World’s largest renewable diesel-powered combustion-turbine demo completed
The Electric Power Research Institute and the Tennessee Valley Authority announced Nov. 20 the successful demonstration of renewable diesel as a combustion-turbine fuel for power generation.
The demonstration—the first U.S. test and the largest conducted in the world—was performed on a 76-megawatt dual-fuel natural gas/diesel unit at TVA's Johnsonville site in Tennessee.
EPRI collaborated with TVA’s innovation and research and Johnsonville-operations teams to evaluate the gas turbine across a full range of operating conditions, including at full load with no turbine or control-system modifications.
The test demonstrated how renewable diesel could support near-term decarbonization of dispatchable thermal power generation assets, providing on-demand power with up to 75 percent fewer lifecycle greenhouse-gas emissions compared to conventional diesel.
Renewable diesel is a drop-in replacement fuel made from renewable raw materials such as vegetable oils, plant residues and organic wastes and meets ASTM D975 quality specifications.
Renewable diesel can also reduce air pollutants.
Unlike biodiesel, which was tested previously by the gas-turbine community, renewable diesel is a chemically equivalent replacement for petroleum diesel.
“As growing electricity demand underscores the continued need for dispatchable power generation, low-carbon fuels present a potential pathway for existing units to contribute to net-zero goals,” said Neva Espinoza, EPRI’s chief generation officer and senior vice president of energy supply and low-carbon resources.
“Collaboratively demonstrating emerging technologies and approaches at scale is key to accelerating a reliable and affordable energy transition,” Espinoza said.
Joe Hoagland, TVA’s vice president of innovation and research, added, “TVA is a clean-energy leader, and we believe innovation will play a critical role in our region and nation’s drive toward a clean-energy future. This test demonstrates our commitment to develop clean-energy technologies to provide sustainable and reliable power to our region’s growing economy.”
Additionally, this demonstration could have further industry implications for peaking units.
These are smaller power plants that typically operate less frequently but can ramp up or down quickly to ensure system reliability.
These generators provide greater flexibility for grid operators seeking to balance intermittent resources such as wind and solar.
EPRI plans to soon publish a report outlining the demonstration’s results as part of the Low-Carbon Resources Initiative to both share details and learnings with industry and other stakeholders.
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