Hydro methane blends use in a CHP plant: an energy-environmental analysis

Nowadays there is a need to find alternative fuels to oil able to reduce the energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions. Every technological innovation aimed at improving energy efficiency, needs a sustainable development approach contributing to the decoupling process between environmental pollution and economic growth. The main aim of this paper is to demonstrate how the use of the hydrogen enrichment in a CHP plant represents a valid alternative to the same commercial energy systems, regarding to CO2 emissions avoidance. The paper presents data resulting by the experimental campaign carried out over four months on a demo CHP (internal combustion engine) fueled with a hydrogen enriched methane blends, installed at the Sapienza University Sports Centre. The hydrogen for the enrichment is produced by renewable energy trough a PV array. A theoretical energy analysis of this hybrid system, with a integrated CHP plant, is developed in order to evaluate the energy penalty related to a carbon avoidance technique. Finally, an environmental comparison between conventional CHP system, Hybrid system and Hybrid system with separated electrical generation, is carried out. The analysis shows that using blends with 20% of H2 content and tuning engine parameters, is possible to minimize the hybrid system energy efficiency loss and obtaining the best carbon avoidance (about 32% respect to conventional CHP).