Net zero and the energy system transition

The UK Government recognised that domestic biomethane production can play a significant role in decarbonising energy supplies. However biomethane production plants face technical and operational challenges. Currently the content of biomethane within biogas produced from the anaerobic digestion (AD) process is often only around 50%. This partial conversion results in lower yields for AD operators and an increase in costly gas scrubbing requirements. The increased presence of impurity gases also increases requirement for propanation to increase the calorific value high in both cost and carbon footprint.

This project seeks to address these challenges through the injection of green hydrogen into the AD process in specific quantities and at specific times to achieve greater conversion of carbon dioxide to biomethane within the acetogenesis stage of the AD process thereby increasing the yield whilst reducing the need for gas scrubbing and propanation.

Early cluster projects will not benefit I&C customers that are located away from industrial clusters and are traditionally more distributed in nature. These customers are unlikely to have access to hydrogen infrastructure developed through the primary industrial clusters. This presents the need for an alternative solution.

This project will explore the concept of how a larger number of low-volume hydrogen producers can support I&C customers in the absence of natural ‘clustering’ and high-volume production by using the South West region of WWU’s network as a case study. This will be done by exploring the whole systems concept of a gas network which is driven by distributed green hydrogen production at strategic locations where there is access to both gas and electricity grid infrastructure.

To achieve decarbonisation targets all gas network operators in the UK need to demonstrate that the gas network can safely technically and economically facilitate the distribution of low-carbon gases (biomethane and hydrogen). In response to this challenge SGN aim to review the feasibility of the formation of biomethane islands in their Scotland area of operation. The outputs of this project will establish a business model for the optimisation of biomethane injection and formation of biomethane islands across the UK’s gas network. A feasibility study will address key areas including regulatory technical environmental social and commercial aspects as well as comprehensively assess the viability of developing Biomethane Islands. The outcome of the feasibility study will be to inform decision-making regarding project implementation. This will be captured and delivered in a comprehensive report and financial model of the business case. These islands will serve as models for sustainable living demonstrating the feasibility and benefits of a circular economy approach to energy production and waste management and offer a low disruption option for the decarbonisation of all classes of gas consumers - Industrial Commercial and Domestic.

This project will explore ventilation and explosion relief requirements for housing currently used on the gas network for pressure regulating installations (PRIs). Housings currently provide security from a range of factors from weather to vandalism while also providing the necessary relief requirements in the event of an emergency. The understanding of these requirements for Natural Gas has been developed however work conducted in the IGEM TD/13 hydrogen supplement did not fully address whether these design specifications are suitable for use with Hydrogen. This multi-stage project will first explore the design specifications listed in industry standards (IGEM/TD/13 GIS/PRS/35 SGN/SP/CE/10 etc) and understand which of these may be appropriate and which may require redesign. The latter stage of this project will take the design specifications deemed to be unsuitable for use with hydrogen and conduct testing to develop revised design specifications which would provide the necessary relief requirements.

Existing defect assessments and repair methodologies are aligned with the P/11 P/20 and PM/DAM1 management procedures and are adopted to inspect assess and repair the pipelines for defects and take suitable measures to reduce them. However the scope and applicability of these assessment and repair methodologies in the presence of gaseous phase carbon dioxide remain uncertain. The key challenges which the project aims to address are:

• Will existing repair techniques such as epoxy shell welded shells composite wraps gouge dressing etc. be suitable for transmission of gaseous phase carbon dioxide?
• What are the different defects we may encounter or consider hazardous in the presence of carbon dioxide? What are the impacts of carbon dioxide on each defect type? And how much does water/corrosion exacerbate this?
• Have the mechanisms of failure for each defect type changed after introducing carbon dioxide?
• Can we implement the assessment and repair methodologies safely? Are the techniques safe and suitable for the pipeline operations and maintenance teams?

The project seeks to answer the above in addition to understanding the types and extent of repairs across the NTS and review the impact of carbon dioxide on the effectiveness of these inspection assessment and mitigation technologies.

Decarbonisation of UK transport and the related Zero Emission Vehicle (ZEV) mandate requires companies to transition their commercial vehicle fleets to Battery Electric Vehicles (BEV) or alternative new emerging technologies (e.g. FCEC). As an operational utility network with responsibility for public safety WWU’s fleet undergoes a more challenging and varied range of duty cycles than most commercial fleets includes vehicles that are required to provide on-site power and must be capable of meeting WWU’s statutory duty to respond quickly to Public Reported Escapes.

Within this challenging operational context WWU must deliver a fleet transition at the lowest feasible cost to assure value for money for our customers. This is further complicated by the need to plan the fleet transition while the associated technological and policy landscape continues to evolve in parallel. Although the learnings generated from the project will be specific to WWU’s fleet as a case study they will be applicable to any networks with an operational fleet.

To assure a cost-effective transition and derisk future operations WWU require a Total Cost of Operation (TCO) model. This will be specifically targeted at our particular operational context capable of assessing the costs and capabilities of a range of ZEV options and crucially must be easy for staff to adopt for internal use and update in the future as new data and/or technologies become available.

The purpose of this project is to provide WWU with a TCO model that addresses our specific operational requirements ensuring that plans and investment decisions will be grounded in real-world technology assessments and our operational fleet data.

Based on previous work ROSEN Engineers believe the quantity of natural gas vented during commissioning operations can safely be reduced by up to 80% through targeted changes to direct purging procedures.

For Gas Distribution Networks’ (GDNs) gas venting remains a necessary part of normal operations for maintenance or safety purposes. Previous research work undertaken by ROSEN(UK) Limited for the EIC with project partners Northern Gas Networks (NGN) and Wales and West Utilities (WWU) identified activities where venting of natural gas to atmosphere occurs (Gas Venting Research Project NIA reference number NIA_NGN_282)

Wales & West Utilities has developed a Regional Decarbonisation Pathway to provide an overarching strategic plan for the network in Wales and the South West of England. To deliver that pathway more detailed assessment and planning is required to facilitate the progression of opportunities in particular areas.

In 2023 WWU supported Cadent as the lead partner in the development and delivery of a Functional Blending Specification (FBS) which has progressed the technical understanding of how blending equipment can be practically applied within the context of existing gas network assets (https://smarter.energynetworks.org/projects/NIA_CAD0079/). In 2023 UK Government affirmed their support for network blending whilst networks have continued to develop evidence in support of blending since (Hydrogen blending in GB distribution networks: strategic decision - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)).

FutureGrid CO2 is the final phase of a suite of Carbon Dioxide projects looking at how National Gas can repurpose parts of its network to transport gaseous-phase Carbon Dioxide safely. What started out as literature reviews and feasibility studies will turn into physical testing and demonstration. National Gas will be using its world-leading FutureGrid facility to demonstrate how Carbon Dioxide will flow through its pipes delivering on its promise to further use this facility after our successful FutureGrid SIF Beta projects. We will also be completing carbon dioxide venting ruptures and real-time impurity corrosion tests- all of which are underexplored.

Following the work completed on the policies and procedures project by QEMS WWU have identified the requirement to update and re-vamp the existing Safe control of operations (SCO) procedures used by the network to support delivery of upcoming projects.