CEO Abbas Aliabadi told reporters Thursday the MGT-75 turbine will be unveiled soon and considerably boost production from existing infrastructure without the need for new and costly power plants.
"MGT-75 is an industrial accomplishment and one of the best-in-class turbines in the world. The new generation MGT-70 turbines allow expansion of power production without spending massive amounts on new units," Aliabadi said.
Adding hydrogen to natural gas is a major step toward decarbonize energy production as its combustion process emits less greenhouse gases including CO2. It also produces more energy.
The fourth upgrade to the MGT-70 turbine has improved efficiency by 24% to 60% over the previous design.
Most turbines used in Iran’s power stations are from the E-class family and can be upgraded to MGT-75 with improved efficiency, the Mapna chief added.
“We take hydrogen, which is a clean fuel, from renewable power plants, and use it in the turbines, which increase installed capacity by 70 megawatts.”
While reducing carbon emissions from traditional power stations is driving the increase in power production from renewables, hydrogen-fueled gas turbines can also play a role.
Hydrogen, reacting with oxygen, is a very energetic, non-polluting fuel. Surplus renewable electrical energy from solar and wind could be used for electrolysis of water to produce hydrogen to power gas turbine power plants.
“We can replace up to 60% of the methane used in gas turbines with hydrogen,” Aliabadi said, and added that the first hydrogen-fueled gas turbine will be installed in a Tehran power plant in May.
In common with other manufacturers, Mapna has set a target to offer gas turbines capable of burning 100% hydrogen, and is developing special combustors to this end.
The challenge, however, is to do this without compromising efficiency, startup time and emission of poison gases like nitrogen oxides (NOx) derived from nitrogen and oxygen combustion under high pressure and temperature. “This is being done by developing combustor designs with an increasing the proportion of hydrogen in natural gas without compromising high performance expectations in terms of emissions and overall output.”
Among Top Ten
Mapna was chosen by MEED Company as among the top 10 engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contractors, in the oil, gas, and petrochemical industry in the Middle East and North Africa last December.
Middle East Business Intelligence (known as MEED, abbreviated from the former name Middle East Economic Digest), is a company that provides analysis and commentary on Middle Eastern and North African markets, companies, people and data on the regional projects market.
In MEED’s last report on December 2020, Mapna was ranked 7th among the top 10 EPC contractors in the MENA region.
According to MEED’s assessment, Mapna did well in the domestic oil industry and signed an $876 million contract for the development of Parsi and Paranj oil fields with the National Iranian South Oil Company.
The ten-year contract aims to increase daily production at Parsi and Paranj to 85,000 barrels from the current 52,000 barrels.
Mapna Group is a conglomerate of Iranian companies involved in development and execution of thermal and renewable power, oil and gas, railroads and other industrial projects as well as manufacturing equipment.