Future
Natural Gas: Pipeline to the Future
Natural gas is not only an environmentally friendly energy source; it has also long-term available reserves, making a significant contribution to secure energy supplies for Europe.
European gas companies have made substantial investments in supply security and infrastructure for gas supplies well into the 21st century. Though an end to the upward trend for natural gas in Europe is not in sight, gas companies are nonetheless looking further ahead and developing scenarios for using natural gas together with, perhaps, renewable energies as a "pipeline to the future". In this context, a major role is likely to be played by gas hydrates, still untapped gas reservoirs under the earth's poles and the exploitation of hydrogen. Of all fossil fuels, natural gas has the highest hydrogen content and is thus suitable for building the bridge to a future hydrogen economy.
The present supply structure has a pipeline network which can be used for future sustainable energy systems without need for any fundamental modifications. It virtually provides the cornerstone for a new supply structure in the future. It is possible to inject into this system a mixture of fossil fuels from conventional and non-conventional sources, hydrogen from renewable energies and methane from biomass. The existing storage facilities can be utilised for intermediate storage. On the consumption side, particularly in the residential sector, there will be a combination of fossil and renewable fuels, including solar energy.More and new challenges lie in possible further technical developments e.g. in the conversion of electricity and natural has to hydrogen. Excess electricity can be converted to hydrogen and the hydrogen can then be stored. The commercial development of such techniques will depend on improved efficiencies and lower costs.
In particular natural gas, as a so-called back-up energy, could also be converted by catalysts to hydrogen. In future, micro-generation hydrogen fuel cells could be the basis for power and heat in the residential sector, with domestic applications switched from the use of natural gas into the use of hydrogen instead.
