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A portion of the South Australian hydrogen facility shown by AGIG.
photo: Way
Gas pipeline company Firstgas is eyeing an Australian project that would supply a mix of 10% green hydrogen and 90% fossil fuel gas to 4,000 homes.
Firstgas says it could start supplying green hydrogen blends to New Zealanders’ homes this year if it gets approval from WorkSafe.
Green hydrogen is made from renewable electricity, as opposed to “grey” hydrogen made from fossil fuels.
Marcos Pelenur from the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Authority (EECA) said green hydrogen had good potential in New Zealand, but using electricity directly could be a more efficient way to run household appliances.
The Adelaide plant also supplies 100% hydrogen buses and pure hydrogen industrial facilities.
The hydrogen produced at the Australian Gas Infrastructure Group (AGIG) demonstration plant in South Australia is considered “green” because it is produced using renewable electricity, which is drawn from the grid when there is plenty of hydro, wind or solar power.
The plant starts up in just seconds, so it can be started quickly when there is surplus low-cost electricity available.
The electricity is used to split water into oxygen and hydrogen, which are then placed in storage tanks or mixed with fossil fuel gas and piped to homes.
According to Australian research, household appliances designed for fossil gas can only cope with mixtures of up to 20% hydrogen.
“The Australian Hydrogen Centre’s research shows that the network and pipelines we have in the ground can run on 100 per cent hydrogen… but the equipment is designed to run on natural gas and hydrogen does burn a little differently,” said Krissy Raman, head of sustainability at Gas.
Using 100% hydrogen would require households to replace appliances, but blending green hydrogen with biomethane (rather than fossil fuel gas) is another possibility if there is enough biomethane.
Two other Australian plants under construction or soon to come on stream will supply more than 40,000 homes with a green hydrogen/fossil gas blend, AGIG said.
In New Zealand, Firstgas’ Ben Gerritsen said the gas network operator was looking closely at the Adelaide project.
“We are also at an advanced stage of planning our own hydrogen blending pilot and we have submitted an application to the regulator, WorkSafe. We are not sure when they will give us a response but we are hopeful that they will give us a response in the coming months so that we can start the pilot later this year,” he said.
Gleason said Firstgas will not announce the location until it gets approval.
He said as a gas pipeline owner, Firstgas’ focus was on how to use existing pipelines in a future low-carbon environment.
“All the expert reports point to an increasing role for hydrogen,[but]to what extent … is still open to debate and unknown,” he said.
“We currently have a network that connects both industrial high-heat users and residential users, so we have a wide range of options on our network.”
Creating a green hydrogen supply relies on abundant renewable electricity.
One option discussed previously is to use power from dams in the lower South Island to produce hydrogen, but this relies on the closure and release of supply from the Tiwai Point aluminium smelter. Tiwai’s owners have now extended its power supply contract for 20 years.
Mr Gleeson said there were other options. Offshore wind in Taranaki was one possibility for developing the industry, he said.
“There are two ways to output from large-scale offshore wind projects. The first is through power lines, and the second is through molecular hydrogen. From what I understand, developers are considering both of these methods.”
While gas network companies want to explore using hydrogen in homes, an expert report prepared by New Zealand Energy suggests hydrogen is more likely to be cost-effective in sectors where there are no other good low-carbon alternatives.
The first and most obvious use for green hydrogen would be to replace “grey” hydrogen produced using fossil fuels that is already used in factories, Perenour said.
Heavy-duty transport could be next. His agency is helping to test hydrogen fuel cells for trucks as well as battery alternatives. Medium- and long-distance aviation and heavy industry are another possibility, he said.
However, when it comes to powering homes, Perenour said appliances are a more straightforward option.
“If you have to use electricity to make hydrogen and then use the hydrogen to heat and cook in your home, you’ve added an extra step, whereas with appliances, you generate the electricity and use it.
“By eliminating this extra step, you save a lot of energy loss, which reduces costs.”
Using a heat pump for heating can save even more energy, Perenour said, because heat pumps can produce three times more heat or cooling per unit of energy than standard electrical or gas appliances.
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