Ahmed Nossair, director of gas storage and pipeline operations for Enbridge Gas, is enthusiastic about innovation springing from the low-carbon transition.
"Enbridge is a leading infrastructure company, and we are seeing lots of opportunities in the low-carbon transition that will allow us to meet our targets," Nossair said.
One of Enbridge's chief projects to that end began in 2011, when members of Enbridge's emerging technology team determined the potential for hydrogen as part of the infrastructure team's low-carbon transition portfolio.
Hydrogen gas is a low-carbon and, in some cases, a zero-carbon energy source generated from either natural gas utilizing carbon capture or from a clean or renewable electrical energy source via electrolysis. The resulting hydrogen can then be stored in a variety of ways, including as pure hydrogen, or blended into existing natural gas networks that reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
In 2014, Enbridge's independent Ontario electricity operator came up with requests for projects that could help stabilize the frequency of the network, Nossair said.
"The emergent technology team jumped on that opportunity and submitted a request for a project to install an electrolysis plant in Markham, Ontario, in our technical operating center," Nossair said, speaking at the World Hydrogen North America Conference. "The project was approved and, working with Hydrogenics, which is owned by Cummins, we designed, installed and currently operate a 2.5-megawatt electrolysis plant producing 500 standard cubic meters per hour of pure hydrogen."
The plant utilizes the Ontario electrical grid, which itself is 94-percent emission-free, Nossair added.
"Our main objective was to get safe, reliable, cost-effective and efficient technology." - Ahmed Nossar, Enbridge Gas
In 2017, with the amount of hydrogen it was producing, Enbridge launched a comprehensive engineering assessment that covers all sides of the utility, from end-user customers to pipeline to quantitative risk assessment, Nossair said.
"We concluded the engineering assessment in 2019, filed it with the Ontario Energy Board (working with our local regulator) and got the deed to construct," he said.
Upon completion, this $5.2 million "pilot blending facility" will store surplus electricity as pure hydrogen, which can then be blended into Enbridge Gas' existing natural gas framework.
The system creates lower-carbon natural gas delivery without impacting energy costs, reliability or safety, Nossair said.
This innovative project will remove up to approximately 117 tons of CO2 from the atmosphere every year. Further, the success of the project will allow Enbridge Gas to develop larger-scale hydrogen-blending activities in other parts of its distribution system, ultimately helping to reduce the utility's carbon footprint.
Sensitive gases
Regarding the hydrogen equipment Enbridge selected for the project, the team began by assessing the variety of technologies they could use to produce the hydrogen, Nossair said.
"Our main objective was to get safe, reliable, cost-effective and efficient technology," he explained. "The one that we used in working with Cummins is a modular type that could be expanded to 5 megawatts without expanding the footprint. It produced hydrogen at a high enough pressure that it doesn't need to have compression downstream, which would be stored in two vessels that we can use for blending at the station."
Nossair elaborated on some of the technical operations of the plant, specifically pertaining to how leaks are detected and hydrogen is monitored as it is blended into a combustion gas.
"As part of the engineering assessment, we did an interchangeability analysis between the carbon monoxide and the hydrogen. We found that in the personal gas monitors, there is a sensitivity between both gases when you read on platinum group metals," he said. "This is why, through testing and analysis, we created a chart for our operations teams so that when the monitor leaks indicate tricarbon monoxide, we know what percentage of hydrogen is getting leaked. This is part of the overall operations safety that we developed."
