Hydrogen Blending in Gas Network – A Case Study of Jubail City in Saudi Arabia

Abstract

Abstract In recent years, Saudi Arabia's development has been blooming on many fronts. That necessitates an increase in energy demand. More than 60% of that energy generation is yielded from Natural Gas (NG). On a national scale, more than 200 million metric tons of Carbon Dioxide (CO2) is estimated from NG combustion for energy generation every year. This study will evaluate H2-NG blending network readiness in Jubail City, Saudi Arabia, to reduce CO2 emissions. The gas network system in Jubail City is thoroughly studied to investigate the system's readiness for hydrogen blending. Different scenarios are considered to provide flexibility to adopt Hydrogen blending with the existing network without the need for any major upgrade. A gas network model of Jubail City is developed in PIPESIM-Net software to examine corrosion and erosion effects on the existing gas network with various CO2 and H2O concentrations. Furthermore, Hydrogen is introduced to the composition at different concentrations such as 5,10,15,20, 30, 40, 50, 60, 70, 80, and 90%. The model will be expanded to include all gas network components in the Kingdom. The developed simulation model showed that the existing gas network in Jubail Industrial City could handle the target hydrogen concentration of 5 to 20 percent with no significant upgrade required. Additionally, worst-case scenarios for high water and CO2 saturation sensitivity analysis showed mild corrosion rate, with the latter causing a more noticeable corrosion rate. Also, the model showed no significant concerns for erosion, indicating that the pipelines are adequately sized. Finally, it is estimated that a 4 million metric tons reduction per year of CO2 emissions in Jubail Industrial alone that can be extrapolated to 20 million metric tons on a national scale. This study will directly impact the global environment by evaluating Hydrogen blending readiness in Saudi Arabia, which will significantly reduce carbon emissions and support the Kingdom's mission to be carbon-neutral.