It’s an exciting time for gas as we look to transition this high-performance energy towards being renewable, low carbon and eventually net zero carbon.
A green future
New Zealand homes and businesses use two types of gas – natural gas which flows through piped networks, and LPG, delivered in bottles. Gas is valued by hospitality outlets for its high heat for use in cooking, and by businesses ranging from laundromats to those in manufacturing and agriculture. And that’s not counting the hundreds of thousands of households that use gas for their backyard barbecues, cooking, heating and hot water.
If you like today’s gas, you’ll love tomorrow’s. We are aiming to transform waste from a problem to a net zero or low carbon energy solution used to power the gas appliances in your home and business, enabling a cleaner, more circular economy to emerge. With hydrogen gas and biogas already being developed and trialed here in New Zealand and globally today, you can continue to enjoy the benefits of gas in your life as we move to tomorrow’s gas energy.
A green future for gas means thoroughly assessing the renewable gas opportunities, and the role they can play in the future of gas. Hydrogen, biogas, renewable natural gas and renewable LPG can be made from renewable resources without releasing more CO2 into the environment than they have taken out. Just the kind of energy we need.
Renewables
Renewable Hydrogen
Renewable hydrogen gas is produced - using renewable electricity - by separating hydrogen from water. Renewable hydrogen gas is also referred to as green hydrogen.
Hydrogen can also store energy like a battery and then be converted back to electricity using a fuel cell. In this way it can be used to power electric vehicles, including some of our heavy transport vehicles such as commercial trucks and boats.
It is also possible that hydrogen gas could be used in much the same ways that current gas is used today - such as for cooking, heating hot water and heating your home.
Case study: Hiringa Energy is powering NZ Post trucks with renewable hydrogen.
Biogas
Biogas is produced by capturing the methane that comes from decomposing food or plant waste. It has been around for decades and is already used in many homes and industries around the world.
It’s naturally produced from organic waste by anaerobic digestion. When biogas is processed to regulatory pipeline standards, it is considered renewable natural gas.
Biogas can be produced on a large scale in collaboration with council rubbish dumps and wastewater treatment plants, farms and animal and food processing sites, then processed to become renewable natural gas and fed into the gas pipeline network to to use in our homes.
Some production and manufacturing operations can also make their own biogas on site to use directly at their plants.
Case study: Denmark is well on the way to 100 percent of its gas consumption coming from biogas.
Renewable Natural Gas (RNG)
Renewable natural gas (also called biomethane) is methane produced from renewable sources like digested organic waste and gasified biomass. It has the same chemical make up as the methane on natural gas. It is a cleaner version of biogas – produced by further processing or “scrubbing” of biogas.
Case study: Ecogas is turning Auckland’s waste into renewable gas.
Renewable LPG (rLPG)
rLPG is created from renewable and waste materials. The feedstocks undergo a series of sophisticated treatments to purify their energy content. Its composition is close or identical to conventional LPG and is transported and stored in the same tanks and used for the same applications and equipment – making the transition from LPG to rLPG seamless.
Renewable DME (rDME)
Renewable DME (also called rDME) is dimethyl ether, a clean, colourless gas that is produced from renewable or recycled carbon feedstocks, such as manure. rDME is easy to liquefy and transport and can be used as a replacement for, or blended with, LPG.
Renewable gas
and your appliances
Modern gas appliances can be configured to work with either renewable biogas or renewable LPG and industry will work to ensure the renewable gas available here suits New Zealand conditions and appliances.
Just like today’s gas, these new gases and appliances will be subject to rigorous safety protocols and standards before they are available to homes and businesses.
Case study: Showcasing possible appliances of the future, Rinnai New Zealand has already developed a hydrogen gas compatible continuous flow water heating system.
What’s the timing?
Natural gas and LPG are cleaner burning fuels with far lower CO2 emissions than coal (see NZ’s second emissions reduction plan, page 55, Ministry for the Environment) but - along with the rest of New Zealand’s energy sector – we need to future-proof gas to help achieve a net-zero emissions economy by 2050.
The blending of traditional gas with renewable natural gas is due to start in New Zealand in 2024. Initially in modest quantities in a discrete area, the expectation is that it will scale up incrementally over the following years.
Denmark has already achieved 32 percent renewable natural gas, and is targeting 100 percent by 2030.
It is also likely that renewable LPG will be available in the next decade, as production scales up around the world.
Just like today’s gas, these new gases will be subject to rigorous safety protocols and standards before they are available to homes and businesses.
Renewable gas will play a part in helping us achieve our renewable energy aspirations and a net zero carbon future by 2050.
What’s the plan?
Within the next 10 years we expect to be cooking on gas at least partially made from organic waste, and using renewable gas for a whole lot more. Some companies have even more ambitious timeframes, with Firstgas readying to introduce initial portions of renewable natural gas into the gas grid by 2024.
While the pace of introduction will ultimately depend on regulatory requirements and individual investments across the energy sector and from new eco start-ups, Future Sure partners are united in their view that a diversity of gas supply which includes renewable gases will be key to being ‘future sure’!
New Zealand has great potential to grow a renewable gas industry as we have feedstocks such as wood waste, agricultural waste, and municipal or landfill waste as sources of renewable gas.
Some appliance companies have already started testing existing appliances with renewable gases such as biogas and hydrogen. A good example is Rinnai who has developed a 100 percent hydrogen gas continuous hot water system.
Investment and research is well underway.
Production of sustainable aviation fuel and bio diesel can also produce renewable LPG as a by-product.
Europe and the United States are leading the way in the development of renewable LPG and renewable DME, and GasNZ is keeping abreast of progress.
The overall aim is to encourage a robust supply of renewable gas in New Zealand to help us achieve our carbon net zero goal by 2050.
What does the future hold for gas?
Future Sure companies are committed to continuing to explore a range of scenarios for the future of gas, from hydrogen to biogas and renewable gas blends.
It’s an exciting time for gas as we look to transition this high-performance energy towards being renewable, low carbon and eventually to a net zero carbon energy system.