Efforts to develop demand for low-carbon hydrogen should focus on directly replacing existing feedstock in sectors such as refining and chemicals rather than blending into natural gas networks, German energy company RWE told the Aurora Hydrogen Conference in London this week.

“Blending is not the right focus,” Sebastian Vogel, director of hydrogen strategy at RWE Generation, told the conference. “Let us get the basics done first and put our efforts into decarbonising industrial sectors. This is a feedstock issue; let us focus on industry and then eventually the energy sector itself.”

Blending in large volumes from multiple suppliers could present several “headaches”, including potential security of supply issues, he added.

“Let us get the basics done first and put our efforts into decarbonising industrial sectors” Vogel, RWE

The UK government is due to make a final decision next year on whether to back blending up to 20pc hydrogen into the gas pipeline network, a level widely accepted as possible without modifying pipelines or gas-consuming appliances.

Earlier this year UK regional gas distributor Northern Gas Networks completed the country’s first extended trial of blending into gas supplies via a public network.

Up to 20pc hydrogen was blended into the gas supply of 668 houses, a church and a school in Winlaton in the Gateshead area of northeast England for 11 months as part of a project called Hydeploy.

Last resort

One option under consideration by the government is to use blending as a ‘reserve offtaker’ or ‘market of last resort’ for hydrogen production projects unexpectedly left with no customers to take their output, according to Paro Konar, director for hydrogen and industrial carbon capture at the UK’s Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy.

Using blending a market of last resort could help to de-risk hydrogen projects, added Henry Rushton, energy sector director at ING Bank.

“Last resort blending could be very compelling from a bankability perspective. It could provide us with a backstop if a producer goes bust,” he said.

Ana Quelhas, managing director for hydrogen at Spanish-based EDP Renewables, also said blending may have a role to play as a market of last resort. “But [blending] is not an end game for hydrogen,” she concluded.

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Author: Stuart Penson