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NETWORK / 8 / OCTOBER 2016 CCS FOR GAS I t is almost a year since the govern- ment unceremoniously pulled the plug on the £1 billion competition to commercialise carbon capture and storage technology, leading to the cancellation of Yorkshire's White Rose and Aberdeenshire's Peterhead dem- onstrator projects. The abrupt scrapping of support for these pivotal British carbon capture and storage (CCS) projects was condemned at the time by the environmental lobby, researchers, and the nascent CCS industry. They denounced the move as being in- consistent with the government's desire to see a new wave of investment in UK CCGT plant while still meeting emissions-reduc- tions targets. They also said it undermined the ability of carbon-intensive industries – which are crucial to the UK's economic growth prospects – to transition to a low- carbon economy. As time wore on and government refused to back down on its withdrawal of CCS support, criticism did not die down. Indeed, if anything it grew, with more groups adding new perspectives to the caseˆfor CCS. Over the past 12 months, the UK EnergyˆResearch Centre, the Energy Technologies Institute, the Institution of Chemical Engineers. The National Audit OŽ ce and the now defunct Energy and Climate Change Committee (ECCC) have all produced evidence to show why scrapping CCS supportˆwill add billions to the cost ofˆdecarbonisation. In February, ECCC chair Angus MacNeil said unequivocally "Government cannot a• ord to sit back and simply wait and see if CCS will be deployed when it is needed. Getting the infrastructure in place takes time, and the government needs to ensure that we can start – tting gas-– red power stations with carbon capture and storage technology in the 2020s." CCS for low-carbon heat But, CCS is not only crucial for the low- carbon future of power generation and heavy industry. Mounting evidence and an increasingly vociferous lobby group also show that CCS DID YOU KNOW According to The Global State of CCS 2015, a report from the Global CCS Institute, there are15 large-scale CCS projects currently operating around the world. These have the capacity to capture up to 28 million tonnes of CO2 per year (Mtpa). The International Energy Agency's modelling of least-cost outcomes to achieve the 2°C goal suggests this needs to increase to about 4,000 million tonnes in 2040 and 6,000 million tonnes in 2050. must play a fundamental role in the decar- bonisation of the UK's gas grid. The prominence of this lobby is intrinsi- cally linked to the – ght for recognition of the continued need for gas networks in an a• ordable low-carbon future. Today, natural gas delivers heat to about 80% of UK homes and heat accounts for half of the UK's total energy demand. If new ways to decarbonise a national gas grid can be supported, the UK could take a signi– cant step forward towards the CO2 emissions reduction targets it signed up to in the Climate Change Act and at the Paris COP 21 meeting last year. CCS, which has been pushed forward as a means for decarbonising the electric- ity system, could have a signi– cant role to play in decarbonsing heat. Indeed, a recent report from the Parliamentary Advisory Group on CCS, led by Lord Oxburgh, found that "heat may be the most important sector for CCS in the long-term". In exploring the role of CCS in decarbon- ising heat, Oxburgh's report (summarised on page 10) focuses heavily on hydrogen – which has zero carbon emissions on combustion – as an opportunity to convert the UK gas grid from its fossil fuel reliance today, to a green heat conduit. "Decarbonised hydrogen can be pro- duced by electrolysis of water and could open the way to a future fossil fuel-free economy," says the report, "but for the immediate future, would be produced from hydrocarbons with CCS." Pushing forward hydrogen production in tandem with CCS would bring added bene– ts, says Oxbrugh, because synergies could be supported with other hydrogen- based energy scenarios – for example, "a hydrogen network could also be used for clean power generation and for emission- free vehicles". Such arguments are not new. Dreams of a hydrogen economy – including hydrogen fuel cell vehicles as the dominant mode of transport rather than EVs – have existed for decades. However, these visions have struggled to gain widespread buy-in from policy wonks because of technical hold-ups in various parts of the value chain and lack of infrastructure co-ordination – as well as doubts about cost, as we shall see. More recently though, gas networks have become keenly aware of the need to justify their long-term value to a low-carbon economy and society. They have been compelled to show why they should not be written out of future energy scenarios and this has led new interest in the scope for a hydrogen economy to £ ourish. A range of Ofgem-funded network inno- vation schemes have sought to explore the feasibility of hydrogen gas grid conversions – among which Northern Gas Networks' Leeds City Gate H21 project is arguably the most ambitious. H21, funded under the Network Innova- tion Allowance, has made a case for the conversion of the gas grid for the entire Leeds City region to carry 100% hydrogen. It also conducted a feasibility study which showed how sustainable local production of hydrogen for injection into this grid could be supported by CCS. Dan Sadler, head of energy futures at Northern Gas Networks, led the project and is currently seconded to the new Depart- ment for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy as technical adviser on the future of the gas networks. "My view is hydrogen o• ers a large-scale solution to decarbonisa- tion," Sadler enthuses. "Reusing our gas network and with a proven supply chain, it "Hydrogen offers a large-scale solution to decarbonisation. It could provide a long term sustainable solution to decarbonisation of heat in the UK." Dan Sadler, head of energy futures, Northern Gas Networks