Increasing the use of renewable energy requires new approaches to energy storage and energy transport. One of these approaches is to store and transport hydrogen in natural gas pipeline networks. Windpower and photo voltaics produce power intermittently, depending on weather patters, and diurnal patterns The hydrogen would be generated by surplus electricity from wind power and photo voltaics, and it would therefore be  green hydrogen, as opposed to hydrogen from coal or other fossil fuels. The distribution and use of the thus produced hydrogen can be solved by  blending hydrogen into the existing natural gas pipeline network appears to be a strategy for storing and delivering renewable energy to markets. Adding Hydrogen to the natural gas requires considerations regarding combustion systems, as well as the impact on compressors and pipeline hydraulics. Previous studies have provided insights in the change of thermodynamic and physical properties of hydrogen natural gas mixtures, including the imact of the very low molecular weiight of hydrogen molekules.

 Generally, the hydrogen content in the pipeline flow would be below 10%, although a level of 20% is part of discussions. thus avoiding the problems of transporting and burning pure hydrogen.  The natural gas – hydrogen mixtures have to be considered both from a gas transport and a gas storage perspective. Thus , the transport efficiency of the pipeline, safety aspects, aspects of gas turbine combustion, and in particular questions about the capability of existing and new infrastructure  to use natural gas – hydrogen mixtures as fuel are addressed in this paper.

In this study, the impact of various levels of hydrogen in a pipeline system are simulated. The pipeline hydraulic simulation will provide the necessary operating conditions for the gas compressors, and the gas turbines that drive these compressors. The result of the study addresses the impact on transportation efficiency in terms of energy consumption and the emission of green house gases.

Calculations include the determination of the carbon foot print of an operation where a certain percentage of H2 is injected into a natural gas pipeline. This goes beyond mere transportation efficiency, since the calculations also address the carbon avoidance of the fuel contains a certain amount of hydrogen. Since the economics of Hydrogen injection also have to be compared based on the energy storage application, these economics are addressed too. Further, necessary concepts in the capability to store gas to better balance supply and demand are discussed.

 


Hydrogen in Pipelines: Impact of Hydrogen Transport in Natural Gas Pipelines

Division / Sponsor:
International Gas Turbine Institute (IGTI)

Paper Proceedings: https://asmedigitalcollection.asme.org/GT/GT2020/volume/84058

Turbo Expo - Virtual Conference

Supporting the need among researchers worldwide for additional online and multimedia content, ASME now offers the ASME Conference Video Collection. This platform will collect and provide long-term access to conference presentation videos, encompassing all technology areas within ASME's technical conference and events program. About 30,000-40,000 engineers across all mechanical engineering and related disciplines participate in ASME conferences each year. This includes authors of approximately 6,000 to 8,000 technical papers published by ASME, the majority of whom also submit video presentations for our virtual conferences. The video collection will be available as an add-on to existing product packages or as a separate subscription.