Resiliency and Sustainability: How the Natural Gas Industry is Fueling Innovation

Part 2: 

The following is Part 2 of a multi-part series on the role natural gas plays in promoting resiliency as we work to make the energy system more sustainable. The first entry can be read here. 

In Part 1 of this series, we discussed the critical role natural gas plays in helping ensure energy resilience during extreme weather events and operational disruptions. However, the benefits natural gas provides to the energy system are not limited to resilience. 

As our industry works to address the challenge of climate change, natural gas and gas infrastructure can also play a key role in accelerating America’s leadership in innovating for a stronger economic future. This article will explore how natural gas contributes as part of a portfolio of innovative energy technologies to help secure a resilient, sustainable energy system.  

Renewable natural gas (RNG) offers achievable new opportunities for a reliable, efficient, and cleaner energy future that also addresses some of America’s biggest logistical problems, including waste management. RNG is biogas or biomethane that has been captured, processed, and upgraded to pipeline quality standards, and that can be used in existing natural gas infrastructure without modification. RNG can be sourced from landfills, wastewater treatment plants, livestock farms, food production facilities, and organic waste management operations. 

RNG can be a carbon-neutral or even carbon-negative source of energy. The biogas captured to make RNG is primarily composed of methane. By capturing and combusting methane that would otherwise be released into the atmosphere, RNG effectively replaces methane emissions with carbon dioxide, resulting in a substantial reduction in overall emissions. 

Moreover, when the methane combusted originates from biogenic sources like agricultural waste, the carbon dioxide emitted is carbon-neutral because it previously existed in the atmosphere before being used to grow crops. As a result, RNG has the potential to be not just carbon neutral but carbon negative when accounting for avoided methane emissions. 

Currently, more than 237 landfill and agriculture RNG projects operate across the U.S. One notable RNG producer, Align RNG, is projected to reduce annual farm emissions by more than 2.5 million metric tons over the next decade. To put this in perspective, that’s the emissions reduction equivalent to removing 500,000 cars off the road. 

Hydrogen blending also offers additional near-term opportunities for improving environmental stewardship while maintaining energy affordability and reliability. When combusted with oxygen, hydrogen produces water and does not emit carbon dioxide. By blending hydrogen with natural gas, utilities can lower overall greenhouse gas emissions.  While technical challenges remain, initiatives like the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) HyBlend initiative are working to address these barriers. Read more on the various types of hydrogen here. 

In addition to blending with natural gas, hydrogen can be converted to methane, also known as methanated hydrogen, e-methane, or synthetic RNG. This process involves reacting hydrogen with carbon dioxide or carbon monoxide, which can be sourced from biogas produced during anaerobic digestion or syngas generated via thermal gasification, forming methane and water. This is just one possible method of methanation among several that are utilized or under development.  The hydrogen used in these processes can come from renewable or low-carbon sources like electrolysis.  

Synthetic RNG provides low-carbon fuel that is fully compatible with existing infrastructure. Like all RNG, synthetic RNG can be carbon-neutral or carbon-negative. Though methanation was invented over 100 years ago, power-to-gas hydrogen methanation is relatively new, with projects in development globally since 2009.  

Another promising innovation in the drive toward sustainable stewardship is carbon capture and sequestration (CCS). This technology captures carbon dioxide from industrial facilities or directly from the atmosphere and stores it underground. Currently, CCS projects store nearly 45 million tons of carbon dioxide annually, equivalent to the emissions of 10 million passenger vehicles. 

DOE’s Carbon Capture-Large Scale Pilot Projects Program is driving the growth of CCS across the country. One such project is Cane Run 7, a natural gas combined cycle power plant owned by Kentucky Utilities that is expected to capture up to  67,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide per year. To learn more about other emerging technologies and net-zero opportunities with natural gas, click here. 

The natural gas industry has been a leader in helping our nation achieve its energy and environmental goals, and our industry will continue to work together with the rest of the energy system to further these goals while continuing to serve as an invaluable foundation for reliability and resiliency alike. Innovations like RNG, hydrogen blending, hydrogen co-firing, synthetic RNG, and CCS are reshaping how natural gas contributes to a strong energy future.