TotalEnergies and Tree Energy Solutions (TES) have agreed to jointly study and develop a large-scale electronic natural gas (eNG) production facility in the United States. E-gas natural is a synthetic gas produced from renewable hydrogen and CO2.
The project, which is expected to produce 100,000 to 200,000 metric tons of e-NG per year, will be owned by the partners and operated by TotalEnergies, TotalEnergies said in its statement. This partnership combines TES’ e-NG know-how with TotalEnergies’ expertise in renewable energy generation, large-scale project management and natural gas liquefaction.
The e-NG will be produced in two steps, says TotalEnergies. In the first step, the partners aim to produce renewable hydrogen using a one gigawatt (GW) electrolyser that will be powered by approximately 2 GW of wind and solar power supplied by TotalEnergies through long-term power purchase agreements (PPAs ). In the second step, this renewable hydrogen will be combined with biogenic CO2 to obtain the e-NG.
The e-NG produced can be transported and/or liquefied, then sold as natural gas, using existing infrastructure, and end customers will be able to use it without any adaptation to their facilities, the statement said.
TotalEnergies and TES will carry out the preliminary studies and aim to reach a Final Investment Decision (FID) in 2024. The project is expected to benefit from tax credits under the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) of 2022.
“We are pleased to partner with TES to pioneer the development of the e-NG industry. This synthetic fuel will contribute to the energy transition by helping our customers decarbonize their activities, especially those that are difficult to electrify. This product has two important advantages. Firstly, it does not require any new logistics infrastructure, as e-NG and natural gas have the same properties and can therefore be combined with existing infrastructures. Secondly, our customers will not have to change their current industrial processes,” said Stéphane Michel, President of Gas, Renewables and Energy at TotalEnergies.
“The United States has many advantages for the development of our first e-NG project, including a well-developed gas infrastructure, growing renewable energy generation capacity and significant public subsidies.”
“The strategic cooperation with TotalEnergies is an important milestone towards large-scale e-NG production,” said Marco Alverà , CEO of TES.
“Our purpose and vision is to accelerate the race towards zero emissions and the development of hydrogen. The innovative business model developed by TES will help diversify the European and Asian energy mix, making affordable renewable energy available. This project innovative testament to the effectiveness of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) in the U.S. Today’s announcement confirms that cooperation among all stakeholders is what will make the energy transition possible,” he added.
The partnership with TES is in line with TotalEnergies’ plans to reach zero. At the beginning of 2019, TotalEnergies announced its target to reduce emissions from its operated facilities to less than 40 Mt by 2025 and set a target to reduce scope 1 and 2 net emissions (including carbon sinks) for their operated activities.
In order to prepare for the drop in demand for oil at the end of the decade, the company states on its site that it has embarked on a voluntary strategy to adapt its downstream activities in the refining and distribution of petroleum products to bring them into line with their oil production and that it has set a new target of reducing scope 3 emissions from petroleum products sold worldwide by more than 30 percent by 2015 and 2030.
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