BAKU, Azerbaijan, June 14
By Leman Zeynalova – Trend:
The role for natural gas as a transition fuel is being increasingly called into question, as the green policy landscape shifts and a greater spotlight is shone onto lifecycle emissions along the value chain, Trend reports with reference to Fitch Solutions.
“To date, its contribution to emissions reduction has predominantly been in the power sector. However, a slowdown in coal-to-gas switching and competition with renewables is raising new challenges for natural gas. The outlook for natural gas demand varies considerably, depending on the region. Prospects are brightest in the Middle East, Africa and Latin America, reflecting the rising availability of affordable gas. In contrast, the fuel will struggle to gain ground in Asia, where the incumbent coal is proving hard to shake and North America and Western Europe (NAWE) which will see the most stringent emission reduction targets,” the company said in its report.
Fitch Solutions expects gas companies will continue to look towards lower carbon alternatives as a form of power generation.
“ Many gas turbine developers across the globe are noting that blending hydrogen into existing technology is achievable without the need for costly retrofitting of parts and equipment. We expect that gas generation operators globally will increasingly look towards the adoption of new hybrid technology to enable the adoption of a blend of gases, including hydrogen, while still being able to utilise existing gas assets and infrastructure. Preparations for the use of low[1]carbon gases in the power sector will become more prevalent, with generation operators looking to diversify portfolios by making significant investments. One of the world’s largest gas turbine developers, General Electric (GE), have announced that they see low carbon hydrogen as the end goal for their technology’s development. GE have outlined that they could currently achieve a blend of natural gas and hydrogen of 50% across all of their large-scale baseload power fleet across the globe and have highlighted that 2030 could see a total conversion to 100% clean hydrogen,” reads the report.
The company notes that hydrogen power generation is already an operational reality, as of 2020, with the four-year pilot plant HYFLEXPOWER.
“The 12MW combined heat and power facility was developed by a consortium of European companies to explore full scale power generation at Engie Solutions’ Smurfit Kappa pulp-and-paper industrial site in France. The project seeks to prove that power generation from a Siemens gas turbine burning 80-100 percent hydrogen will be possible with a green hydrogen supply chain coupled with electrolysers, compresses and storage facilities.”
---
Follow the author on Twitter: @Lyaman_Zeyn