Assessing gas quality and hydrogen handling — MARCOGAZ’s attendance at the Prime Movers meeting

06 July 2021 | News

On the occasion of the Prime Movers Subgroup Gas Quality and Hydrogen Handling meeting on June 30 2021 facilitated by ENTSOG, relevant stakeholders of the gas value chain, including MARCOGAZ, have laid out scenarios for innovative and cost-efficient ways to handle gas quality in fluctuating blends. Discussions over pure hydrogen grids as part of the future gas system have also featured.

The findings have revealed that, in current scenarios, existing industrial stock can handle 3% hydrogen. This level of concentration can go as high as 25%, depending on the sector and natural gas base composition.

Domestic sector can currently handle 10%-20% hydrogen without further investments and fluctuating percentages can be accommodated since intermittent injection of hydrogen is allowed. Also, blending with de-blending in the downstream could be used for dedicated hydrogen transport to industrial users.

The pathway for the midterm scenarios highlights the need for limited investments to reach higher hydrogen levels in the industry. For the domestic sector, heating appliances can accommodate 20% hydrogen in the mid-term, being easily converted to 100% hydrogen. Moreover, methanation and deblending facilities are expected to be deployed in some areas. The analysis further found that deblending costs can be roughly assumed with 1 to 2 €/kg hydrogen for a membrane/PSA scheme.

In the long-term, dubbed hydrogen backbone scenario, most sectors have plans allowing for a retrofit to 100% hydrogen without major investments.

MARCOGAZ’s contribution has been an added value to the analysis of the Prime Movers Group. The group’s work has been supported by our infographic, identifying gaps in knowledge and areas where R&D is required to remove barriers limiting hydrogen uptake in the supply chain and enabling new applications for hydrogen and hydrogen/natural gas mixtures.

MARCOGAZ is eager to enhance its participation and information sharing on upcoming analysis and consultations of the Prime Movers Group.

Key Takeaways

As the results of the Prime Movers Group analysis have demonstrated, acceptable concentrations of hydrogen vary for different end uses today. The addition of hydrogen to natural gas directly influences several gas properties, including density, Net Calorific Value (NCV), Gross Calorific Value, Wobbe Index, combustion air requirement and methane number. However, the future pathway shows that reaching as high as 100% levels of hydrogen in these end uses is possible.

Higher hydrogen/natural gas mixtures and hydrogen in the industrial end uses seem to be only possible with a hydrogen backbone in the long term, taking into consideration the intermittency of hydrogen injection.

For more information, take a look at our infographic