Power-to-X: SAACKE combustion technology is ready for hydrogen

The EU has set itself the goal of becoming climate neutral by 2050. According to current knowledge, a broad use of hydrogen can play a decisive role in its implementation and therefore currently enjoys great media and political interest. Especially in the field of industrial heat generation, the thermal use of green hydrogen represents a realistic alternative to fossil fuels.

In industrial heat generation, hydrogen as a fuel is not new territory. For example, hydrogen, which is a by-product of chloralkali electrolysis, is already being burned on a large scale with forced-air burners. The first plants of this type from SAACKE were commissioned in 1981. So far, such applications have been special plants with a high demand for individual engineering. Hydrogen as a fuel places additional demands on the burner and the connected systems. More than 40 hydrogen projects have been successfully implemented so far. From a low admixture of H2 in natural gas up to 100% hydrogen content. Depending on the requirements, different burner types are used.

All SAACKE burners are already able to process up to 20% H2 admixture in natural gas without any problems. If the H2 content is larger (up to 100%) and fluctuating, our burner series SSB and ROTONOX are also suitable and proven for this. Mixed firing of hydrogen and natural gas (or also EL fuel oil) with variable proportions is also possible and often used. This also means that the customer can switch back to the "reserve fuel" of natural gas, biogas or heating oil at any time in the event of hydrogen supply bottlenecks.

And of course, even with 100% H2, SAACKE burners comply with all NOx limits and in some cases fall significantly below them (> 50%). In general, standard gas burners in operation with 100% hydrogen produce 3x higher emissions than in natural gas operation.