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

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 4

Background 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… 5

The German Energy system 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 Consumption TWh /a 610 930 Average power GW 70 105 Storage capacity 0.04 210 Cal. operating range h 0.6 2000 Electricity Natural gas The German Energy system So why not use the gas grid? Its already there...

The storage of energy as gas has huge potential Discharge time [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

Wind Power production 2008-2010 volatile increasing more wind power than power network capacity maximum power grid capacity

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

Power to Gas – Using existing gas infrastructure to transport renewable energy excess renewable electricity Electrolyser (high efficiency) H2 direct injection into gas grid (10-15% ?) gas applications gas storage H2 Methanation CH4 injection into gas grid (unlimited) O2 Re-use of CO2

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

GERG Hydrogen Projects Hydrogen in the Natural Gas Grid Domestic and commercial appliances and distribution grids Admissible Hydrogen Concentration in Natural gas systems A DomHydro (running) B Hygrid C SMARTSim D Power to Gas Platforms Project of GERG PC D running E.ON Project North Sea Power to Gas Mediterranean Power to Gas (Establishing scenarios for priority investigation) (DNV KEMA) Establishing and analysing the level of existing knowledge 32 GERG and non-GERG partners Reports in June 2013 Part 1 : Basics, Theory and Lab investigation Cooperation and Monitoring partners of GERG DVGW/GWI ERG E.ON Part 2: Injection of H2 Planning, Installation, operation of injection site Field tests up to 10%: compilation of appliances and components, measurement evaluation Coordination of program Common publication Mediterranean GL (UK) KIWA Managed.: KIWA, Managed.: E.ON

Hydrogen in Pipelines 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 Source: E.ON Ruhrgas

GERG Admissable Concentrations of Hydrogen in Pipelines 2012-13: 32 members H2 constraints from manufactures (e.g. CNG tanks and gas turbines) being Investigated. 2% limit on old CNG tanks, 10% for turbines 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 A hydrogen methane mixture (up to 15% H2) meets all significant quality requirements for natural gas (technical code DVGW) Source: E.ON Ruhrgas

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

HyGrid: Outline WP1:Theoretical and Lab support WP2: Field test 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

Economic Considerations 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 Power’s Hfuel electrolyser 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

Summary and Conclusions 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

Thank You. For more information on GERG and the Power to Gas projects, please contact: robertjudd@gerg.eu