Open Access

Kawasaki (KHI) has made various improvements and commercialized hydrogen gas turbines for existing diffusion combustors (0–100 vol.% H2, wet combustion) and lean pre-mixed DLE combustors (0–30 vol.% H2). However, it is challenging for conventional combustion technology to achieve dry low NOx emissions for 100 vol.% hydrogen. Kawasaki’s unique approach is the development of a new dry combustion technology for high hydrogen content fuel: the micromix (MMX) combustion. Kawasaki established this combustion technology to achieve low NOx for 100 vol.% hydrogen combustion. Micromix is based on a large number of miniaturized non-premixed-type flames, making this concept inherently safe toward flashback. Recently, Kawasaki has commercialized a gas turbine with a micromix combustor as the world’s first dry gas turbine capable for 100 vol.% hydrogen. This paper shows the latest improvements of the micromix combustor before the commercialization with focus on NOx reduction achieved by decreasing the fuel injection hole diameter, and the extension of the operational flexibility by applying a supplemental burner system. During demonstration tests with a 1.8 MWel gas turbine, it could be proven that this novel combustion concept meets Japan’s fundamental NOx regulations (84 ppm referred to 15 vol.% residual O2) for pure hydrogen and furthermore can be operated with natural gas/hydrogen blends in the range up to 50 vol.% H2 over the entire load range.