On March 13, Kawasaki Heavy Industries, Ltd. and Kobe Steel, Ltd. jointly announcedthe start of operation of the world's first hydrogen fuel supply system for power generation.Supported by the New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization, thisproject provides a pioneering model for the efficient application of hydrogen energy in thepower sector. It is reported that the system innovatively integrates an intermediate fluid vaporizer (IFV) with a high-pressure liquid hydrogen pump to overcome the energy efficiencyconstraints of conventional hydrogen power generation. Unlike the conventional approachof compressing gaseous hydrogen, the new system directly pressurizes liquid hydrogen, substantially reducing energy consumption. The IFV gently vaporizes liquid hydrogen stored at-253 °C and recovers the cold energy released during vaporization for secondary uses, suchas gas turbine intake air cooling, industrial air conditioning, and data center cooling, thereby enabling hierarchical energy utilization. Deployment of this technology will support thelarge-scale adoption of hydrogen energy in industrial, power plant, and community settingsand contribute to accelerating the global low-carbon energy transition.
Source: Solarquarter
