The technology for blending hydrogen into natural gas in BlatnĂĄ na Ostrove. (source: TASR)
The small village of Blatná na Ostrove 40 km east of Bratislava is the first place hydrogen was blended in natural gas pipelines in Slovakia. With this pilot project the gas distribution company SPP-Distribúcia (SPP-D) wants to test the existing infrastructure. Hydrogen, as long as it is produced in a green way, is carbon neutral and produces no CO2 emissions when burned.
So far the distributor has not registered any problems.
“This means that it will not be necessary to build [distribution] pipelines anew, being enough to make some minor changes to existing ones,” said Martin Hollý, general director of SPP-Distribúcia, in mid-August.
Households in Blatná have not reported any complications while using natural gas blended with hydrogen at a ratio of 90:10. The only difference is the a bit bluer flame and the minor lower performance of their cookers.
“The project is implemented so that citizens do not need to change anything on their appliances,” said Marek Smatana, H2Pilot project manager.
SPP-D is regularly monitoring the oldest appliances while citizens’ initial concerns over safety did not arise.
“Nobody noticed anything, because I also have such appliances at home and there is no difference at all,” said Terézia Földváry, the mayor of Blatná na Ostrove.
Pilot project
SPP-D launched the H2Pilot project in mid-June. The trial will last until the end of September and there is a chance that, besides testing the mixture for cooking, it will be possible to test it for heating. SPP-D will evaluate results of the pilot project by the end of 2022.
