Natural gas industry navigates path to net-zero emissions
A panel of natural gas industry representatives this week presented a case for decarbonizing the existing gas infrastructure in order to reach a still-emerging goal within the industry to become net-zero by 2050.
“We believe that we’re in a climate emergency, and we see no technical barrier to a carbon-neutral pipeline by 2050,” Kathryn Williams, vice president of public affairs and sustainability at NW Natural, said on Monday during the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners’ Winter Policy Summit session on natural gas infrastructure and low-carbon fuels.
NW Natural is a gas utility headquartered in Portland, Ore., that serves 2.5 million customers in Oregon and Southwest Washington. NW Natural released a report in November 2021 called Destination Zero, which analyzes multiple ways the company can advance new technologies and implement policies to become a carbon-neutral energy provider. The report highlights scenarios that incorporate varying applications of enhanced building energy efficiency measures, technologies, and lower-carbon fuels such as renewable natural gas, clean hydrogen, and carbon capture.
Currently, NW Natural has a dedicated renewable natural gas (RNG) and hydrogen team on staff, and it is already testing hydrogen-natural gas blends.
Another major player in a low-carbon gas future is Xcel Energy, the Minneapolis-based electric and gas utility that serves 3.6 million electricity customers and 2.2 million gas customers stretching from the upper Midwest to Texas.
In November 2021 the company announced its vision to be a net-zero energy provider by 2050 by targeting methane emissions reductions, said Jeff Lyng, Xcel’s director of energy and environmental policy.
“We can do that by leveraging our buying power to source natural gas that has certified low methane emissions, or differentiated gas,” said Lyng. “We can also continue to operate the cleanest, most efficient, and safest gas LDC system. I would say that methane reductions are within direct management for a natural gas utility, and it makes sense to prioritize them – it’s a very potent greenhouse gas.”
Since most methane emissions occur through combustion in customer homes, Lyng said Xcel is also not shying away from promoting residential and commercial electrification. He mentioned dual-fuel heating (heat pumps combined with gas furnaces) as a great way to reduce carbon and methane emissions.
Xcel, like NW Natural, is also planning to eventually push RNG and clean hydrogen blends through the pipeline.
The American Gas Association (AGA), which represents more than 200 local energy companies that deliver clean natural gas throughout the United States, released a study on Feb. 8 that details how natural gas utilities and delivery infrastructure will be essential to meeting the nation’s greenhouse gas emissions reduction goals. The study states that expanding the supply of renewable gas and hydrogen are critical to decarbonizing energy pipelines while maintaining reliability of the natural gas system.
“What this analysis shows is that the feedstocks to produce RNG, and the technology, exists. This is not a resource supply issue. The feedstocks are there,” said Emily O’Connell, senior director of policy and analysis for AGA.
O’Connell said 30 AGA members have announced carbon neutrality goals or are planning to do so.
There are four main pathways that some gas utilities are considering to reach carbon neutrality: 1) methane reductions, 2) offsets and negative emissions technology, 3) low-carbon gases (RNG, clean hydrogen), and 4) home efficiency measures.
According to O’Connell, there are 21 natural gas utilities engaged in RNG production projects and 25 states and provinces in North America where utilities are involved in hydrogen project research efforts.
Kristine Wiley, vice president of GTI’s Hydrogen Technology Center, addressed the technical side of the nascent hydrogen economy and its potential role in helping to decarbonize the natural gas stream.
She said that hydrogen has very different properties from natural gas and that there are currently a good number of projects testing the blending impacts on the appliances of end users and the gas infrastructure.
Wiley said it was promising that testing in Europe has shown that creating a 20 percent hydrogen-natural gas blend did not require anything beyond minimal modifications to existing pipelines and infrastructure. But she explained that the U.S. system is different and that more testing was needed to see what the true blend wall percentage would be, noting that percentage will likely vary somewhat by locale. Testing should be done, she said, by each individual utility on their particular pipeline.
One of the issues being studied by scientists and engineers at GTI and elsewhere is if it’s possible to use the current natural gas infrastructure to deliver 100 percent clean hydrogen, or if a separate system would have to be built out.
GTI’s Wiley said she could foresee a future where customers equipped to handle 100 percent hydrogen could have it piped into their homes or businesses, potentially at a premium.
The Role of Policy and Regulation
Panelists talked about the importance of legislation to help these ideas become reality. Williams at NW Natural said that from a policy standpoint, Oregon Senate Bill 98 allowed NW Natural to purchase or make its own RNG despite the fact that it might raise costs for consumers. (It’s currently more expensive to produce than fossil-fuel natural gas.) She would also like to see production tax credits on the federal level, as well as RNG and hydrogen research and development support.
AGA’s O’Connell said, “The RNG market for the thermal (building) sector, it really is still in its nascent stage but with the right policy support it is poised to grow. We do have the feedstock supplies, so we’re looking for the policy and regulatory support that can really help this market expand.” She said the same holds true for hydrogen.
Wiley said the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) was making a huge investment in the development of local and regional clean hydrogen hubs – a local supply and demand market and infrastructure for hydrogen.
“There’s a large opportunity through DOE where they’ve announced that they’re going to fund up to $8 billion for regional hydrogen hubs – and that really brings together all of these different technologies and how hydrogen can be a part of our energy system – building that network so we can integrate it as part of our decarbonization strategies and how we use it in different parts of our economy.”
When asked by moderator Commissioner Floyd B. McKissick of the North Carolina Utilities Commission, “Are you seeing interest and action from gas utilities in altering infrastructure, modernization, and pipe replacement programs to prepare for increasing amounts of low-carbon fuel in the future?” O’Connell said, “The short answer is yes … but there are challenges along the pipeline system, if you will, from the regulatory and policy down to the operational and engineering. At AGA, I can say with 100 percent confidence that every department is working on these initiatives.”
“With RNG, we did face a lot of challenges early on, and I’m really pleased now as we look at the industry what has been overcome. We’re seeing interconnections being made on a more frequent basis; we’re not running in to those same barriers – it just really shows what’s possible when we work really diligently to integrate these fuel sources and educate,” she added.
