A breakthrough in hydrogen power has been achieved by a European consortium led by Siemens Energy, who have successfully tested a gas turbine that can run on pure hydrogen, natural gas, and any mix of the two.

The HYFLEXPOWER project, funded by the EU’s Horizon 2020 program, aims to demonstrate the feasibility and flexibility of using renewable hydrogen as a clean and reliable energy source for electricity and heat generation.

The project is based at the Saillat-sur-Vienne paper packaging plant in France, owned by Smurfit Kappa, one of Europe’s leading manufacturers of corrugated packaging, containerboard, and ‘bag in box’ packages. The plant hosts a Siemens Energy SGT-400 industrial gas turbine, modified to operate with up to 100% hydrogen.