioning to a low
carbon fuel mix.
However, this transition requires active
investment and innovations across the
usage of alternatives such as hydrogen
and electrification in steel, cement, and
chemical production; low carbon options
across industrial feedstocks; value chain
efficiency; and innovations in high
temperature heat processes to bring in
economies of scale.
classes and geographies.
There are other solutions and strategies that
can fill the gap; such as advanced biofuels,
hydrogen, drive automation and networking
technologies, and mode switching.
The mobility sector is witnessing a strong
push towards zero emissions vehicles such
as battery EVs or fuel cell trucks and zero
or low carbon fuels such as renewable
electricity, biomethane, and other biofuels.
Many of these solutions are immature
and complicated to deploy, but leading
suppliers are finding innovative ways
to deploy and use these technologies.
Suppliers that are slower to act risk losing
business to innovative suppliers or more
emissions efficient modes such as rail.
need to percolate across the mobility,
buildings, heating, industrial, and power
generation sectors.
Although clean energy plans have begun
to take shape across countries and
regions, the availability of RNG, energy
efficiency measures, and low carbon
sources varies considerably around the
world.
Power generation along with the
industrial sector could be a key segment
to ramp up decarbonisation plans.
Ramping up carbon accounting,
monitoring, and reporting methods will
also be essential to assess progress and
milestones across the decarbonisation
journey.

Regulatory changes and economic ABOUT THE AUTHOR

incentives around carbon pricing and Pritil Gunjan is Associate Director of Energy at Guidehouse
infrastructural investments across a Insights.
sustainable value chain, carbon capture
and storage, and electricity grids are
anticipated to aid decarbonisation efforts
across the industrial sector.

Building efficiency and

decarbonisation Pritil Gunjan also spoke to Nigel Blackaby about flexibility in
The transportation of RNG to buildings all its guises and the role it plays in grid stability. Listen to the
requires investments in infrastructure and interview on www.enlit-europe.com/365
technology.

SMART ENERGY INTERNATIONAL ISSUE – 2 | 2021 83

POWER ENGINEERING INTERNATIONAL
Shipshape power
Pamela Largue talks to Karpowership managing director
Zeynep Harezi to unpack the concept of a floating power plant.
“W
e started Karpowership
because we believe
in universal access to
energy – we believe
that everyone in the world should have
electricity.
“A family should never have to wonder if
they will have enough money for diesel.
The cost of electricity should not be a
consideration in a family’s budget – it’s a
basic human right.”
So says Zeynep Harezi, managing director
of Turkish firm Karpowership, which offers
ship-based power generation on a rental
basis.
Powerships are ship or barge-mounted,
fully-integrated floating power plants. With
wide ranges of installed capacities for
utility size operations and no completion
or construction risk, the powerships are
ready for generation within a short period
of time.
84
Power is fed directly into the transmission
network from an onboard high-voltage
substation, and therefore requires no land
acquisition.
Powerships were initially developed by
General Electric during World War II
as a transportable large-scale power
generation resource. Floating power
has come a long way since – and so too
has the ever-increasing need for energy
access.
Governments around the world are
committing to electrification programmes
that enable economic development and
improve the lives of their citizens. One
company answering the call for energy
supply is Karpowership.
The company provides up to 4300MW
of electricity internationally by burning
liquid natural gas in on-board power
generators. Its ships have been deployed
to Lebanon, Iraq, Cuba, Sierra Leone,
Senegal, Sudan, Gambia, Ghana,
SMART ENERGY INTERNATIONAL ISSUE – 2 | 2021
Images: Karpowership
Guinea-Bissau, Indonesia, Zambia and
Mozambique.
The ships dock in the harbour, crank
up their turbines and start generating
electricity for customers on land.
“And of course, the more electricity, the
more jobs, education and foreign direct
investment opportunities will come, and
increase social and economic welfare and
gender rights,” says Harezi. “Electricity
impacts everything about well-being and
happiness. We are passionate about this.”
How it works
In order for the powership to function, a
floating storage regasification unit (FSRU)
is moored and connected to the ship via
a floating gas pipeline.
The mooring solution allows for ship to
ship transfer through cryogenic hoses at
-163 degrees Celcius. The FSRU gas cargo
tanker, with a capacity of up to 150,000m3,
receives gas from an LNG carrier.

Zeynep Harezi (right) with Karpowership crew members.
The FSRU contains a Regas vapouriser
with a capacity of 21-168MMSCFD,
an LNG feed pump 50-200m3/h and
a 6000kg/h bog compressor. The gas
send-out pressure from the FSRU ship is
up to 40barg.
The gas is moved through the
regasification system and passed to the
powership where it generates electricity.
The transformers send the power the
ships generate over wires to local
Images: Karpowership
transmission grids, and from there it goes
out to end users.
A variety of powerships meet differing
power requirements. The classes range
from the smallest, Mermaid, which has a
maximum capacity of 80MW and is 90m
long and 25m wide, to the Khan class
which has a capacity of 470MW and is
300m long and 50m wide.
Karpowership’s vessels only require a
depth of five meters (16 feet) to operate
at ports, which makes them suitable for
multi-island countries that have long
coastlines.
The ships can be installed at a coastal
site where there is an available substation
for electrical connection and suitable
marine conditions for berthing or
mooring.
Host locations require minimal
onshore infrastructure and are ready
to commence once Karpowership
receives the go-ahead to deliver the
powerships. The ship is literally turnkey,
with construction works including a
transmission interconnection point, a
small site office and stores adjacent to
the powership.
SMART ENERGY INTERNATIONAL ISSUE – 2 | 2021
POWER ENGINEERING INTERNATIONAL
One example of a
project location is
Indonesia. In 2015 and
2016, Karpowership
signed five contracts
with the state utility PT
PLN (Persero) to deploy
five powerships of
1000MW in total for
a period of five years.
The ships have been in
operation since 2016,
with one operating on
indigenous gas since
2018.
Unfortunately,
powerships are not
always seen as the
holy grail of power
solutions.
Many argue that to use local independent
power producers would likely reduce
the cost of power generation and
would develop the local power market.
Localisation is an important factor
when considering any infrastructure
development plan. However, the countries
that opt for this solution simply do not
have the capacity to build and operate
this type and scale of technology.
In many instances, Karpowership has
worked with the local utilities to help
stabilise the grid, for example through
helping finance transmission lines.
But who carries the additional cost of
the power? This would surely be carried
over to the utility customers, ultimately
impacting economic development
negatively, which runs contrary to
Karpowerships goals. This would only
be the case if the ship’s power was more
expensive, which is seldom the case when
comparing the cost of gas and diesel.
Harezi says: “On a 25-year PPA, we are
cheaper than any other land-based power
plant. It’s cheaper for us to build and
operate the ships. We standardise design,
purchase parts in bulk and build several
ships at a time. We build in a controlled
environment without unforeseen costs. It’s
actually extremely economical.”
Another question is whether a long-term
PPA is really necessary, when a short-term
contract to provide emergency power is
all that’s needed.
There is no doubt powerships can play a
vital role for countries that are war-torn
or going through economic struggles.
The question is, do you rely on outside
sources of power, or develop your own to
become self-sufficient?
You can’t have both, as at some point
supply will outweigh demand and assets
will be stranded and will stand idle.
The problem seems to be systemic in
nature, occurring within the country itself.
The countries being supplied seem to
be unable to develop the infrastructure
required to supply demand. Therefore,
powerships answer the need for
delivering power where it’s needed
and quickly.
Assessments of cumulative air pollution
impacts have raised concerns, and
climate and environmental justice groups
are concerned that the use of gas locks a
country into continued use of fossil fuels
and rising greenhouse gas emissions.
Harezi explains: “In 2010, the first round
of ships that went to Iraq operated on
liquid fuel. Then we realised the world
was moving in an environmentally
friendly direction and we wanted to be
a part of this. All ships after this were
therefore built with dual fuel engines to
allow for cleaner fuel options.
“The modularity of the powership
really helps us to reduce emissions. For
example, in the case of a Ghana project,
we were able to take the ship to the gas
source – as opposed to the Ghanaians
pumping the gas 300km to the ship –
thus reducing the carbon footprint of
the project. Flexibility also supports the
immediate switch to gas and our aim to
convert the whole fleet to LNG in the next
3-5 years.”
She adds that the company wants to
“improve our renewable portfolio.
Currently we have solar projects in Turkey
and Ukraine but we want to build more
global coverage of solar and battery
storage applications as well.”
One of the main challenges to
Karpowership is that of third party risk,
especially as countries that need the
power most are often those struggling the
most financially.
Also, according to Harezi, “there is
a psychological barrier that needs to
be broken. People tend to think the
powerships are temporary and must
be more expensive because they’re on
ships. On the contrary, the physical and
economic lifetime of ship is more than 25
years and we can provide really low cost
power.”
85
POWER ENGINEERING INTERNATIONAL
Why
compromised
filters mean
compromised
gas turbines
Advanced technology gas turbines have
reached >60% net efficiency – but how do you
keep them at this level? By Tim Nicholas
G
as turbines have reached new
heights in efficiency, with the
most efficient, such as the
H-class, giving power plants net
efficiencies of more than 60% when run in
combined cycle mode.
This is a marked increase from older versions
such as the E-class, which offer efficiency
levels in the region of 50%, and F-class at
55%.
Indeed, large-scale H-class gas turbines are
more efficient and flexible in operation and,
as they generate more power at the highest
efficiency, can move power plants up in
dispatch order.
They offer fast start-up and ramp rate
capabilities; greater turn down, and so
more cost effective ‘spinning reserve’;
better fuel efficiency, and lower operating
costs – but these supreme levels of efficiency
need careful protection if they are to be
maintained over the lifetime of the turbine.
The lower efficiency of E-class turbines
means changes in aerodynamics have
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limited impact on performance. To this end,
more rudimentary filtration solutions that only
protect these rugged units from the damage
caused by large particles in the inlet air flow
will likely give enough protection for most
operators.
It is accepted that the higher efficiency and
output capacities of F-class turbines require
a somewhat more sophisticated filtration
solution to protect performance, life, and
power output. The increased efficiency and
generating capacity of the more recent
H-class or equivalent GTs, however, require
a new level and approach to protection
to maintain their outstanding levels of
performance.
The latest, advanced GT technology achieves
high levels of efficiency through more refined
modelling of heat transfer, higher firing
temperatures and precise ‘super finish’
aerodynamic design.
3D printing techniques allow more elaborate
and optimized blades with advanced
aerodynamics, new placements of cooling
passages, and true 3D profiles.
SMART ENERGY INTERNATIONAL ISSUE – 2 | 2021
Image: wklzzz © 123RF.com
The filtration
system is only
as good as its
weakest part
Other design features include enhanced air
cooling flow, improved design of hot gas
path components to reduce temperature
and stress gradients, and upgraded thermal
barrier coatings.
The fine tuning of these machines and
the ‘super alloys’ they employ require
more rigorous protection from the fouling
and damage that finer particulates and
contaminates in the inlet air flow can cause.
As advanced GTs also generate significantly
more power than previous turbines, even a
small compromise in filtration effectiveness
comes at a high cost. Focusing in on
pressure drop alone, this could equate to
0.4% loss in output over the lifetime of a filter
within the system.
For a gas turbine rated at 300MW, this is
around $150,000 dollars of lost revenue per
year and $255,000 for a 510MW turbine.
On top of this, a sub-optimum filtration
solution leaves the compressor more likely to
be fouled, thereby reducing power output as
contaminants in the air flow adhere to turbine

blades and altering the aerodynamics of the
turbine.
Having the right filtration solution means
performance can be better maintained,
the frequency of offline washes reduced,
maintenance costs lowered, availability
improved, and profitability optimized, all of
which give a clear return on investment.
Considerations for advanced GTs
For high efficiency gas turbine, inlet health
starts at the inlet house. No two plant
installations are identical and filtration design
should take into consideration all local
environmental factors.
Is the installation near to the coast? Are
there extreme temperatures? Does the area
experience high humidity or regular fog
events? What are the levels of dust or sand in
the area? Are there other industrial settings
Image: wklzzz © 123RF.com
nearby or building works that may increase
dust levels and introduce a particular type of
contaminant?
Large gas turbines consume huge volumes of
air; and contaminants such as dust, sand and
salt can cause fouling, pitting and corrosion
to the blades, stators and buckets, decreasing
turbine efficiency. Weather conditions
including rain, snow, mist, and fog also need
to be considered in the filter house design and
filter selection.
Larger dust or sand particles can erode the
special super alloys, finishes and coatings
inside the compressor and turbine – and
may eventually lead to severe machine
damage. They can also plug cooling holes,
leading to melting or distortion of hot section
components.
Finer dust particles and other types of
contaminant stick to blades, affect operating
aerodynamics, reduce efficiency and therefore
increase operational costs. The hygroscopic
nature of salt makes it particularly challenging
because it can quickly move between dry,
sticky and liquid forms.
As well as adhering to blades and affecting
efficiency, chloride in salt can start pitting
corrosion in compressor blades. The sodium
in salt can combine with sulphur in fuel in
the hot section of the turbine to form sodium
sulphate, which causes accelerated corrosion
and ultimately catastrophic failure of very
costly hot section components.
As particles build up on the compressor
blades, the reduction in output power and
increase in heat rate mean an offline wash is
ultimately required. The more frequently this
maintenance procedure is carried out, the
greater the cost impact through lost power
output, reduced availability, and increased
rates of fuel usage.
SMART ENERGY INTERNATIONAL ISSUE – 2 | 2021
POWER ENGINEERING INTERNATIONAL
Figure 1: Real world impact of filter selection and its effect on pressure drop (source: Parker Hannifin)
Moisture is a threat to gas turbine
performance as it can comprise of high
concentrations of small droplets, such as
in the form of fog, that become trapped in
fine, high efficiency filtration media, creating
sudden rises in pressure drop across the
filtration system.
In this and other forms such as rain and
mist, it can also combine with dust to form
mud and also quickly change the physical
state of hygroscopic salt particles from solid
to sticky liquid form. All these factors need to
be considered in the design of the air intake
system.
The different threats to GT performance
often require multiple stages of filtration.
It is vital, that none of these stages are
compromised. Each filter needs to fit
perfectly, and work in tandem with the other
filter stages to maximise performance.
The filtration system is only as good as its
weakest part. A simple change in pre-
filtration can have measurable implications
on a final filter and result in decreased
turbine performance.
The example in Figure 1 shows the real-
world impact of filter selection and the
effect it has on pressure drop. Fitting the
wrong filter results in much faster rises
in pressure drop, which will reduce GT
runtime, and leads to much greater losses
in power output. In an operational time of
8,000 hours (typical change-out period) this
example highlights hundreds of thousands
of dollars lost in treating filters like
commodity items.
A sudden change to pressure drop is
far from desirable and can result in GT
runback, unplanned turbine outage or even
damage to the filter house.
To assist with the planning of operations
and maintenance activities, increases
to the pressure drop should be slow and
predictable.
Individual filters react in varying ways to the
effects of weather and differing contaminants
and the performance of every filtration stage
is crucial to the optimisation of maintenance
cycles.
Filters will also require cleaning or changing
over time and the frequency of this operation will
depend on the filter house design and the filter
elements installed and, again, every filtration
stage will impact the overheads involved.
Measuring filter performance
Although there are standards to gauge the dry
particulate efficiency level of a filter, the only
real test is how the turbine performs in the real
world, monitoring the level of output and heat
rate of the turbine and how this varies over
time.
The return on investment of a filtration solution
will come from protecting gas turbine efficiency
levels, prolonging turbine life, increasing
availability and reducing maintenance
overheads to minimise the total turbine lifecycle
costs.
As the efficiency of gas turbiness reach new
levels, the importance of an optimised filtration
system is increasingly critical to maintain high
turbine performance.
Filters specifically designed to protect these
advanced performance machines take more
than just lab-tested filter media efficiency
into consideration. They are designed to
fully optimise lifecycle costs, withstand harsh
installation conditions, effectively remove all
types of contaminant, and work reliably and
predictably to ensure high levels of GT efficiency
and availability are maintained.
Tim Nicholas is PowerGen Market Manager,
Gas Turbine Filtration Division, at Parker
Hannifin.
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POWER ENGINEERING INTERNATIONAL
A fine balancing act
Leonardo Botti suggests how to ensure solar success in
emerging markets.
Solar PV plant in Turkey
I
n its World Energy Outlook at the end of
2020, the International Energy Agency
said solar PV, driven by continued cost
reductions, will become the main driver
of renewables growth, setting new records
for deployment in each year from 2022 until
2040.
IEA executive director Fatih Birol stated that
he saw “solar becoming the new king of the
world’s electricity markets”, and it’s easy to
see why – the IEA also reported that installed
global solar PV capacity had grown 18-fold
between 2010 and 2020.
With solar set to become a vital part of the
generation mix for governments to meet
renewable energy and carbon emissions
targets, the growth potential is truly global.
While ‘established’ solar regions such as
Europe and North America will continue
to lead in terms of technologies, Asia is
also a leading force, with countries such as
Singapore and South Korea experiencing
significant growth.
88
That said, the drivers for growth are different
across established and emerging markets. In
established markets, the primary focus is how
to use the energy that is generated in the most
efficient way possible.
In contrast, in emerging markets, the demand
for power is much greater. According to
BloombergNEF’s 2020 ‘Climatescope’ report,
emerging markets’ annual generation has
spiked 54% over the past decade, while
electricity production in developed countries
remained nearly flat.
This need for additional energy infrastructure
to power economic growth means that
renewable sources such as solar are becoming
more popular.
As well as providing clean energy, solar also
provides greater self-sufficiency, particularly
for those countries relying on imports of
either power – for example fossil fuels – or
components. Any solution that maximises local
resources is welcome, and solar is often installed
to supplement other renewable sources.
SMART ENERGY INTERNATIONAL ISSUE – 2 | 2021
Image: FIMER
For example, Nepal is predominantly
dependent on hydropower for its electricity
generation and aims to achieve 400MW of
renewable energy by 2022.
However, the country also needs an
additional 200MW of energy to become self-
reliant during the dry season, when its power
generation drops due to fall in water levels in
the rivers.
In addition, certain areas, including the
Province 2 area, cannot develop hydropower
projects, but do have abundant sun energy
that could be utilised. As such, a number of
solar-powered projects are in the pipeline to
help bridge the power gap when hydropower
is not possible.
Nepal’s largest private solar project was
recently commissioned in the Dhalbekar
region. This milestone 10MW project will
supply renewable power to well-known tourist
areas including Janakpuri, as well as help
to reduce power cuts thanks to increased
stability of supply.

Image: FIMER
Similarly, in Turkey, the desire for more
locally-generated energy is also a key factor
in the growth of solar. With Turkey being
reliant on imports of natural gas and oil,
renewable energy has seen strong growth to
increase both stability and security of supply
as well as meet carbon reduction targets.
This was the case with a project at the
500MW Aşağıkaleköy hydroelectric plant in
southeast Turkey.
Hydropower is one of the primary sources
of renewable energy in Turkey; however,
during times of drought, generation from
hydropower is reduced. Therefore, solar
is seen as an important stabiliser for
hydropower plants, providing increased
capacity during times of low output as it can
be easily installed adjacent to hydropower
plants to ensure uninterrupted supply.
A major 80MW hybrid solar power plant
was commissioned to be located alongside
the Aşağıkaleköy plant and this project – the
first and largest of its kind in Turkey – will
SMART ENERGY INTERNATIONAL ISSUE – 2 | 2021
POWER ENGINEERING INTERNATIONAL
provide a total of 127GWh of clean energy
per year to Turkey’s national grid and supply
renewable energy to approximately one
million people.
Growing pains?
However, with growth come challenges. For
example, increasing the amount of power
generated creates a delicate balancing
act – how to satisfy the demand for energy
without compromising grid capacity.
For example, progress in Jordan stalled in
January 2019 when the Ministry of Energy
and Mineral Resources suspended approvals
for large-scale electricity projects, citing
the need to conduct studies to assess grid
capacity.
At the time, a ministry official acknowledged
that the grid had experienced ‘technical
challenges’ over its capacity to cope with
the increased amount of power being
generated.
Similarly, network operators across both
established and emerging countries –
including Thailand, Spain, Germany, the
Americas, South Africa and Australia – are
setting export power limits to help manage
grid stability without compromising on the
deployment of renewable technologies like
solar.
How can these potential issues be managed
to ensure solar is used to its full potential?
Export limitation
Export limitation – which is mandatory in
several countries – means that any solar
plant needs to have an active power control
to meet the requirements set by network
operators and ensure stability of the local
grid.
For example, in Australia, the electricity
system consists of several independent
synchronous zones, the largest of which –
the North-South path, which runs along the
east coast – is extremely long with a very
narrow transverse.
As such, it is unable to provide the same
level of contingency reserves as the meshed
systems found in most of Europe and the
US. Therefore, the Australian grid code
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Leonardo Botti is managing director of Commercial and
Industrial Business at Italy-headquartered solar inverter company
FIMER.
requires mandatory export limitation to
maintain the stability of the grid.
In countries with mandatory grid codes, an
export limitation controller is required to
avoid the power output exceeding the export
limit. The controller works by reacting to
load fluctuations to keep the power below
the limit.
Grid simulation studies
In some countries – such as Jordan,
which faced issues when it came to
accommodating large-scale solar projects –
having an accurate grid simulation study is
now vital to the commissioning of a project.
Grid simulation modelling creates a digital
representation of the inverter – a ’digital
twin’ – which enables different scenarios
including faults, setpoints and operating
conditions to be created virtually without the
need for laboratory testing, power sources
and all other ‘real life’ equipment, which
can be cost-prohibitive to carry out.
This allows for a study of plant behavior
during faults, voltage dips and frequency
disturbances.
In real life, it would be impossible to test
how a plant will respond to an incident
such as a grid fault, as this could result in
significant damage to not only the inverter,
but also the plant as a whole. Thus grid
simulation studies are a crucial part of the
project planning phase.
A bright solar future
Without doubt, the solar PV industry is one
of the most exciting sectors to be working in
at the moment.
Falling costs and increasing government
incentives and subsidies across several
regions mean that demand for solar power
– across all market segments, from utility-
scale through to commercial & industrial
and residential – is growing in both
established and emerging markets.
However, what is clear is that it is vital to
have local knowledge of these markets
– and any possible grid code or power
limitations – to ensure the full potential of
solar is realised.
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POWER ENGINEERING INTERNATIONAL
Turning coal plants into
storage assets
How E2S Power is giving otherwise stranded assets a second life in the
renewable energy future. By Carlos Härtel.
G
lobal energy markets are at
the onset of one of their most
significant transformations
since the invention of
electricity.
Today, still more than two-thirds of all
electric power is generated from fossil
fuels, most of it by plants running on
some sort of coal.
Conventional power stations, however,
face a very certain future of retirements.
Estimates about the total capacity of
thermal power plants to be retired over
the next 10 to 20 years vary, but are well
in the range of thousands of gigawatts.
Concurrently, renewables keep growing
at an undiminished pace. Due to their
intermittent and mostly non-dispatchable
nature, on the other hand, wind and
solar power need energy storage systems
enabling them to cope with short- and
long-term load variations.
Consequently, their continued expansion
is triggering a rapid growth of storage
capacity realised by both greenfield and
brownfield projects.
Figure 1: E2S Power’s Solution to repurposing coal-fired plants by turning these into energy storage
systems. While the boiler is replaced with the thermal storage module, all other plant components
can be fully reutilised.
90
At E2S Power, we’re developing a storage
solution which in time can convert existing
coal-fired plants into thermal batteries.
This not only allows reusing existing
infrastructure – it also helps to protect
local employment, which is a point of
major political concern in many regions
worldwide.
The extensive installed base of thermal
power plants offers an enormous market
opportunity for those who develop
conversion solutions. The sheer scale of
the required ramp-up of storage capacity
will necessitate all storage options on the
table to contribute to the challenge – not
one technology or solution will be able to
shoulder it alone.
In regions where a large number of coal
plants are still in operation, converting those
can be a key contributor to providing the
storage capacity required.
Giving otherwise stranded assets a second
life in the renewable energy future not
only has financial benefits to the owners or
operators: the continued use of valuable
infrastructure also helps to minimise future
CO2 emissions associated with the massive
SMART ENERGY INTERNATIONAL ISSUE – 2 | 2021
build-up of energy storage capacity, where
green-field projects may come with a
significant carbon footprint.
How it works
E2S Power’s solution basically consists of
substituting the boiler with a thermal energy
storage system while reusing all of the
remaining infrastructure (see Figure 1).
During off-peak hours, the thermal battery
is charged with surplus electricity from
renewable sources, which is taken from the
grid using the existing step-up transformers.
One core technology our solution is built
on is a novel composite material called
MGA, which was developed and is now
manufactured by our Australian partner
MGA Thermal Pty Ltd.
Figure 2 illustrates the basic architecture of
the E2S storage module – which we call the
‘Hamster’ – which contains an assembly of
slab-like components consisting of the MGA
storage blocks, steam generator plates, and
electric radiating heaters.
All components are arranged in an
enclosure, which is thermally insulated
against the environment and filled with
nitrogen for oxidation protection.
During charging, electrical energy powers the
radiating heaters, which raise the temperature
of the MGA storage blocks to the required
level (which may be plant specific).
During the discharge process, heat stored
in the MGA blocks is then transferred
to the water running through the steam
generators, which create steam of just
the right properties so that existing steam
turbines can use it to generate electricity.
The conversion of heat to electricity thus
happens in about the same fashion as if the
plant was still powered by coal.
For each individual brownfield case, the
system can be tailored so that it makes use
of all existing plant infrastructure, which
minimizes costs.
 POWER ENGINEERING INTERNATIONAL

It can be operated at the same voltage

and current levels as already present at
the generators to feed the electric heaters,
use the same high-voltage switchyard,
the existing steam turbine, and the
accompanying balance of plant like
condensers, cooling towers, heat sinks,
generators, or transformers.

The steam generators of the E2S Hamster

are made of advanced high temperature
resistant alloys, which can operate at
700°C and are mounted in between the
MGA storage blocks.

Electrical heaters are also specially

designed to resist temperatures higher than
1000°C to facilitate the heat transfer to the
MGA blocks using thermal radiation.
The MGA elements used for storing the
thermal energy are special composites
made of graphite and aluminium. The
metallic component, i.e. the aluminium,
has a melting point of around 660°C,
which is lower than the maximum system
temperature during the charge-discharge
cycle.
The latent heat associated with phase
change of the metal during operation is
the main reason for the very high energy
density our storage technology can
achieve.
On the other hand, the melting point of
graphite, which forms the matrix and
which contains the embedded and finely
dispersed metal particles, is significantly
above the maximum temperatures in the
enclosure at all times.
The matrix therefore remains solid
throughout operation, keeping the whole
MGA slabs in solid form. From a practical
standpoint, this feature of MGAs is a key
advantage.
In a sense, the MGA technology allows
the utilisation of a metallic phase-change
material for heat storage at the simplicity
and robustness of systems using e.g. steel
or concrete as storage elements.
Figure 2. E2S Hamster conceptual design. The main components the assembly consists of are the
MGA blocks storing the thermal energy; the resistive heater plates that transfer energy to the MGAs
by radiation; the steam generator connected to the plant’s water-steam cycle.
and recyclability of the materials built into
energy storage devices today.
Complementary not competitive
The high melting point of aluminium
enables to perfectly tailor the E2S Hamster
to existing thermal plants’ infrastructure.
An innovative design of the electric heaters
ensures that all existing power electronics
equipment in the thermal plant can be
utilised without any costly modifications.
Converting an existing thermal plant
has modest capital requirements, and
projects can be executed swiftly thanks to
our modular design, which allows pre-
fabrication of components.
First experiments indicate that the system’s
storage capacity will experience very little
degradation over time, which minimises the
need for major outages over the lifetime of
the plant.
After a productive supply chain has been
built up, adding hundreds of MWh of
capacity per month already seems feasible
in the mid-term.
target application for a converted thermal
plant is balancing variations in load and
supply over the diurnal cycle or a period of
several days.
Given the large spinning masses of steam-
turbine and generator trains, supporting
grid stability is possible too, although during
the discharge phase only.
Currently, our first technology demonstrator
of approximately 500 kWh thermal storage
capacity is being tested in Belgrade, Serbia,
with one single E2S Hamster cell of MGA
coupled with an electric heater and a steam
generator.
The system produces steam of up to
700°C, which subsequently is discharged
to a condenser. After completion of the
test campaign and any design or process
refinements it may suggest, we expect the
system to be mature for a mid-scale field
prototype.
Discussions are under way with power plant
operators, who have a need for augmenting
their fossil power plant with a thermal
storage system for greater flexibility.

At the same time, it uses a lot less It’s worth pointing out that our solution Commissioning of the prototype could be as
valuable space than those storage media. is largely complementary to – and not in early as 2022, preceding the product roll-
Steel and concrete would be three times competition with – Li-ion batteries. The out for the Hamster in 2023.
and 20 times, respectively, the volume of
an MGA system at the same temperature
level and energy content.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
A final yet important point is the fact Dr Carlos Härtel is director of Marketing & Business
that the use of the abundantly available Development at E2S Power.
and non-toxic base materials graphite
and aluminium can help alleviate some
of the criticism often raised concerning
environmental impact, tight supply chains,

SMART ENERGY INTERNATIONAL ISSUE – 2 | 2021 91

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