Hydrogen to be tested as home gas fuel

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Hydrogen to be tested as home gas fuel

Park Ki-young, Vice Minister of Trade, Industry and Energy, second from right, heads a meeting with gas industry officials including those from the Korea Gas Corp. to discuss on testing the safety of blending hydrogen with natural gas during a meeting held in Seoul on Tuesday. [MINISTRY OF TRADE, INDUSTRY AND ENERGY]

Park Ki-young, Vice Minister of Trade, Industry and Energy, second from right, heads a meeting with gas industry officials including those from the Korea Gas Corp. to discuss on testing the safety of blending hydrogen with natural gas during a meeting held in Seoul on Tuesday. [MINISTRY OF TRADE, INDUSTRY AND ENERGY]

 The government announced Tuesday it will start testing the safety of mixing hydrogen with gas supplies for residential use.  
 
This part of the government’s ambition to create a "hydrogen economy" as part of its carbon neutrality goals.  
 
According to the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, the government is targeting at commercializing a mix in which 20 percent of gas supplied to homes will be hydrogen by 2026.  
 
The mixed gas will be supplied through the 50,000 kilometers of pipelines servicing Korean cities. 
 
A test will be run at the Korea Gas Corp.’s LNG plant in Pyeongtaek, Gyeonggi, in the second quarter.  
 
The government plans to spend 28 billion won ($23.4 million) through 2025 to develop and test the idea.   
 
The hydrogen mix will be used for household cooking and heating and industrial purposes such as powering CNG buses and electricity turbines.  
 
Korea consumes 40 million tonnes of natural gas a year. By mixing in 10 percent hydrogen, the government estimates it will save 1.29 million tonnes a year and cut carbon emissions by 3.55 million tonnes.  
 
Other countries including the U.S., U.K. and Germany have been experimenting with similar mixes.  
 
Since late 2020, the U.S. Energy Department has started a “HyBlend” initiative to research mixing hydrogen with natural gas.  
 
California's SoCalGas is testing blending hydrogen gas with natural gas up to the 20 percent level.  
 
Since 2019, the U.K. has run a HyDeploy project while Germany’s power company E.ON started a similar project last October.  
 
In November, the government released a roadmap in which hydrogen will account for 33 percent of Korea's energy consumption by 2050, making it the single biggest energy source,  
 
 

BY LEE HO-JEONG [lee.hojeong@joongang.co.kr]
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