Gas Innovation Fund - Case Studies
The Gas Innovation Fund is intended to promote and encourage an environment of innovation in the gas industry.
Project 1: Leveraging The Gas Network to Stabilise Renewable Electricity
This project investigates:
- Creating renewable electricity using liquid hydrogen and wind to provide stability for an increasingly volatile electricity grid;
- The feasibility of supplementing gas engines with H2 in proportions 20-100% and to look at liquid H2 storage requirements;
- Potential locations, site layout, CAPEX, OPEX, income from capacity and trading, planning issues and emissions
The findings show that modern engine ranges can turn down the operating load down to 10% with a minimal efficiency drop. This allows an improved output range while using a reduced spaced requirements.
Project 2: Green Gas in Transport
This project investigates:
- The transition from the Republic of Ireland economy today to a decarbonised economy in 2050, focusing on how the transition is achieved with emphasis on transport especially trucks as an early and key adopter in transition to green gases;
- The supply chain production, distribution and use of biomethane, bio-SNG and hydrogen to understand the role of each fuel and the timeline for scaling up of their use.
The findings show that:
- Key differences between the Great Britain and the Republic of Ireland transitions are driven by the mix of green gases that each country has the potential to produce. In the Republic of Ireland, biomethane could make up a greater proportion of the green gas potential than in Great Britain;
- Beyond 8 tonnes/day at hydrogen refuelling stations, dedicated hydrogen pipelines will be needed in order to economically provide the volumes of hydrogen required.
Project 3: Hydrogen Pilot Network FEED (Front-End Engineering Design)
This project investigates:
- 12 candidate sites for selection of the area on the existing network to base the desktop study.
- A Front-End Engineering Design (FEED) for the transport of hydrogen at pilot scale to both industrial and domestic end users.
The findings show that:
- Ringaskiddy industrial area was selected due to close proximity to a port for hydrogen supply as well as the additional advantage of being at the end of the transmission network.
- There is a good opportunity to have a 100% hydrogen pilot scale network in the area as it does not extend to any further users.
- An estimated total material cost for upgrading the AGIs to allow for hydrogen to be implemented within this pilot scale network is €1.2 - €1.5M. This does not include the cost associated with the hydrogen pipeline.
Project 4: Hydrogen and Ireland’s Existing Gas Network
This project investigates:
- The potential of injecting green hydrogen gas into the existing gas network as well as the possibility of developing a green hydrogen market in Ireland;
- The potential power-to-gas has to absorb renewable electricity at times of excess supply and to provide backup energy in the form of gas at times of excess demand.
The findings show that:
- Revenues could be generated from the provision of hydrogen and electricity with the revenue from electricity coming from established markets for DS3 System Services and Capacity Market;
- Gasunie, the Dutch Gas Transmission System Operator, already has plans to develop a national hydrogen network and will use the existing network for 85% of it, ultimately saving substantially on costs.