What is hydrogen used for in power plants?

I’m not very familiar with power plants; in the past, the hydrogen we used was employed to apply pressure for protective purposes during the reactions taking place in the reaction vessels. 1. Pressurization: Similar to cooking in a pressure cooker. 2. Protection: Isolate from oxygen.

Reply 1# WANGJIABAO for cooling generators

Reply 3# bigsk: It’s not meant to be used as a dry gas seal, right?

Reply to 4# WANGJIABAO: The gas used in dry gas seals is sealing gas. Here is a quote for reference: Hydrogen circulates only within the generator’s chamber; there are usually four cold air chambers and five hot air chambers (four inlets and five outlets, with cold air entering and hot air exiting – taking a 200MW generator as an example). At the ends of the generator rotor, there are fans equipped with heat exchangers, which rotate along with the rotor. These fans blow the cold air (hydrogen) cooled by the hydrogen coolers located at the four corners of the generator into the chamber between the stator and rotor, from where it then exits. It passes through the cold and hot air chambers in sequence, exits through the stator chamber, and after being cooled again by the coolers at the four corners, it enters a new cycle. Hydrogen is produced at hydrogen stations by electrolyzing water using electrolyzers. If the generator leaks hydrogen, or if other factors cause low hydrogen pressure, gas can be supplied from the hydrogen main pipe at the hydrogen station. If the hydrogen purity is not up to standard, the hydrogen is discharged from the generator into the atmosphere.

Because hydrogen has a strong heat absorption capacity and is more effective than air for cooling generators, hydrogen is used for cooling in large generators.

I used to work in a power plant yet I didn’t know about this; I feel really embarrassed! But the units in that plant are relatively small, I think they’re 25MW turbines

With hydrogen present and a spark or something, isn’t that even more dangerous?

Below the supercritical condition, hydrogen cooling seems to be the choice for capacities over 300 MW.

I learned that hydrogen is used for cooling {:1_90:}