Reaching net-zero by 2050 one step at a time

from Pipeliner May 2022

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According to the Delivering a Clean Energy Future report netzero emissions can be reached with hydrogen at half the cost of electrification.

Around the globe there is growing momentum to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050. While the Australian Government has yet to make a firm commitment to a timeframe, the need to reach net-zero is acknowledged directly and through the signing of the Paris Agreement.

In the absence of Government commitment, many companies across Australia, including APGA members, are making their own commitments to achieve net-zero by 2050.

The Gas Vision 2050: Delivering a Clean Energy Future, published in September 2020, outlines Australia’s journey to a cleaner energy future by highlighting the pivotal role gas and gas infrastructure can play in Australia’s low carbon energy future.

Developed by Australia’s peak gas industry bodies, including APGA, the report demonstrates how gas will continue to provide Australians with reliable and affordable energy beyond 2030.

Outlining a roadmap to decarbonising the natural gas sector to help meet Australia’s emissions reduction commitments over the coming decades, it also documents innovative research and strong progress being made in advancing transformational technologies.

The vision is for Australia to continue to turn its gas resources into products and services that will enhance national prosperity while achieving carbon neutrality. It identifies how gas and gas infrastructure can be used to solve the energy trilemma by balancing energy affordability, energy security and environmental outcomes.

APGA Chief Executive Officer Steve Davies says given many of its members have, or are in the process of, committing to net-zero by 2050, APGA formed the Gas Infrastructure Emissions Working Group to assist industry effort to reduce emissions.

The Group seeks to enhance industry efforts to reduce emissions from gas transmission and distribution infrastructure, including associated upstream and downstream infrastructure, operations, and projects.

“Everyone is thinking about it, and we thought it would be perfect to bring everyone together to try and solve the problems together because emissions reduction is a mix of policy people thinking about it from a legislative or regulative perspective, commercial people thinking of the cost consequences for people, and engineers/technical experts who have to make it work in day-to-day operations,” Davies says.

Davies says one of its biggest goals at the moments is measurement estimates and reporting. He says before the industry can get to emissions reduction it has to have effective measure and estimation.

“If you want to reduce emissions you need it to show up in your reported emissions,” he says. “A lot of emissions reporting is based on estimation techniques and a lot of them won’t necessarily change as companies introduce emissions reduction technology. For the pipeline industry fugitive emissions from a pipeline are currently reported as a number (about 11.5 times the length of a pipeline in kilometres). So, unless you change the length of your pipelines you won’t change your reported fugitive emissions.”

The APGA has found that when working out the emissions for the gas used in compressors it is able to know down to the gigajoule how much gas is used. However, things like fugitive emissions there are only estimate techniques.

“The firs questions we are asking ourselves is how do we get better at measuring and estimating, and then how do we engage government to have those more accurate techniques recognised in the reporting system,” says Davies.

The Gas Infrastructure Emissions Working Group is specifically focussed on reducing emissions from current operations and projects. Davies says recognising this is essential in the short and medium term while efforts to decarbonise gas are underway to address emissions in the longterm.

He says the other main focus is to turn the industrys’ mind to 2030 and sharing information across the companies about what is a realistic emissions reduction goal for 2030.

“Every company will come up with its own target, but the group is more about bringing together the technical people who are expected to deliver these goals so they can share what they are working on so not everyone is starting from scratch,” Davies says.

“There is one company that has investigated compressor fuel use for the last five years and learnt a few things that they are willing to share with people who are just starting out.”

As part of the Gas Vision 2050: Delivering a Clean Energy Future report, the major conclusion is that net-zero emissions can be reached with hydrogen at half the cost of electrification.

Davies says hydrogen is part of the gas infrastructure’s emissions reduction journey and he hopes by 2030 that it will play an important role.

Steve Davies, APGA CEO

However, he says the number one thing that will result in emissions reduction by 2030 is the industry getting better and more efficient.

Australian Gas Infrastructure Group (AGIG) Senior Engineer for low carbon future Robert Davis outlined at a recent APGA POG Seminar that there will be a future for hydrogen, but what it looks like will be interesting.

Davis says that in terms of network compatibility hydrogen is looking to be compatible with most components. At the moment, South Australia has a 5 per cent blended hydrogen gas network, with an overall goal of reaching 10 per cent.

In South Australia, AGIG has demonstrated how a hydrogen blending network is integral in its vision to reach volumes of 10 per cent renewable gas by 2030 and to fully decarbonise all its distribution networks by 2040 as a stretch target.

This goal is being achieved through the Hydrogen Park South Australia (HyP SA), which since May 2021, has been servicing approximately 700 residential homes on its network providing Australia’s first delivery of a 5 per cent blended renewable hydrogen gas.

HyP SA is an Australian-first project that produces renewable hydrogen gas. Supported by the South Australian Government with grant funding of $4.9 million, the $14.5m HyP SA project is aligned with the South Australia’s vision to leverage its wind, sun, land, infrastructure, and skills to be a world-class renewable hydrogen supplier and to reach net zero emissions by 2050.

However, Davies says there is a lot to still be done in the hydrogen space, with the next five years being crucial in understanding how quickly Australia can get up to a 10 per cent blend.

“There is a lot of excitement about hydrogen, and a lot of it is about projects that could happen in ten years once hydrogen has become a thing,” he says.

“From what I see is that it is the gas infrastructure companies are focussed on making hydrogen and scaling up. We really need to tap into the hydrogen blending as it is the right market and there is a big advocacy piece to get across to policy makers that the role of the gas infrastructure is critical to making hydrogen achieve scale as soon as possible.”

Davies says while Australia is on the pathway to reducing emissions, more work needs to be done from all parties in order to reach the 2050 goal.

HyP SA is an Australian-first project that produces renewable hydrogen gas.

South Australia has a 5 per cent blended hydrogen gas network, with an overall goal of reaching 10 per cent.

For more information visit www.pipeliner.com.au

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