Fluctuating natural gas qualities from the point of view of industrial end-users

The issue of natural gas quality has become a much-discussed topic in recent years. There are many reasons: the liberalization and unbundling of gas trading, grid and storage operations, the European Commission’s initiative to create a common European gas quality standard (EN 16726), the increasing globalization of the international gas markets via LNG and the ongoing trend to feed regenerative gases such as biomethane or even possibly hydrogen from “power-to-gas” into the gas grids. Many of these developments are positive, but they will also confront end-users across all sectors with increasing local fluctuations of gas quality. There are still many open questions concerning the impact of locally fluctuating gas qualities and compositions, especially for sensitive applications and processes in thermal processing and chemical industries. An open-minded and fact-based discussion about the upcoming changes and their consequences for the gas market is required, to which all market partners should contribute.