Work

Standardized techno-economic assessment of synthetic natural gas and synthetic hydrogen natural gas production for the transport sector and gas grid

Year: 2026

Type: article

Abstract: • Techno-economic comparison of high- and low-temperature methanation. • Isothermal and TREMP™ process. • Product quality for gas grid and transport sector. • Analysis of H 2 -concentrations in product up to 30 % mol. • Standardized comparison to methanol production with renewable energy. As CO 2 -emission hit new records, immediate emission reductions have to be achieved, especially in the transport and industrial sector an in domestic heat. As important backbone of the industrial and private sector, the existing natural gas grid is capable of storing and transporting large amounts of energy. Admixing synthetic natural gas to the gas grid could have an immediate impact on CO 2 -safings. Furthermore, admixing up to 30 % renewable H 2 to the gas grid could improve resilience, lower costs, compared to synthetic natural gas, and could have positive impacts on the use in the transport sector. Based on rigorous process simulations in Aspen Plus® V14 a techno-economic analysis for two production processes: high temperature TREMP™ and low temperature isothermal, has been carried out. The product quality has been set to the overlap of the requirements of the gas grid and the transport sector. Furthermore, three different higher hydrogen concentrations have been assessed. The TREMP™ process has a power-to-fuel-efficiency of about 57 % compared to 55 % for the isothermal process, resulting in net production costs in 2018 of 185 € 2018 MWh LHV -1 for TREMP™ versus 189 € 2018 MWh LHV -1 for isothermal. An increase from 2 % to 30 % mol H 2 reduces the NPC by about 2.6 % for TREMP™ and 2.7 % for the isothermal process in comparison to synthetic natural gas. Technical constraints and costs within the gas grid suggest a sweet spot of hydrogen admixture of up to 20 % vol. H 2 .

Source: Energy Conversion and Management

DOI: 10.1016/j.enconman.2025.120973

Authors: Nathanael Heimann, Francisco Moser, Moritz Raab, Jens Hüttenrauch, Ralph-Uwe Dietrich

Institution: Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt e. V. (DLR)

Language: English

Topic: Hybrid Renewable Energy Systems

Subfield: Energy Engineering and Power Technology

Field: Energy

Domain: Physical Sciences

SDGs: Industry, innovation and infrastructure, Climate action, Affordable and clean energy, Responsible consumption and production

Open Access status: hybrid

Estimated APC paid: $4,600