Adapting the Natural Gas Network for Hydrogen European Commission Hydrogen Seminar 26th April 2013 David Salisbury, President of GERG.

Adapting the Natural Gas Network for Hydrogen

European Commission Hydrogen Seminar26th April 2013

David Salisbury, President of GERG

The European Gas Research Group 52 years of collaborative R&D on natural gas topics

Effective gas industry network for R&D information exchange

26 members from 14 countries - all active in R&D

New category – Friends of GERG for non-gas industry cooperation

High quality research resource

Academic Network

Some Current priorities:

Hydrogen/Power to Gas

Renewables integration and decarbonisation

Network integrity and safety

LNG infrastructure

New end use technologies, CHP, mobility

Interoperability

EC-funded Projects

DEO • CONRAD • DIGBUILD • VOGUE • MICROMAP • PRESENSE • LABNET • GIGA • COMBO • NATURALHY • ORFEUS • INTEG-RISK • GASQUAL• LNG DENSITOMETER

Hydrogen, fuel of the future?

• Our gas infrastructure was designed to transport and use hydrogen blends and did so for over 150 years

• Hydrogen content up to 63%

• Since the introduction of natural gas, the network and applications have been developed for an assumed hydrogen concentration close to 0%.

• Towns gas is still produced for domestic use in cities such as Hong Kong and Singapore, using natural gas as a source!

Towns gas produced from coal, 1815

4

Europe needs wind and solar and other renewables to decarbonise its energy system, but:

“The European grid is far from ready for new variable-energy sources such as wind and solar”

Headline of article in the European Voice, 22nd September 2012

The wind does not blow and the sun does not shine on demand

• In 2011 Electricity Transporters paid wind generators tens of M€ not to generate.

• Without sufficient cost-effective and available energy storage, valuable renewable energy is being wasted

• The cost of upgrading the electricity to incorporate planned renewables has been estimated at several €100bns.

But the storage capacity is already there…

Background

5

• Mature natural gas grids carry much more energy than electricity grids, and extra capacity is already available.

• In the UK the gas network carries three times as much energy as the electricity grid, comparable with energy consumed by road transport

• End use of gas can be over 90% efficient with low transmission losses

The German Energy system

So why not use the gas grid? Its already there...

Consumption TWh/a 610 930

Average power GW 70 105

Storage capacity TWh 0.04 210

Cal. operating range h 0.6 2000

Electricity Natural gas

The storage of energy as gas has huge

potential

Dis

cha

rge

tim

e [

h]

CAES: Compressed Air Energy Storage (Druckluftspeicherkraftwerk)PHS: Pumped Hydro Storage (Pumpspeicherwerk)H2, SNG: Hydrogen, Synthetic Natural Gas (Underground storage includes the re-

electrification in combined cycle power plant)

Source: Research Center Jülich

• volatile

• increasing

• more wind power than powernetwork capacity

maximum power grid capacity

Wind Power production 2008-2010

There are number of technical issues, and GERG has begun to address these...

Our Energy System is Changing...

Increased integration of of renewable energies changes a demand driven energy system to a supply (or opportunity) driven system

The existing electricity system (online balanced) is not currently capable of coping with those requirements

Storage is vital to achieve balance between demand and supply...

...and the high pressure gas system can provide this

Power to Gas – Using existing gas

infrastructure to transport renewable energy

excess renewableelectricity

Electrolyser (high efficiency)

Methanation

direct injection intogas grid (10-15% ?)

injection into gas grid (unlimited)

H2

H2

CH4

Re-use of CO2

O2

gas applications

gas storage

Benefits

• hydrogen or methane from surplus renewable electricity

• injected into the existing natural gas network

• the enormous capacity of existing infrastructure can be used

• Several 100,000 km of existing pipelines

• Several million m3 of underground storage

• Almost 1000 TWh of energy transported annually as natural gas

• Twice as much as electricity

• 10% hydrogen added to grid is about 30TWh

• A medium sized pipeline system of 100,000m3/ h at 10% H2 injection would require 400MW of electricity – equivalent to several wind farms.

Challenges and Bottlenecks for hydrogen

injection

• Potential for degradation of pipeline steels

• Modern gas turbines with pre-mixed burners

• Steel tanks in NGVs

• The existing appliance population

• Electrolysis

• What are the limits?

• What needs to be done?

• What technology advances need to be supported?

• What are the economics for the competing routes?

• The GERG Power to Gas Research roadmap

13

DomHydro

(running)A

GERG Hydrogen Projects

Hydrogen in the Natural Gas Grid

Domestic and commercial appliances and distribution grids

Establishing and

analysing the level of

existing knowledge

32 GERG and non-GERG partners

Reports in June 2013

Admissible

Hydrogen

Concentration in

Natural gas systems

KIWA

ERGE.ON

GL (UK)

Managed.: KIWA,

HygridB

Part 2: Injection of H2

Planning, Installation,

operation of injection

site

Field tests up to 10%:

compilation of

appliances and

components,

measurement

evaluation

Cooperation

and

Monitoring

partners

of GERG

Part 1 :

Basics, Theory and

Lab investigation

Managed.: E.ON

Com

mon

pu

blicati

on

Coord

inati

on

of

pro

gra

m DVGW/GWI

Project of GERG PC Drunning E.ON Project

SMARTSimC

North Sea Power to Gas

Mediterranean Power to Gas

(Establishing scenarios for priority investigation)

(DNV KEMA)

Power to Gas

PlatformsD

Annual balance (Germany):

15% H2 in the natural gas transmission grid equals approx. 15 bcm.

33 GW excess wind power over 2000 h/a would be necessary to generate this amount of energy.

Local balance: Example alpha ventus:

Conversion of the entire power production (60 MW at peak) would lead to a flow of 13.600 H2 m³/h

Injection into a large transmission pipeline (entry cap: 3.3 mcm) would create a 0.4% content of H2

But - Injection into a distribution pipeline at low demand would be more of an issue

Hydrogen in Pipelines

Source: E.ON Ruhrgas

H2 constraints from manufactures

(e.g. CNG tanks and gas turbines) being Investigated.

2% limit on old CNG tanks, 10% for turbines

A hydrogen methane mixture (up to 15% H2) meets all significant quality requirements for natural gas (technical code DVGW)

GERG Admissable Concentrations of Hydrogen in Pipelines 2012-13: 32 members

Some underground storage seems to be sensitive concerning H2 (R&D necessary)

Further understanding of appliances under extreme conditions

Project is providing a gap analysis of current constraints on introduction of hydrogen into natural gas pipelines

Follows on from GERG NATURALHY project

Source: E.ON Ruhrgas

16

Domhydro: project outline

Project objective:

to gather insight in performance, emissions and safety of domestic gas appliances

when hydrogen is mixed in natural gas

Project scope:

new and existing domestic appliances

GAD appliances

different H2 / natural gas mixtures

reliable operation, emissions, efficiency

extreme practical conditions to be addressed

durability tests

Project goal: to contribute to the preparation of future decisions concerning technical limits to the

hydrogen content in natural gas

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

100

Erdgas H G20 95% G205% H2

90% G2010% H2

85% G2015% H2

80% G2020% H2

G222 70% G2030% H2

G21 G231

Ther

mal

Eff

icie

ncy

(%)

1

1,1

1,2

1,3

1,4

1,5

1,6

1,7

1,8

1,9

2

Air

Fac

tor

ηtherm full load

ηthermpartial load

λfull load

λpartial load

WP1:Theoretical and Lab support

Theoretical analysis and lab investigation of impact on combustion control solutions

Close cooperation with the GERG projects “Admissible hydrogen concentrations” and “Domhydro”

WP2: Field test

Installation of the injection facility incl. control and measurement equipment

Compilation and measurement of installed appliances

Incremental increasing injection of hydrogen within the limits of DVGW G260 Observation and measurement of selected appliances

WP3: Field test “Gas Plus Lab”

Field test in the experimental grid with new gas technologies in Karlsruhe

Project goal:

•To prove the feasibility of hydrogen injection up to 10% into an existing grid with mainly domestic customers

HyGrid: Outline

Electrolysis for H2 production is key

known technology; flexibility to be optimised for greater economic viability

to be placed at strategic locations in the grid

more affordable than electricity grid expansions - if existing infrastructure is used

ITM

Pow

er’s

Hfu

el e

lect

roly

ser

Essential parameters:

costs of electrolyser

costs of electricity

number of operating hours

benefit through avoided power grid extension

Costs of making gas network hydrogen ready vs cost of methanation

Economic Considerations

Storage of intermittent renewables is becoming a major issue as the installed capacity increases

Existing natural gas infrastructure offers a high transport and storage capacity with few transmission losses

Power to hydrogen or methane and injection in the gas grid is attractive, where the local power grid capacity is insufficient

High efficiencies are state of the art for gas use

Interaction between gas grids and power grids will increase - SMART systems

Smart communication and control systems are mandatory to create smart grids

Business cases need to built on a scenario by scenario basis

GERG is working with its members and other stakeholders to identify and address R&D issues

The gas network is an enabler of a long term low carbon energy system and an ideal partner for renewables

Summary and Conclusions

For more information on GERG and the Power to Gas projects, please contact:

[email protected]

Thank You.