Fusina Hydrogen Power Plant
Brief description:
Facts:
In August 2009, Enel began operating its new 16MWe industrial-scale hydrogen power plant at Fusina in the Veneto region of Italy. It features a gas turbine burner developed in collaboration with General Electric that can use pure hydrogen as a fuel. Hydrogen supplies come from Eni’s nearby Polimeri Europa cracker and a petrochemical facility at Porto Marghera.
Fusina is part of the company’s plans to show that hydrogen can be used to produce power on an industrial scale. Another stated aim is to evaluate the potential to produce hydrogen from coal for power generation through IGCC technology with
CCS.
The turbine technology was first tested using methane but the supply switched to hydrogen once a special pipeline had been completed. Enel estimates that the plant can generate 60 million kWh per year.
The project was driven forward by the Hydrogen Park consortium, which secured about €4 million from the Veneto region and Italy’s Ministry for the Environment to promote the development of hydrogen technology in electricity generation and transport in the Porto Marghera area.