Compared to companies in other natural gas sectors, North American transmission line operators have not been as full-throated in their enthusiasm for the latest hydrogen energy development cycle. However, Enbridge Inc. President and CEO Al Monaco sent a distinct message at CERAWeek by IHS Markit.
"This is a huge opportunity," Monaco said on a March 3 virtual panel. "The difference this time around with hydrogen, you've got a lot of government support and support along the whole value chain."
Natural gas transmission companies have lately promoted the potential to transport hydrogen as part of plans to decarbonize their systems, but gas utilities have been more active in launching North American pilot projects. In November 2020, as gas distributors continued to announce new initiatives, Energy Transfer LP President and Chief Commercial Officer Marshall McCrea said, "We kind of scratch our heads around hydrogen."
Monaco acknowledged that Europe is further ahead on hydrogen blending in pipeline systems, but said North America is "coming along quickly behind."
Enbridge tests the water with hydrogen pilots
Enbridge's Quebec-based gas distribution affiliate Gazifere Inc. on Feb. 25 released new details on its previously announced green hydrogen partnership with Evolugen, a Brookfield Renewable Partners LP operating company. The partners plan to build and operate a plant at Evolugen's hydroelectric facilities in Gatineau, Quebec, which will power a roughly 20-MW electrolyzer to split water into oxygen and hydrogen. Gazifere plans to inject green hydrogen from the plant into its Quebec gas grid.
The facility would roughly match the world's largest electrolyzer facility at Hydro-Québec's hydropower facility in Bécancour, Quebec, though Hydro-Quebec in December 2020 announced plans for an 88-MW electrolyzer plant, among the largest under development around the world.
Enbridge is also working with Cummins Inc. to carry out a $5.2-million renewable hydrogen pilot project. The partners will produce renewable hydrogen at their joint venture power-to-gas facility in Markham, Ontario, for distribution in the city's gas network in 2021.
Notably, both projects revolve around gas distribution, a part of the supply chain where hydrogen blending is less problematic due to low-pressure gas flows and the large and growing amount of plastic pipe on the grid. Studies have shown that hydrogen is most likely to compromise steel pipelines that operate at high pressure, making injection into transmission lines more challenging. Monaco noted that hydrogen may cause embrittlement in older pipes, requires more compression, and presents safety considerations around flammability and leaks.
Gas transmission's role in hydrogen economy
The high cost of green hydrogen also has been a barrier, but some industry experts believe that pipelines will be an attractive method for moving the fuel once costs decline as production and end use scale up.
"We are already seeing our clients spend lots of money on refitting terminals for renewable diesel and other biofuels," Peter Bowden, global head of energy investment banking at Jefferies, said during the March 3 panel. "Unlike some aspects of the plan to lower emissions that are more speculative, I think using existing infrastructure with sources that we know provide benefits — that, to me, in the next five to seven years is a realistic area where we can make real improvements."
Some industry experts have said they believe that green hydrogen will be mostly consumed near production sites, but Williams Cos. Inc. President and CEO Alan Armstrong saw the midstream sector as integral to the hydrogen economy.
Pipeline networks present a solution to the challenge of "storing" excess renewable power in the form of hydrogen and delivering the molecules from places with an abundance of renewable power generation capacity to regions with inadequate resources, Armstrong said on the same panel. Going forward, it will be critical for the gas industry to effectively communicate to stakeholders the opportunity to take advantage of the U.S. gas grid to promote hydrogen uptake, he said.
"If we would look to those opportunities to work together, and not to demonize something because it's associated with fossil fuels, we have a lot of opportunity in that fairway," Armstrong said.
New hydrogen processes hold potential
Despite the challenges to hydrogen blending in gas transmission systems, U.S. long-haul pipes could play a role in the early phases of the hydrogen economy.
Dharik Mallapragada, research scientist at the MIT Energy Initiative, noted that a nascent hydrogen production technology called methane pyrolysis is attracting attention, venture capital and federal research dollars. The process involves decomposing methane at high temperatures to produce solid carbon rather than carbon dioxide, he explained during a March 2 CERAWeek panel. It would offer an alternative to capturing and sequestering carbon emissions during steam methane reformation of natural gas, the process for producing most U.S. hydrogen supplies.
Mallapragada envisioned a model in which midstream companies continue transporting natural gas through high-pressure transmission lines, while gas utilities install modular methane pyrolysis units at the heads of their low-pressure systems to produce hydrogen at the point of receipt for distribution to customers.
"I think part of the renewed interest in hydrogen has been coming from declining technology costs, but also from a realization that electrification may not be tactically possible to decarbonize all aspects of the economy," he said. "And so this recognition has led to thinking about molecule-based mechanisms to decarbonize end-use sectors where electrification would be challenged."
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