West Oz Announces Grant to Study Hydrogen Economy
The Western Australian government has announced an A$216,000 (US$148,443) grant to Dampier to Bunbury Natural Gas Pipeline (DBP), which will undertake a feasibility study to assess whether the pipeline can help develop the state’s hydrogen economy, DBP said January 8 in a statement.
The funds will underpin an 18-month study to determine just if and how the DBP, part of the Australian Gas Infrastructure Group (AGIG), can introduce hydrogen into its feedstock mix to contribute to the transition by WA’s energy sector to a lower carbon footprint, it said. AGIG will contribute a further A$234,000 to the study’s estimated total cost of A$450,000.
Natural gas markets in the Perth metropolitan areas and the state’s Peel, Pilbara and Mid-West regional precincts, will be the focus of the study’s commercial and technical assessments of safely blending small volumes of hydrogen into the pipeline’s mainstream delivery network.
AGIG CEO, Ben Wilson, said that the DBP was strategically located to store and transport hydrogen produced in the Pilbara, Gascoyne and Mid-West regions into the commercial and industrial hubs of the greater Perth and Peel regions. “Project developers have already approached AGIG requesting to blend hydrogen into our pipeline,” Wilson said.
“Much work has already been completed on studying the compatibility of low-pressure gas distribution networks with blended hydrogen - particularly through AGIG’s current pioneering HyP SA project in Adelaide where first blended gas will be introduced into a local suburb mid this year,” he continued.
“However, gas transmission pipelines offer greater challenges due to the diversity of gas users and higher operating pressures. AGIG is prepared to invest therefore in a number of studies to determine the best manner of introducing hydrogen into the DBP.”
Wilson said successful integration of hydrogen into the pipeline could help expand the number of remote area hydrogen applications, since the DBP is the primary gas transmission line supplying remote northern western Australia, while supplying both remote and Perth metropolitan area customers with gas blended with hydrogen.
In addition to the study’s technical assessments, AGIG also intends to develop a roadmap to assist in the development of regulations for hydrogen blended gas within WA. The DBP feasibility studies are due for completion in June next year.