#MoveTheDate
0.9
Days
Blending clean-burning hydrogen with natural gas for home use would move Earth Overshoot Day by 0.9 days.
What is the solution?
Blending low concentrations of hydrogen, between 5-15%, with natural gas in existing pipeline networks. Hydrogen has the potential to be clean-burning, meaning it emits only water vapor when burned.
This solution improves our resource security in the energy category.
How does it #MoveTheDate?
Hydrogen can be produced with excess electricity and stored for times when electricity is scarce. This would reduce the need for fossil fuels as back up energy sources.
How is it scalable?
In the United Kingdom, early-stage tests blending up to 20% hydrogen are limited but indicate promising results. A number of other countries are adopting ‘pipeline injection’ as part of their national hydrogen strategy.
What is the solution?
Blending low concentrations of hydrogen, between 5-15%, with natural gas in existing pipeline networks. Hydrogen has the potential to be clean-burning, meaning it emits only water vapor when burned.
This solution improves our resource security in the energy category.
How does it #MoveTheDate?
Hydrogen can be produced with excess electricity and stored for times when electricity is scarce. This would reduce the need for fossil fuels as back up energy sources.
How is it scalable?
In the United Kingdom, early-stage tests blending up to 20% hydrogen are limited but indicate promising results. A number of other countries are adopting ‘pipeline injection’ as part of their national hydrogen strategy.
Green hydrogen could be a powerful energy carrier with significant benefits during the energy transition because it can be used in existing fossil fuel infrastructure. By supplementing up to 20% of natural gas with hydrogen, existing natural gas equipment can be used without modification. This eases the transition to clean energy and starts opening a market for new green hydrogen sources.
Because renewable energy production can fluctuate substantially, blending hydrogen with natural gas could help balance potential mismatches between energy supply and demand. For instance, when electricity is overabundant due to strong winds or high solar flux, green hydrogen can be produced using the excess electricity. It is possible to store green hydrogen in the short-term. For long-term storage, the gas would need to be liquified, which is energy intensive and costly.
It’s worth noting that efficient hydrogen combustion only releases water vapor. If not designed carefully, there is the potential for NOx emissions as is the case for any combustion with oxygen taken from the atmosphere.
For more on blending hydrogen into the natural gas pipelines, read here.
There’s no benefit in waiting!
Acting now puts you at a strategic advantage in a world increasingly defined by ecological overshoot. Countless solutions exist that #MoveTheDate. They’re creative, economically viable, and ready to deploy at scale. With them, we can make ourselves more resilient and #MoveTheDate of Earth Overshoot Day. If we move the date 6 days each year, humanity can be out of overshoot before 2050.