Engineering news
A British company is playing a central role in the opening of a power-to-gas plant in Germany that, for the first time ever, links together the supply of local electricity, natural gas and district heating.
ITM Power, based in Sheffield, has supplied a rapid response Power-to-Gas PEM electrolyser system to RWE Deutschland for a power-to-gas plant in Ibbenbüren, North Rhine Westphalia.
The plant will take excess electricity from renewable sources and convert it into hydrogen so it can be stored within the natural gas network. It can then be recalled from there at a later date for use in electricity production. This power-to-gas process is seen as one of the key technologies for tomorrow’s energy supply.
Garrelt Duin, North Rhine Westphalia minister of economics, energy and industry, said: “The option of storing excess eco-power locally and later using it when it is needed is an innovative and technological feat of the highest order. This process has potential to play a key role in the transformation of the energy industry.”
Duin said that energy storage solutions would become an essential element of future electricity systems. “In order to be able to pick up excess electricity from renewable sources onto our grid, we need alternatives to conventional grid expansion methods. This was the driving force behind our decision to embrace this new technology.
“The hydrogen that is created by electrolysis can be stored and later used to generate power. The benefit of this form of electricity storage is the enormous infrastructure already offered by the natural gas network – which has huge storage capacity and a high-performing network.”
A central element of the power-to-gas plant is an electrolyser the size of a shipping container, which was built by ITM Power.
The electrolyser converts into hydrogen any power from renewable sources such as solar panels or wind turbines that is not immediately required. It is then injected into the natural gas network via a gas pressure regulation station where the waste heat of the electrolyser is also utilised.
In times of low renewable power production, the previously stored natural gas can be siphoned off from the storage facility and used in a co-generation plant within the RWE district heating network in Ibbenbüren to generate power. The combined heat and power generation system used there also leads to much better power utilisation thanks to this new system solution. The power-to-gas plant of RWE in Ibbenbüren has a rated power output of 150 kilowatts and creates hydrogen under 14-bar pressure.
Phil Doran, managing director of ITM Power in Germany, added: “We are delighted to have won the RWE tender, allowing us to deploy our second generation PEM P2G system, complete with heat recovery. We are looking forward to continuing cooperating and learning with RWE as we seek to further develop our German market presence.”