Revealed today (May 23), the project is set to be based in Maia and will test up to 10% green hydrogen volume in natural gas blend fuel.

The combined heat and power plant at which this project will be based, provides energy for the Sonae Campus as well as the natural grid. This will be one of the first instances of using green hydrogen to reduce the company’s power plant.

H2 View understands that the current Wärtsilä engine current being used at the power plant is capable of running on gas with up to 3% blends and thus, in order to reach the targeted 10%, modifications will need to be made.

Wärtsilä engines can be operated on hydrogen/natural gas blends with up to 25% hydrogen, and the company is working towards an engine and power plant concept for pure hydrogen operations by 2025.

Sérgio Rocha, CEO of Capwatt, said, “We are committed to decarbonising our operations and we see the blending of hydrogen and natural gas for fueling this plant as a significant step towards achieving this goal.

“Wärtsilä is a company with great experience and know-how in this field, and we look forward to working closely with them in this ground-breaking project.”

Sushil Purohit, President of Wärtsilä Energy and Executive Vice-President of Wärtsilä Corporation, said, “This project concretely shows how existing power plants can take steps towards carbon-neutral power generation.

“As a technology, the combustion engine represents a viable solution for enabling the transformation to utilising future fuels.

“The flexibility of the Wärtsilä engines already plays an important role in allowing a far greater share of renewable energy to be incorporated into power systems.”

North American Hydrogen Summit  

H2 View is taking its events platform to America’s original clean hydrogen hub of California. Together with the California Fuel Cell Partnership (CaFCP), we will stage our North American Hydrogen Summit in San Francisco on July 14-15.

As our summit theme Building Bridges: Hydrogen hubs and investment suggests, the event will explore the $8bn of funding announced to create at least four regional hydrogen hubs in the US. These hubs will turbo-charge the nation’s progress toward heavy trucking and industrial sectors that run without producing carbon pollution – and they may just provide the path forward to a hydrogen-fuelled future.

With California and Texas vying to be America’s hydrogen capital today, where are the hubs of tomorrow? Further still, what can other states, and countries, learn from California’s success story? And how can we build bridges to a successful flow of international investment?

If you are a member of the CaFCP, be sure to grab your ticket at a discounted rate with a code that can be provided to you by the events team.

Full information about this event including attendance and sponsorship packages can be found here.