WEBINAR - Lightweight composite impellers for centrifugal hydrogen compression
As the European Hydrogen Backbone and other major energy projects within Europe and the whole world develop and promote the use of this alternative energy medium, the requirement to compress large volumes of hydrogen to ensure its distribution and storage become apparent.
The reciprocal compressors used to date are not up to this task, with the largest units not even able to compress hydrogen at a flow rate of 10 m3/s. The usual industrial solution for the compression of large volumes of gases is the use of centrifugal compressors, which are able to efficiently achieve flow rates of up to 200 m3/s when working with conventional gasses. Unfortunately, physics dictates that the compression ratio of such machines is proportional to the molecular mass of the gas being compressed, and a square function of the tip speed. In practice, this means that the rotational speeds required to efficiently compress the very light hydrogen molecule are beyond the capability of metallic impellers. This leads to the current practice of mixing hydrogen with heavier gasses to compress them, which in turn leads to an additional separation step after compression to retrieve the pure hydrogen, which is not an efficient process.
Greene Tweed has been pursuing the development of a thermoplastic composite impeller, with the goal to use the higher strength-to-weight ratio of this class of materials to increase the rotational speeds of centrifugal impellers to achieve tip speeds of at least 600 m/s, which would enable the (re)compression of pure hydrogen. In the latest burst tests performed, a tip speed of 534 m/s was achieved, which is already far beyond the capability of similar closed metallic impellers.
In this webinar, Greene Tweed will expand upon the significant challenges of centrifugal hydrogen compression, and introduce the company’s innovative solution, as well as results from recent burst tests.
Click here to sign up for free!
Speaker
Nicolas Weibel
Global Technology Manager - Composites