NiSource President and CEO, Lloyd Yates, said: “Our existing natural gas infrastructure positions us well to bring our customers along into the energy of the future, and hydrogen blending is one promising solution we are exploring to enhance sustainability and to deliver a safe and reliable energy source to our customers.”
Columbia Gas of Pennsylvania, a subsidiary of NiSource, partnered with EN Engineering to construct the hydrogen blending skid, which allows for the controlled blending of hydrogen into Safety Town’s natural gas system at various percentages, ranging from 2 - 20%.
To demonstrate the efficacy of the blended fuel, NiSource built a specially designed on-site model home equipped with natural gas appliances to simulate everyday usage in a residential home environment. Ongoing field confirmations are being evaluated concerning hydrogen’s effect on the natural gas itself, equipment, piping, and the net change in carbon emissions from blending, with favourable results.
Throughout the multi-phase hydrogen blending project, NiSource will continue to evaluate the viability of hydrogen-natural gas blends for other applications such as factories and power plants. Based on the results and data collected, future phases of the programme could include the introduction of a hydrogen-blend into a live-gas environment using the company’s existing gas distribution infrastructure that serves customers today.
“Integrating hydrogen into our energy future is complementary to renewable energy and could further enhance the global energy transition underway,” said Yates. “Our overall goal remains to lower emissions and ensure the availability of an array of environmentally sustainable energy sources while balancing affordability, reliability and other economic considerations for our customers.”