The UK’s natural gas network will be capable of accommodating hydrogen to supply it as fuel to households and industries, according to a report based on a trial by National Gas cited by Reuters.
Natural gas is currently the single largest energy source in the UK, accounting for around a third of power generation and a lot more in home heating and boilers.
National Gas has a special ‘Hydrogen Focus Area’ that considers the market change activities needed to integrate hydrogen into the UK’s energy mix.
Hydrogen is expected to contribute to the UK’s efforts to reach net zero and to achieve a cleaner power grid.
The previous Conservative UK government had a strategic policy decision to support the blending of up to 20% hydrogen by volume into Britain’s gas distribution networks.
The trial by National Gas showed that there were “no issues” during the test phase in blending hydrogen, from a 2% blend of hydrogen with natural gas to up to 100%. The trial hasn’t revealed any major obstacles to repurposing the natural gas network to hydrogen, according to a report based on the findings.
The trial is moving to a second test phase to look into issues associated with hydrogen compression, including the potential to repurpose gas turbines for hydrogen use at compressor stations.
“Today’s report presents a promising picture on hydrogen blending, which can help the government meet its ambition of making the country a clean energy superpower as we progress to 100% green hydrogen, and all while using our existing infrastructure,” National Gas chief executive Jon Butterwork told Reuters.
While initial testing of blending hydrogen is encouraging, the hydrogen industry, especially green hydrogen, needs to overcome several key hurdles to becoming a mainstream fuel. Cost is the biggest hurdle.
While heavy industry and governments pin their hopes on hydrogen for faster decarbonization, and power-generating companies and oil and gas majors look to diversify into low-carbon hydrogen production, costs are still high for green hydrogen production and hold back massive deployment of projects, analysts say.
By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com
