Technology group Wärtsilä has started testing its thermal balancing engines using pure hydrogen and expects to have an engine and power plant concept capable of running on 100% hydrogen by 2025.
Green hydrogen is forecast to deliver 13% of global energy demand by 2070, but at present, there are no commercially available engines which can effectively use the fuel, potentially jeopardising global net zero ambitions, the company says.
Wärtsilä is now pioneering a milestone testing programme for its balancing gas engines to be converted to use pure hydrogen as fuel.
The project in Vaasa, Finland, will assess the company’s existing gas engine technology to find the optimum parameters for running on hydrogen.
Wärtsilä’s gas engines are currently used for flexible balancing power generation for power systems with high levels of renewables.
Green hydrogen, developed from renewable energy using electrolysis, and green hydrogen-based fuels will provide long-duration energy storage to work alongside renewable generation and short-duration storage (such as lithium-ion batteries) to create reliable and fully decarbonised energy systems, the company explains.
According to Wärtsilä’s energy system modelling, over 11 000 GW of wind and solar power is required by the Group of 20 (G20) bloc alone to create 100% renewable energy systems.
It will require 933 GW of carbon-neutral thermal balancing capacity to enable the addition of this amount of renewable energy and stabilise these future power systems, the company adds.
“The ability to modify existing engines to use hydrogen and hydrogen-based fuels when they become widely available is crucial to achieving global decarbonisation goals. The internal combustion engine is a key technology in enabling the growth of renewables today, providing the flexibility required to support the intermittent generation of wind and solar.
“Many countries are investing in new, highly efficient engines to support the sustainable acceleration of renewable energy.
“Being able to modify the engines in the future to use carbon neutral fuels, such as green hydrogen and green hydrogen-based fuels, means utilities can invest confidently now to enable the 100% renewable system required by the middle of this century, without risking stranded assets,” Wärtsilä says.
Wärtsilä CEO Håkan Agnevall notes that a significant amount of thermal balancing is required by the middle of this century to achieve the transition to 100% renewable energy.
“By developing engines today which can run on hydrogen tomorrow, we are future-proofing energy systems to become 100% renewable by 2050.”