Many large energy users are utilising combined heat and power (CHP) plants to provide significant financial savings on their energy bill. Counterintuitively the energy crisis that is going on now is making the financial savings from these plants even greater. However, most CHP systems no longer save carbon. As the carbon intensity of electricity is dropping each year it is nearly impossible to have a CHP running on natural gas to save carbon anymore, marginal savings at best. How do you balance the agenda of keeping the lights on and still trying to contribute to the environmental agenda? Hydrogen-enabled CHP systems from 2G Energy allow for a long-term carbon-free strategic plan to take place as well as benefitting from financial savings now.
The UK Government is committed to developing the low carbon hydrogen economy and has identified up to 20GW of potential hydrogen projects through to 2037. As companies and organisations start to develop their own renewable energy sources such as wind, PV, EfW, there is nearly always a point when over generating. Utilise this excess energy and generate hydrogen. Alternatively, the gas grid is going to start with higher percentages of hydrogen in the mix and you could be lucky enough to be one of the dedicated 100% hydrogen pipelines. Running 100% green hydrogen into the engine makes all the energy zero carbon. These assets are generating financial savings now and have already been paid for and will generate massive carbon savings in the near future.
Even though there are already 2G CHPs operating on 100% hydrogen worldwide, there is no need to go entirely 100% hydrogen straight away. 2G’s standard engines can run on blends of gases, including hydrogen at up to 40%, before a simple engine retrofit is required to accommodate a higher percentage of hydrogen. Hydrogen-enabled CHP systems can use a blend of input gases and enable a gradual entry into the hydrogen economy – the sudden decommissioning or start-up of large infrastructure projects is not necessary – and these systems can reduce operational costs and carbon emissions.
Working in partnership with Altrad Babcock, 2G installed the UK’s first 100% hydrogen CHP solution at Kirkwall Airport in the Orkney Islands. Once fully commissioned, the CHP system will be integrated with the airport’s existing heating system to meet some of the heating and power requirements of the main airport building. Funded by the Scottish Government, the CHP installation at Kirkwall Airport is part of a series of initiatives led by the European Marine Energy Centre (EMEC) in collaboration with Highlands and Islands Airports Limited (HIAL) to decarbonise the airport. A study undertaken by EMEC found that space and water heating demand in the airport terminal represented the biggest source of greenhouse gas emissions after aircraft operations.
We are committed to promoting hydrogen as the future in order to achieve a carbon zero world, we are an active member of the European Clean Hydrogen Alliance as well as COGEN Europe in order to support the global fuel switch with our technology and experience
We are proud to be an award-winning company, achieving several awards for our 100% hydrogen CHP’s including ‘CHP of the year 2019’ for our Hassfurt project, ‘Handelsblatt Energy Award‘ and winner of COGEN Europe Technology & Innovation Award.
2G Energy AG is one of the leading international manufacturers of combined heat and power plants (CHP) for the decentralised generation and supply of electricity and heat
The 2G product range includes CHP systems with an electrical output between 20 kW and 2,500 kW for operation with natural gas, biogas, other lean gases, biomethane and hydrogen. To date, 2G has successfully installed several thousand CHP plants in 55 countries. In the output range between 50 kW and 1000 kW, 2G has its own combustion engine concepts with low fuel consumption, high availability and optimised maintenance requirements.