First Tests for Power-to-Hydrogen-to-Power HYFLEXPOWER Demonstrator Successfully Completed

ENGIE Solutions, Siemens Energy, Centrax, Arttic, the German Aerospace Center (DLR) and four European universities (NTUA Athens, Greece; Lund, Sweden; Duisburg-Essen, Germany, and UCL, UK), together forming the Hyflexpower consortium, announced the successful completion of the first stage of an innovative research project on renewable energy. Located at the Smurfit Kappa Saillat Paper Mill in Saillat-sur-Vienne (France), this program becomes the first industrial facility in the world to introduce an integrated hydrogen demonstrator.

The aim of the HYFLEXPOWER project is to demonstrate that green hydrogen can serve as a flexible means of storing energy, which can then be used to power an industrial turbine. The hydrogen is produced on site with an electrolyzer and used in a gas turbine with a mix of 30-volume percent hydrogen and 70 volume percent natural gas for power generation. The project marks the implementation of the world’s first industrial-scale power-to-X-to-power demonstration with an advanced turbine with high hydrogen content fuel. In 2023, trials will continue to increase the hydrogen ratio up to 100 percent.

While the large-scale availability of green hydrogen is still some way off, the members of the consortium are focused on looking beyond 2030 and trialing new technology, such as hydrogen. This project will allow the partners to understand the technical feasibility of using hydrogen while retaining much of the existing energy infrastructure. This demonstrator would open great perspectives for industry. The project was inspired by the European Commission’s (EC) “Hydrogen Strategy for a Climate-Neutral Europe” report, which outlines the essential role that hydrogen will play within the European Green Deal carbon neutrality and energy transition initiative.