(526h) Hydrogen Injection in Natural Gas Pipelines for Decarbonization of Power Sector in New York State

Recent advancements in techniques to produce renewable electricity or gases have accelerated the need for new flexible means to store and distribute renewable energy. The availability of renewable electricity from sources such as solar and off-shore wind, is being promoted in New York, providing an opportunity to store energy from these intermittent sources as “hydrogen” and New York’s existing natural gas distribution system as a means of delivering hydrogen to intended destinations.

While the Power-to-Gas (P2G) concept is gaining attention, the transport of produced hydrogen is also being discussed and several pilot studies underway, though mainly in the UK, Australia and Japan. We recently initiated an assessment of the current ability of each component of the utility gas distribution system to transmit hydrogen or natural gas/hydrogen blends and identify the requirements for increased use of hydrogen to deliver green power to New York State customers.

We believe that an engineering assessment, safety protocols to handle hydrogen/natural gas blends, understanding changes in key parameters by flowing blends on pipeline infrastructure, including quantification of pipeline life prediction would be necessary for hydrogen management in natural gas pipelines. Together with known data, we calculate that upon achieving total decarbonization of natural gas in New York State can achieve a reduction of 24.89 million metric tons of CO₂ that amounts to 39.0% in the power sector or 15% of New York’s total CO₂ emissions.