Consortium

Ansaldo Energia, is one of the world’s leading players in the sector of power generation plants and components. Founded in 1853 it is full-cycle, integrated operator, with the capabilities to build turnkey power plants using its own technologies and its own independent design, production, construction, commissioning and service resources.

The company is engaged in the development of technologies, products, sales, project execution and the provision of after-sales services of heavy-duty gas turbines.

Ansaldo Energia has been active in the development of fuel flexibility for gas turbine for over two decades, including solution for burning hydrogen blends and alternative fuels.

Ansaldo Energia is based in Genoa, Italy; extensive development activities within the FLEX4H2 project will be performed by the R&D teams based in Baden, Switzerland.

Competence relevant to FLEX4H2

Ansaldo Energia has extensive experience in developing advanced combustion technologies from early concept generation to product implementation and commercial deployment. The company owns a large number of patents and technologies related to gas turbines and combustion, furthermore it has extensive knowledge in testing and validation of full engines as well as single engine components.

Ansaldo Energia owns specific rigs where the newly developed combustion systems can be mounted and tested both at atmospheric pressure and at high pressure, fully reproducing engine environments.

Edison is the oldest energy company in Europe, with over 140 years of achievements, and is one of the sector’s leading operators in Italy. The company is at the forefront of the energy transition challenge, through the development of renewable and low carbon generation, energy efficiency services and sustainable mobility, in line with the European Green Deal targets. Edison sells electric power and natural gas to 1.8 million end customers, and it is the third the third Italian operator for installed electrical capacity with approximately 7.2 GW of power distributed throughout the national territory.

In the gas sector, Edison is committed to diversifying its sources and supply routes to ensure the reliability and competitiveness of the national energy system, as well as to support the process of energy transition. In 2022, it imported 14,5 billion cubic meters of gas, meeting 21% of Italian demand.

Edison, through Edison Next Company, is also a key player in the energy and environmental services sector and offers innovative and tailored solutions to large companies, SMEs and the public administration. Edison Next manage 2,100 public and private facilities, 65 industrial sites powered by electricity generation plants (including renewables and cogeneration plants) and more than 280 cities.
Today Edison operates in Italy, Europe, employing over 5,500 people.

Competence relevant to FLEX4H2

Edison’s power generation portfolio is made of over 200 power plants including hydroelectric, wind, photovoltaic plants, and highly efficient combined cycle gas turbine (CCGT) power plants. CCGTs are the generation systems which will benefit from the results of FLEX4H2: future use of fully hydrogen fed combustors would in fact allow CCGTs to produce zero-carbon electricity.
Edison competence both in installation and operation of CCGTs, as well as the knowledge of electricity markets mechanisms, are useful to provide end-user point of view and address the development of the project accordingly.

SINTEF Energy Research is part of the SINTEF Group, which is one of Europe’s largest independent contract research organisations, and conducts cutting-edge applied research to create innovative solutions in the field of energy production, management, transport and storage. All SINTEF institutes are independent, not-for-profit organisations whose owners do not receive any form of dividend. All profits are invested in scientific equipment, skills and expertise.

Competence relevant to FLEX4H2

The CFD group at SINTEF Energy Research has more than 40 years of experience in performing numerical modelling of chemically reactive processes in laminar and turbulent flows in single-phase (gaseous fuels combustion) or multi-phase (liquid and solid fuels combustion) configurations.

(Centre Européen de Recherche et de Formation Avancée en Calcul Scientifique)

Cerfacs is a basic and applied research center, specialized in modeling and numerical simulation. Through its facilities and expertise in High Performance Computing, Cerfacs deals with major scientific and technical research problems of public and industrial interest.

Cerfacs hosts interdisciplinary researchers such as physicians, applied mathematicians, numerical analysts, software engineers who design and develop innovative methods and software solutions to meet the needs of the aeronautics, space, climate, energy and environmental fields.

Cerfacs is involved in major national and international projects and is strongly interacting with its seven shareholders : Airbus Group, Cnes, EDF, Météo France, Onera, Safran et Total. It is also associated  with partners like CNRS (Associated Research Unit), Irit (common laboratory), CEA and Inria (cooperation agreements).

Cerfacs aims to

• Develop scientific and technical researches in order to improve advanced computing methods, including a better consideration of the related physical processes as well as the development of performing algorithms for the new computers’ architectures,
• Allow either solely or shared access to computers with new architecture, being able to gain performances,
• Transfer this scientific knowledge and technical methods for application to big industrial sectors,
• Train high qualified people and offer an advanced training for the fields and selected application themes.

Competence relevant to FLEX4H2

LES predictions of complex geometry turbulent reacting flows. The objective of CERFACS’ contribution to FLEX4H2 is within the previous context is in particular to assess the first stage combustion chamber of the GT36 to operate with different mixtures of H2/CH4 at different machines loads. Once ensured, the thermos-acoustic stability of such a burner in these various conditions will have to be assessed numerically in collaboration with other partners from the project.

ETN is a membership, non-profit association based in Brussels (Belgium). It brings together the turbomachinery community for power generation and mechanical drive applications in Europe, North America​, and Asia.

ETN addresses the main challenges and concerns of gas turbine users in committees and individual projects, composed of experts across the entire value chain: power generation and oil & gas companies, OEMs, R&D institutes, suppliers, service providers and technology consultancies. It has a wide international network and experience in coordination, communication and dissemination activities on EU and private funded projects.

ETN believes a common strategy and research effort between all stakeholders, along with supportive EU energy and research policies, will enable growth and increased competitiveness of the gas turbine sector in Europe and globally.

Competence relevant to FLEX4H2

ETN Global has vast experience with hydrogen combustion through its members associated in ETN’s Hydrogen Working group where various topics are being studied (e.g. Hydrogen safety, NOx emissions correction for hydrogen, Combustion challenges on hydrogen addition to natural gas).

ETN Global is also the communication and dissemination partner in FLEX4H2’s sister project – FLEXnCONFU (power-to-x solutions).

ARTTIC Innovation GmbH was founded in 2020 as spin-off from ARTTIC SAS, a successful consulting company in the field of research & development. In almost 33 years of company history, ARTTIC has managed more than 400 collaborative projects – from the EU Research Framework Programme 2 to the Horizon Europe programme. The expertise of ARTTIC Innovation GmbH is based on this long-standing experience. ARTTIC Innovation is part of the PNO Group, one of the largest consulting companies for publicly funded research and innovation projects.

Competence relevant to FLEX4H2

The service offer of ARTTIC Innovation GmbH comprises provision of hands-on support, strategic consulting, and added value services all along the innovation life cycle. As a project partner, we support Consortia at all points of the innovation process and thus bring value towards the successful implementation of the project. ARTTIC Innovation GmbH supports the projects’ administration, facilitates the collaboration between project partners and ensures the projects’ compliance with formal requirements. Furthermore, we support Consortia in the communication and dissemination of the projects’ results. For this we share our technical know-how, our tools and our project management and science communication expertise.

The Zurich University of Applied Sciences (ZHAW) provides practice-oriented degree programs, fosters professional development, carries out applied research and development (R&D), and offers services to third parties. Researchers at the Institute of Energy Systems and Fluid Engineering (IEFE) make important contributions in the fields of thermal and electrical energy systems and renewable energies with respect to energy-efficient systems, procedures, processes and systems. The research of the Distributed Thermal Energy Systems group aims to find appropriate solutions for distributed and CO2-neutral technologies and systems.

Competence relevant to FLEX4H2

The Distributed Thermal Energy Systems research group possesses a broad spectrum of relevant competencies and has many years of industrial experience. Following an interdisciplinary approach, analytical, numerical and experimental methods are combined to find solutions in following topics relevant for FLEX4H2:

• Design and optimization of burner systems for CO₂-free fuels
• Development and design of passive and active acoustic damping systems
• Simplification and low-dimensional description of complex systems using network models
• Stability analysis of dynamical systems
• Advanced data analysis and signal processing in the time and frequency domain

DLR is the national center for aerospace, energy and transportation research of Germany. The Institute of Combustion Technology at German Aerospace Center (DLR), located in Stuttgart, is an international renown research facility in the field of combustion science. It hosts approximately 80 scientists from various fields of specialization and addresses research for modern gas turbines. This thermal energy conversion is key for the energy transition policy – with sustainable energy carriers as, for example, hydrogen. In aviation, synthetic aviation fuels are without alternative beyond mid-range distances. Modern low-emission gas turbine technology, exported to the world, can contribute to climate neutral industry on a global scale. Our Institute can support this development with the competence fields computer simulation, chemical kinetics and analytics, combustion diagnostics, mass spectrometry, multi-phase flow and high-pressure combustion. Current research topics are instationary combustion, pollutant formation, spray combustion, alternative fuels and innovative combustor systems, operated with synthetic fuels and hydrogen. Detailed understanding of fuel properties of those alternatives compared to conventional fuels is a prerequisite for their production and utilization. Our Institute targets fundamental research and transfers results to technical application.

Competence relevant to FLEX4H2

Key competences within the project are the design of combustion chambers and adaptation of injection systems and subsequent operation in a high-pressure combustion test rig with excellent optical access, application of optical diagnostics to atmospheric and pressurized combustion and ignition testing for operation of single or dual stage combustors at technically relevant conditions.