- Mitsubishi Power has successfully completed the permanent installation of its large-scale electrolyzer at the company’s state-of-the-art Takasago Hydrogen Park in Japan.
- The unit now operates at full load and in real-world conditions.
The large-scale 5.5 MW single stack pressurized alkaline electrolyzer is being validated in two stages. First, a single unit was installed and tested at the Herøya Industrial Park in Norway; extensive operational parameters were tested and the short-term validation culminated in a 96-hour baseload run of safe and reliable operation. From there the technology is now undergoing long-term validation at a permanent installation in the Takasago Hydrogen Park.
Takasago Hydrogen Park is the world’s first center dedicated to the validation of hydrogen-related technologies. It is designed for the long-term operation of these electrolyzers at one location and under the same conditions as they would operate commercially. Full-scale validation of a technology is a method championed by Mitsubishi Power for more than 30 years and aims to minimize technology risk for customers. The objectives include performance, operations, start-ups, shutdowns, gas quality, safety, and digital control integration.
While this disciplined validation process extends the overall product development schedule, Mitsubishi Power’s philosophy is to invest time to achieve high reliability which translates to fewer troubleshooting issues once the product is commercial, and it helps reduce unplanned downtime for the owner – saving costs, minimizing forced outages, and increasing unit availability.
This electrolyzer design will be used in the production of green hydrogen at North America’s largest hydrogen energy project under construction, the Advanced Clean Energy Storage (ACES Delta) project in Delta, Utah, a joint venture between Chevron and Mitsubishi Power Americas, with equipment arriving on-site starting in fall 2023.
ACES Delta is a utility-scale energy project that will produce, store, and deliver green hydrogen. Scheduled to begin operations in 2025, the ACES Delta project will use renewable energy-powered electrolyzers to split water into oxygen and hydrogen. The green hydrogen produced using electrolysis will be stored in two massive salt caverns, each the size of the Empire State Building, and each capable of storing 150-gigawatt hours (GWh) of energy for dispatch back to the grid when it is needed.
Kent Rockaway, Vice President, Hydrogen Production, Mitsubishi Power Americas, said, “These validation units are significant milestones for our electrolyzer technology and a testament to how we approach the development of our products for our customers. The electrolyzers will soon arrive at the ACES Delta project, a benchmark project that will help decarbonize the western U.S., and we are excited to watch its progress.”
Author: Bryan Groenendaal
