ARENA Funds New Power-to-Gas Electrolyser to Decarbonise Australia’s Gas Supply

On its website, ARENA mentioned that it has pledged $5 million in funding to AquaHydrex. The budget is aimed to assist the firm in commercially developing its latest class of electrolyser in order to generate inexpensive hydrogen from splitting water.
Aquahydrex, together with the Australian Gas Networks (AGN), will create and build an electrolyser pilot plant to test putting a small amount of hydrogen into the South Australian gas grid in a process called “power-to-gas.” AGN owns the gas distribution network in the region.
Power-to-gas is a process where electricity is converted into hydrogen by splitting water, and then putting it into the gas grid. It aids in rendering long-term energy storage and provides a balance of variable output solar and wind power.
Ivor Frischknecht, ARENA Chief Executive, stated, “Hydrogen can be injected directly into the natural gas network without modification at levels of at least 10 percent, with some experts recently suggesting levels closer to 30 percent are viable to supplement our gas needs.”
“There is huge untapped potential in power-to-gas to convert surplus renewable energy to hydrogen and use our existing gas network infrastructure for long-term, safe, reliable energy storage. In the future, there will be increasing amounts of surplus renewable energy when it is sunny or windy,” he added.
The Managing Director of AquaHydrex Paul Barrett mentioned that storing renewable energy directly in the gas network is the first step to market the invention. Barrett said, “This renewable hydrogen also opens up the possibility of exporting renewable energy – which Australia, with its vast renewable resources, is well positioned to exploit.”
Visit ARENA’s website to read the article.