Natural gas and hydrogen have much in common, but can a gas power station be adapted for hydrogen use? One organization that has been trying to answer this question since the summer is the Vattenfall energy corporation. In partnership with Gasunie, a Dutch gas infrastructure services business, and Statoil, a Norwegian oil company, it aims to examine whether a retrofit is technically feasible. The objective is to convert one of the three blocks at the Magnum gas power plant into a hydrogen-based energy generator by 2023. The design of Magnum, a 440-megawatt installation in Eemshaven, Netherlands, is already suited to accommodate various types of fuel sources.
Statoil will be in charge of converting the natural gas from Norway into hydrogen and carbon dioxide; the CO2 will then be stored in an underground facility off the Norwegian coast. Gasunie will be responsible for transporting and storing the hydrogen, while Vattenfall is going to generate the electricity jointly with its Nuon subsidiary.
