Gas services

We understand energy systems as balancing areas with numerous interacting components. These include different forms of energy and energy flows, buildings, energy producers, users, mobility, Power-to-Gas plants, stores and infrastructure. They can be linked to external influences, such as the weather, and the behaviour of upstream networks. The complexity required for the task is coordinated with the customer.

Our investigations extend across energy systems of varying dimensions, from homes through to industrial complexes and regions. We dynamically investigate these energy systems for a certain period so that the effects of fluctuations can be described. Fluctuations can arise, for example, due to the production of renewable energy, consumer behaviour or events such as faults, restrictions or batch operations.

Examples of investigations that we can carry out:

• Evaluation of business models
• Optimisation of infrastructural modifications, the sizes of storages, etc.
• Testing of control strategies
• Optimisation of energy consumption
• Development of supply concepts
• Effect of demand-side management
• Integration of heat networks

Gas mobility

Gas mobility is an alternative to electromobility. We consider gas mobility to be both the methane-based as well as hydrogen-based mobility of cars, lorries, buses, ships and trains. In this field, we offer studies on the following issues, among others:

• Infrastructural requirements, such as filling stations and storages
• Concepts for providing electricity, hydrogen and methane
• Methane and hydrogen supply
• Methane and hydrogen distribution
• Costs
• Well-to-wheel analysis
• Integration of mobility in energy systems

Industry research

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The gas networks cover over 500,000 km and transport around 1,800 TWh of energy each year, making them absolutely vital for our energy supply across all sectors. In the near future, the gas supply will be the only nationwide supply with an extremely high security of supply and, as such, will become considerably more important for the energy transition and energy supply. As a result, the gas supply must be regenerative and climate-neutral. We can support this task with the following activities:

• Feed-in of RE gases (biogas, H₂) into gas networks and their effect on distributions, transition areas, etc.
• Support with feed-in applications
• Development of concepts for billing fluctuating mixed gases
• Evaluation of capacity bottlenecks
• Investigation of maximum blending quantities, e.g. of H₂, in consideration of the billing concepts, gas users and fluctuation margins
• Preparation of concepts for calorific value districts for gas mixtures
• Integration of sensitive users in case of fluctuating gas qualities

The procedure for producing renewable gases is challenging. The layout of the individual steps of the process is critical for achieving the goal of a technically advanced process chain. This involves all of the steps, starting from an electrolysis or a biogas plant through to the supply into the gas network or to the supply of liquefied RE gases. Important criteria are the energy-efficiency of the process chain and the production and supply costs for RE gases. To achieve the goal of an efficient process chain, we can provide support with the following procedural issues:

• Procedural layout and evaluation of processes
• Integration of new procedures in an existing operating environment
• Plant monitoring
• Process simulation
• Heat integration
• Substance data for the layout of the processes
• Economic evaluation of process chains