Hydrogen

Wärtsilä announces 100% hydrogen-ready engine power plant

The company plans to make the engine ready for orders in 2025, with deliveries expected to begin in 2026.
Wärtsilä announces 100% hydrogen-ready engine power plant
(A rendering of Wärtsilä's 100% hydrogen-ready engine power plant. Photo by Wärtsilä.)

Wärtsilä has announced a 100% hydrogen-ready engine power plant, which the company says is the world’s first.

Wärtsilä said the new plant can be converted to run entirely on hydrogen, representing a significant advancement over its current technology, which supports blends of natural gas and up to 25% hydrogen.

The hydrogen-ready plant is based on the Wärtsilä 31 engine platform, which the company says has over 1 million running hours and more than 1,000 MW of installed capacity globally.

The new power plant concept has received a Concept Certificate from TÜV SÜD as part of its H2-Readiness certification process. Wärtsilä plans to make the 100% hydrogen-ready engine available for orders in 2025, with deliveries expected to begin in 2026.

In the announcement, Wärtsilä Energy President Anders Lindberg emphasized the importance of flexible, zero-carbon power generation that can support intermittent renewable sources like wind and solar. He also noted the continued role of natural gas in power systems during the transition period.

“We must be realistic that natural gas will play a part in our power systems for years to come,” he said. “Our fuel flexible engines can use natural gas today to provide flexibility and balancing, enabling renewable power to thrive. They can then be converted to run on hydrogen when it becomes readily available: future-proofing the journey to net zero.”

In the Fall of 2022, a hydrogen-natural gas blending demonstration was conducted using Wärtsilä engines at the A.J. Mihm Generating Station in Michigan. The demo involved blending hydrogen in one of the three grid-connected 18.8 MW Wärtsilä reciprocating engines at the plant.

The partners demonstrated 25% hydrogen by volume fuel blending in the engine that was tested.

Several mechanical changes are needed for engines to be able to handle 100% hydrogen. One of them is to change the compression ratio to reduce temperatures, thus avoiding NOx increases and engine knocking. Another tweak could be implementing pre-chamber combustion to better control the ignition.

Pipelines also need to be code-certified for 100% hydrogen to prevent leaks.

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