September 25, 2022. Southern California Gas Co. (SoCalGas) and the University of California, Irvine (UCI) announced a proposed collaboration to demonstrate how electrolytic hydrogen can be safely blended into existing natural gas infrastructure on the university’s campus. The project aims to help better understand how clean fuels like renewable hydrogen could be delivered at scale through California’s existing natural gas system, either to existing customers connected to the gas grid, or to generate clean electricity in zero-emissions fuel cells. The demonstration is an important next step in establishing a statewide injection standard for renewable hydrogen that would promote California’s clean energy and resiliency goals. If approved, SoCalGas could begin testing hydrogen blending at UCI as soon as 2024.
“The use of existing natural gas networks to transport renewable hydrogen is actively being pursued around the world because clean fuels like hydrogen can do many of the critical jobs that natural gas does today,” said Neil Navin, Vice President for Clean Energy Innovations at SoCalGas. “This demonstration project offers a real-world environment to better understand how clean fuel blends can be delivered to customers connected to the gas grid today. It can also help us assess how to more quickly deploy advanced technologies key to the state’s climate and clean air goals such as neighborhood micro-grids that promote reliability and resiliency.”
“Research at UCI has shown that we cannot achieve high renewable power use without the features of hydrogen,” said Jack Brouwer, UCI professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering and director of the UCI-based National Fuel Cell Research Center. “The massive storage and resilient underground transmission and distribution of renewable energy that will be enabled by transformation of the gas system to renewable and clean hydrogen use will be investigated and advanced in this important effort.”
SoCalGas’ collaboration with UCI is part of a hydrogen blending demonstration application jointly filed with San Diego Gas & Electric Company (SDG&E) and Southwest Gas yesterday with the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC).
The demonstration project builds upon the California Public Utilities Commission “Hydrogen Blending Impacts Study,” performed by University of California, Riverside (UCR). The study recommended testing hydrogen blending in a real-world environment as an important step toward establishing a California hydrogen blending standard, which could accelerate the state’s clean energy and resiliency goals.