New technology harnesses wind and solar power
A program piloted by Southern California Gas is celebrating success in efforts to inject hydrogen, created with the use of excess renewable power, into a natural gas pipeline.
The company’s power-to-gas (P2G) hydrogen pipeline injection program, which it funds at the University of California Irvine, is a technique for converting surplus clean energy from solar panels or wind farms into hydrogen, which can be blended with natural gas and used in many applications, including home appliances and power plants.
The renewable fuel can also be converted to methane for use in a natural gas pipeline and storage system or used in hydrogen fuel cell vehicles, according to a news release from SoCalGas.
“This research lays the groundwork for leveraging the natural gas infrastructure already in place for the storage and transmission of renewable energy,” said Jeff Reed, director of business strategy and advanced technology at SoCalGas. “As more wind and solar production is deployed, energy storage will be a critical component for grid reliability.”
By using excess electricity to make hydrogen that can be integrated into natural gas pipeline infrastructure, one of the program’s biggest challenges—what to do with the excess electricity generated by adding wind and solar to the grid—has been answered, said Jack Brouwer, associate professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering and civil and environmental engineering at UCI and associate director of its Advanced Power & Energy Program.
SoCalGas began the pilot project last summer with the participation of Proton OnSite, the provider of an electrolyzer that takes in water and uses excess renewable electricity to power an electrochemical reaction that splits it into hydrogen and oxygen. The oxygen is released into the atmosphere while the hydrogen is compressed, sent to an injection point in UCI’s natural gas pipeline and mixed with natural gas. In short order, it is burned in the gas turbine power plant to generate electricity and heat for the campus.
“Storage of the hydrogen in existing natural gas infrastructure could become the most important technology for enabling a 100-percent renewable future,” Brouwer said.
A similar power-to-gas technology developed at the University of Chicago is now being commercialized in Europe. It addresses the intermittent nature of renewable sources and uses a selectively evolved, unicellular microorganism that helps convert electricity into methane gas. That gas can be stored, transported and used wherever natural gas is used, including for the generation of power on demand.