Plans by Canadian gas companies to blend hydrogen into their natural gas supplies to supposedly reduce their climate impact will in fact generate more than twice as many harmful emissions as using natural gas alone, researchers have found.
Several Canadian gas companies, including FortisBC of British Columbia and Enbridge in Ontario, plan to blend small amounts of hydrogen gas so that their natural gas emits less carbon dioxide. Because hydrogen emits no greenhouse gases when burned, the companies say their plan will reduce the amount of carbon emitted by gas-powered appliances.
Fossil fuel companies say their hydrogen gas will be produced without the use of fossil fuels. However, there is currently not enough sustainable hydrogen production capacity to meet demand.
And now, a team of British researchers has discovered that adding hydrogen to natural gas actually increases the amount of natural gas that escapes from the burners of stoves and boilers because the smaller hydrogen molecules help the larger methane ones. escape
Because natural gas is produced from methane, a potent greenhouse gas, the increased number of leaks outweighs any climate benefits that arise from mixing hydrogen with the fuel. Additionally, leaks occur even when appliances are not in use.
Leaks of methane, benzene and other gases from gas pipes and airborne residues left after burning fuel in appliances also pose a significant health risk. American researchers have found that approximately 12 percent of children exposed to natural gas and its vapors will develop asthma, a rate similar to that of children exposed to secondhand smoke.
The gas companies’ plan to mix hydrogen and natural gas “is a greenwashing of natural gas to make it appear greener than it is,” said Dr. Melissa Lem, president of the Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment. .
To reach their conclusion, the researchers pressurized a conventional gas hob (a modified version of the old gas stove) and a gas boiler with pure methane (natural gas) and a series of hydrogen and natural gas mixtures similar to those. used by fossil fuel companies. proposed to go through its pipes. The team then assessed how much pressure was lost in the theoretically closed system to measure how much fuel leaked.
They found that, on average, when methane gas is mixed with 20 percent hydrogen for cooking, leaks double. Boilers using the same mixture of hydrogen and methane leaked almost 44 percent more than when they used gas alone.
Researchers have found that gas companies’ plans to mix natural gas and hydrogen in an effort to reduce their emissions will likely backfire by creating more gas leaks.
“The industry has made hydrogen a solution in search of a problem, but as this research illustrates, the physical properties of hydrogen are what they are. It leaks and causes pipes to crack prematurely, neither of which are good qualities for a fuel source that passes through our neighborhoods,” said Paul Martin, co-founder of the Hydrogen Science Coalition.
The findings come weeks after FortisBC, Enbridge and the B.C. government Announced plans to study how to mix hydrogen with natural gas and transport it along existing pipelines. Both companies have made hydrogen a key part of their proposed plans to reduce emissions. FortisBC has fiance that at least 15 percent of the fuel in its pipelines will be hydrogen or so-called “renewable natural gas” made from organic waste.
“FortisBC believes hydrogen has the potential to play an important role in a low-carbon energy future and can help achieve the goals of the province’s CleanBC strategy,” FortisBC spokesperson Diana Sorace said in a statement. communicated to Canadian National Observer. “We are currently working with government, academia and industry to understand how to safely and reliably blend hydrogen with natural gas within FortisBC’s existing system.”
Enbridge spokeswoman Natasha Carr wrote to Canadian National Observer that “Enbridge Gas has not had the opportunity to review the report yet, so it would be premature to respond at this time.”
The companies’ push for hydrogen is a desperate effort to stay in business in the face of electric alternatives such as heat pumps and electric stoves, and regulations intended to promote them. Electric heaters and boilers are more efficient than gas ones, create no air pollution or greenhouse gases (if the electricity is generated sustainably), and are often more affordable, Lem and Martin said.
Gas companies and the fossil fuel lobby have been fighting municipal and provincial efforts to ban or severely restrict gas use for years. That push has included aggressive lobbying and secret advertising campaigns aimed at promoting and disseminating misleading information about fuel.
“The attempt to justify connecting new homes and buildings to gas by saying that we are going to add environmentally friendly hydrogen is a great exercise in greenwashing,” Lem said.
“Most of the gas in the pipeline will continue to be fracked gas from northern British Columbia, which has huge environmental and climate consequences, and will cause more indoor air pollution for families.”