'Dangerous experiment' | California gas company scales back plan to blend hydrogen into university pipelines
But SoCalGas now intends to include impoverished neighbourhood in H2 blending trial
Southern California Gas (SoCalGas) has scaled back plans to blend up to 20% hydrogen into the University of California Irvine’s fossil gas supply after facing accusations that it was using students as “guinea pigs in a dangerous experiment”.
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In its application, the gas company noted that the project would “collect data on pipeline integrity and compatibility with blend concentrations, fluctuations in gas composition and concentrations, leakage (if any), effects on metering, safety, and end-user appliances to ensure appliances functioned correctly and without modifications”.
This led to strong condemnation from UC Irvine students and local environmental organisations, with the San Diego-based Climate Action Campaign accusing the company and UC Irvine staff of “using college students as guinea pigs in a dangerous experiment”.
As such, in an amended application filed on 1 March, SoCalGas has now scaled back its plans to blend up to 20% hydrogen to a closed system at the campus gym, the Anteater Recreation Center (ARC).
“Portions of the campus’s distribution system will be isolated so that only the ARC will receive the hydrogen blend to serve light commercial equipment in the ARC, such as boilers and pool heaters,” the gas company wrote in its application.
This is expected to last three years, after which SoCalGas plans to analyse the results and “decommission the project equipment only if required to do so”. The gas company adds that it “intends to donate certain portions of the equipment to the City of Orange Cove for local community use”.
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