Baker Hughes making strides in transition to hydrogen economy

Energy technology company Baker Hughes has reached numerous milestones in the advancement of its hydrogen-enabling technologies as well as in executing several customers’ hydrogen projects and new collaborations as part of its broader strategy in new energy.

The company announced these milestones during the 24th Baker Hughes Annual Meeting held in Florence, Italy, on January 29.

One of the milestones included Baker Hughes unveiling a new hydrogen testing facility for validation of its NovaLT industrial turbines to run blends all the way up to 100% hydrogen.

The new facility includes a test bench to allow full load testing, with complete fuel flexibility up to 100% hydrogen, and features a 300-bar pressure and 2,450 kg storage capacity. It will serve as a hub for Baker Hughes’ collaboration with customers in the growing hydrogen economy.

Recently, Baker Hughes also completed manufacturing and testing of its NovaLT 16 hydrogen turbines for Air Products’ Net-Zero Hydrogen Energy Complex in Edmonton, Canada. The company noted that the turbines underwent full load testing at the newly unveiled testing facility.

What is more, Baker Hughes reported progress on another key Air Products’ hydrogen project, with the delivery of the first two trains of advanced hydrogen compression solutions for the NEOM project in Saudi Arabia, the largest green hydrogen project in the world through the equal joint venture of ACWA Power, Air Products and NEOM.

The company recently invested in expanding its manufacturing site in Modon, Saudi Arabia, to further support the delivery of projects in the country, including NEOM, with localized testing and packaging solutions. Both projects are part of the two companies’ long-standing collaboration on hydrogen inaugurated in 2021.

The next milestone announced by Baker Hughes was a collaboration agreement with HyET, a company that provides technologies for low-cost, distributed power generation and commercially viable hydrogen production at high pressure, for the development, industrialization, and commercialization of an advanced hydrogen compression solution.

Finally, Baker Hughes revealed it had signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Green Energy Park, a vertically integrated renewable energy company with ammonia and hydrogen terminals projects worldwide.

The MoU aims to set out the principles of the envisaged collaboration between the two companies in multiple areas of the green hydrogen value chain, including production, storage, transportation, and utilization of green hydrogen and ammonia-based fuels, as well as exploration of possible co-development of related technologies and projects at the giga-watt scale.

“These low-carbon and carbon-free energy advancements illustrate how the urgency of the energy transition has transformed customer relationships into comprehensive partnerships for innovation across several projects,” said Lorenzo Simonelli, Chairman and CEO of Baker Hughes.

“There is no path to net-zero without innovation and collaboration, and our work with customers and partners, including Air Products, is proving the validity the hydrogen economy and of our strategy to invest and develop innovative solutions to cover the entire hydrogen value chain.”