Hydrogen-ready turbines could help Singapore meet its net-zero carbon energy goal

The industrial-looking machines lined up on the factory floor in an industrial town in Sweden looked anything but green.

But the lorry-sized turbines at the Siemens Energy factory in Finspang – about a three-hour car ride from Stockholm – are important, yet often invisible, enablers of the world’s transition to a cleaner future.

Dubbed the SGT-800, the 6.2m-long turbine can be used in natural gas-fired power plants to generate electricity.

A gas turbine generates electricity by heating a mixture of air and fuel at very high temperatures, causing the turbine blades to spin. The spinning turbine drives a generator that converts the energy into electricity.

Natural gas is a fossil fuel, the burning of which contributes to climate change as it releases planet-warming carbon dioxide (CO2).

But the unique feature of the SGT-800 gas turbine is its ability to run on cleaner fuels – a blend of natural gas and hydrogen (H2). The turbine is able to take on a fuel mix of up to 75 per cent H2.

H2 is considered a clean fuel as it does not produce any CO2 when burned.

This means that compared with a gas turbine of similar capacity that runs fully on natural gas, the hydrogen-ready SGT-800 gas turbine can reduce CO2 emissions by 47 per cent, said Dr Philipp Geipel, the director for research and development Singapore at Siemens Energy.

Using H2 as fuel in gas turbines that are not hydrogen-ready can lead to unstable combustion and a higher risk of explosions, he told the media during a visit to the German company’s industrial hub in Finspang in September.

This means that compared with a gas turbine of similar capacity that runs fully on natural gas, the hydrogen-ready SGT-800 gas turbine can reduce CO2 emissions by 47 per cent, said Dr Philipp Geipel, the director for research and development Singapore at Siemens Energy.

Using H2 as fuel in gas turbines that are not hydrogen-ready can lead to unstable combustion and a higher risk of explosions, he told the media during a visit to the German company’s industrial hub in Finspang in September.

The nascency of H2

While H2 offers much promise as a green fuel, it is not yet used widely globally.

Professor Chan Siew Hwa, co-director at the Energy Research Institute @ NTU, said the main reasons are the high cost of production, storage and transport, the lack of large-scale infrastructure and uncertainty over demand.

H2 is mainly produced by running an electric current through water – a process called electrolysis – to separate it into H2 and oxygen.

For H2 to be truly considered a green fuel, the electricity used to split the water molecule must come from renewable sources like solar energy. But most H2 today is produced from fossil fuels, making it “grey hydrogen”.

Transporting and storing H2 is also challenging.

The fuel exists as a gas at room temperature, and must be cooled to extremely low temperatures of about minus 253 deg C so it can be transported more easily as a liquid.

For context, some Covid-19 mRNA vaccines had to be transported at temperatures ranging from minus 90 deg C to minus 60 deg C, and required specialised cold-chain logistics management.

The combustible nature of H2 is also why special turbines are needed to generate electricity from it.

Siemens Energy’s hydrogen-ready turbine can be used in gas-fired plants. But it is also equipped to handle H2 when the fuel becomes more readily available.

For example, it uses special burners to handle H2’s flame speed, which is much faster than that of natural gas. It also has more enhanced ventilation, fire suppression and H2 detection systems to manage the greater safety risks of H2, which is almost invisible and more reactive, said Dr Geipel.

“This staged approach helps minimise future retrofit costs and disruptions, balancing upfront investment with future flexibility,” he added.

Prof Chan said hydrogen-ready gas turbine engines would enable a transition to tap H2 once it becomes widely available and its cost falls within an acceptable range.

Mr Beni Suryadi, senior manager for Asean Plan of Action for Energy Cooperation and Strategic Partnerships at the Asean Centre for Energy, said the allure of H2 as a clean energy gained traction in the 2010s, especially after the signing of the Paris Agreement in 2015.

The Paris Agreement is the world’s climate pact, signed by nearly 200 countries in 2015 with the aim of limiting global warming to 1.5 deg C above pre-industrial levels. Limiting warming to this threshold will help the world avoid catastrophic climate impact, scientists say.

“The main driver was the global push towards a low-carbon economy, with countries committing to net-zero targets by 2050 or earlier,” he said.

The use of H2 is especially promising in sectors where high temperatures – attainable only through the burning of fuels – are needed, or in sectors where electrification with renewable energy is not cost-effective. These include the steel, chemicals, aviation and shipping sectors.

But producing low-carbon H2 with current technologies remains capital-intensive, and comes with relatively high investment risks.

R&D, however, can fill the gap.

In October 2022, Singapore launched the National Hydrogen Strategy, which will accelerate the development and deployment of H2. The Ministry of Trade and Industry had said in 2022 that the fuel could supply up to half of its power needs by 2050, although the proportion depends on technological developments.

The Government also has a Directed Hydrogen Programme, which has awarded about $43 million to six projects that can help make H2 technologies more viable and scalable.

Siemens Energy group senior vice-president and managing director for the Asia-Pacific Thorbjorn Fors said the company’s move to develop hydrogen-ready turbines was its bid to “future-proof” its turbine manufacturing business amid the global energy transition.

“If we hang on to a technology that is using only natural gas, the risk for us as a technology provider, as a company, is that our intellectual property would be degraded over time,” he said.

“So we invest about €1 billion (S$1.5 billion) every year in research development as a company, and a significant portion of that goes into making sure that our gas turbines can manage a wide range of different fuels, in particular green fuels,” he said.

Exploring ammonia

One of the R&D pathways being explored to make H2 a more viable fuel is whether it can be transported in other forms.

This is where ammonia comes in.

Ammonia can be used as a carrier to transport H2 as it is relatively stable and can be stored and transported as a liquid. It is also widely used in fertiliser production and supported by existing storage and transport infrastructure.

Ammonia is produced through a process combining nitrogen and H2. However, the “cracking” of ammonia – which involves heating it to split the compound into its components – to get H2 would require very high operating temperatures. Conversion between the two fuel forms will also entail energy losses.

To overcome these challenges, researchers are looking into the possibility of burning ammonia to generate electricity instead.

But burning ammonia directly in a gas turbine is still at an early research stage, said Mr Sundar Chidambaram, head of strategy and government affairs for Asia-Pacific at Siemens Energy.

This is due to challenges such as ammonia being less reactive than fuels like H2 and natural gas, he added. A fuel that is less reactive could hamper the efficiency of burning it for power.

Singapore is also exploring the potential use of ammonia for power generation.

In October, EMA and the Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore appointed a consortium led by Keppel to conduct the next phase of a project to provide a low- or zero-carbon ammonia solution on Jurong Island for power generation and bunkering.

“If there’s a way to burn ammonia directly, then actually it can be more energy efficient,” said EMA’s Mr Puah.

He added that the research into the use of H2 or ammonia as cleaner fuels could also contribute to the energy security of countries that plan to use it.

“Any place with abundant and low-cost energy can produce H2 and ammonia, and therefore it means that from the supply security point of view, you have many suppliers who can supply to Singapore, if the H2 economy takes off,” he said.

Regional aspirations

Across Asean, the push to green the energy sectors of the various countries is also gaining momentum.

The grouping has, for instance, set itself the goal of increasing renewable energy’s share of the region’s energy mix to 23 per cent by 2025. In 2022, the figure was 15 per cent.

Progress is also being made on a regional grid that will connect the energy systems of countries in the region. Such a grid will allow countries in the region to share renewable energy resources.

But with the developing region’s massive and ever-growing appetite for energy, cutting emissions from the power sector will not be a tussle between renewable energy or low-carbon fuels like H2 and ammonia.

Siemens Energy said its hydrogen-ready SGT-800 turbine was designed to be incorporated into a grid with more varied energy sources, such as wind farms or solar plants, as the turbine can be activated in 10 minutes.

“The (turbines) can reliably fill the gaps when the sun isn’t shining or the wind isn’t blowing. In short, high reliability directly supports the energy transition by ensuring stable, low-emission power while renewables continue to scale,” said Mr Sundar.

But experts say that the choice of using H2 or ammonia, or taking other routes to cut emissions from the power sector, is highly context-specific.

Siemens Energy’s Mr Fors said that in Europe, there already exists a network of pipelines that could enable the transportation of a hydrogen-natural gas fuel blend. It is also easier for new pipelines to be created there.

In Asia, however, constructing pipelines between countries rich in renewable resources for H2 or ammonia generation – such as India or Australia – to places like Singapore is more challenging.

“I think that’s the primary reason why, from an Asian context, ammonia is more attractive than H2, while H2 might be more attractive for Europe,” Mr Fors noted.

He added that scaling up the use of H2 requires supportive policies and targeted investments.

Mainstream technologies for solar power and wind energy faced similar challenges in the initial stages, he said. But he added: “I think what was the tipping point was that policymakers and governments went in with clear, targeted programmes to support the business to scale up.

“What we are advocating for is that policymakers should take the same step now for these significant carriers, like they used to do for solar and wind and so forth, to allow us to scale up.”

Note: This article was written by Chin Hui Shan and first appeared in The Straits Times on 27 October 2025.

Source: The Straits Times