Transferred from: Chengdu Daily Jinguan

The first urban natural gas hydrogen blending project in Sichuan Province has completed pilot operation and commissioning——

Hydrogen blended natural gas is expected to enter thousands of households

Hydrogen energy has significant advantages such as zero carbon, high efficiency, storability, safety and controllability, making it an ideal solution to achieve carbon neutrality goals. As a new type of productivity, hydrogen energy is known as the "ultimate clean energy of the 21st century". Natural gas hydrogen blending refers to injecting a certain proportion of hydrogen into natural gas and mixing it with it to form a mixed gas (HCNG), which is one of the important directions for hydrogen energy utilization.

The reporter learned yesterday that the first urban natural gas hydrogen blending project in Sichuan, the Multi Energy Rich Gas Green Utilization Research Demonstration Project (referred to as the "Multi Energy Rich Gas Project"), has completed pilot operation and commissioning in the Wenlan Zhigu Pilot Industrial Base (referred to as the "Wenlan Zhigu Base") in Qingbaijiang District, laying the foundation for Chengdu to open up large-scale commercial applications of natural gas hydrogen blending in the future.

Why start the research and development of natural gas hydrogen blending project

Find the optimal ratio of hydrogen blending in urban natural gas

It is reported that the addition of hydrogen to natural gas can not only improve combustion efficiency and reduce carbon dioxide emissions, but also explore more possibilities for the widespread and large-scale use of hydrogen transportation and energy through infrastructure such as natural gas pipelines. The diversified energy rich gas project focuses on the field of urban gas and explores the pilot conversion of natural gas mixed with hydrogen.

The reporter saw at the project site that a natural gas hydrogen blending system with a rectangular cabinet like appearance has been built, blending natural gas and hydrogen according to the set ratio and ensuring uniformity. The yellow pipeline connecting the "cabinet" transports the mixed gas to the hydrogen mixed natural gas combustion pilot laboratory. In the laboratory, Cen Kang, director of the Sichuan Provincial Gas Safety and Efficient Utilization Engineering Technology Center, professor and doctoral supervisor at Southwest Petroleum University, is working with his team to record and analyze the flame combustion status and related data of various combustion devices in real time.

We will test the impact of hydrogen blended natural gas with different hydrogen ratios on gas pipelines, as well as the changes in combustion characteristics of different brands and service life of civil gas stoves, gas water heaters, commercial stoves and other combustion appliances after using hydrogen blended natural gas. We will evaluate the thermal load, energy efficiency and other aspects of the appliances. The purpose is to find the optimal hydrogen blending ratio for urban civil gas stoves, water heaters, commercial stoves to adapt to hydrogen blended natural gas through a large amount of test data, "said Cen Kang.

What can a successful project conversion bring

Reduce carbon emissions and promote 'hydrogen into every household'

As a clean energy source, hydrogen has zero carbon emissions after combustion, and has advantages such as high calorific value per unit mass and zero emissions. However, it has problems such as high production costs and difficult storage and transportation. Cen Kang said that natural gas hydrogen blending technology is an important research direction for hydrogen energy transportation and large-scale utilization at home and abroad, which is of great significance for breaking the bottleneck of hydrogen energy transportation and connecting the upstream and downstream of the hydrogen energy industry.

In order to solve the technical difficulties faced by the engineering construction and terminal application of natural gas hydrogen blending, by the end of 2023, Chengdu Boneng Hydrogen Energy Technology Co., Ltd., Southwest Petroleum University, and Chengdu Wenlan Guochuang Technology Co., Ltd