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Development of natural gas

qualities in Europe
by Klaus Altfeld, Peter Schley

Natural gas qualities in Europe will become increasingly diverse and combustion characteristics (Wobbe index, methane
number) will vary over wider ranges. The article presents the gas qualities to be expected over the medium term and
analyses and discusses their effects on future gas utilisation. Aside from rich (high-calorific) LNG qualities, future natural
gas and biomethane qualities are not expected to cause problems in gas utilisation in most European countries. This
also applies where up to 10 % of hydrogen produced from renewable surplus electricity is admixed except for three
important applications: tanks for compressed natural gas used as a motor fuel, gas turbines with premixed burners
and underground porous rock storage facilities; here further R&D input is still required. Biomethane produced from
contaminated feedstock may carry undesirable trace substances. Particularly careful treatment and quality control are
then necessary. Hydrogen or methane produced from renewable surplus electricity will have a high purity level and,
like biomethane, will contribute to further reducing CO2-emissions. This will make natural gas an even more climateprotecting fuel compared with other fossil fuels.

he gases injected into the European gas transportation system will become increasingly diverse: while
conventional pipeline gases from the North Sea,
Russia, the Netherlands, Algeria and other producer regions
are not expected to change significantly, liquefied natural
gas (LNG) as well as biomethane will be gaining importance
and, in the medium term, also hydrogen or methane from
surplus renewable electricity as well as gases produced by
the gasification of solid biomass. The diversification trend
is welcome as it enhances supply security. Moreover, gases
from renewable sources help reduce climate-harming carbon dioxide emissions (greening of gas).
But, as a result, the market will see a greater variety of
gas qualities and gas qualities will vary over a wider range.
Gas appliances will have to respond increasingly flexibly.
Continued reliable operation of the more than 160 million
gas appliances in Europe must not be affected.
The paper describes different gases and their effects on
future gas utilization.

may cause problems when the gas is used in boilers or

engines. Because of the high Wobbe indices, direct use
of rich LNG qualities may be problematic for safety reasons. But by adding small amounts of nitrogen the Wobbe
index can be easily reduced to values acceptable in most
countries (55 to 56 MJ/m) (Fig. 1; 25 C/ 0 C reference
temperatures). This is generally accepted practice and has
been applied successfully in many regasification terminals.
The methane number is an important gas property
which indicates knock resistance in engine combustion
and is comparable with the octane number used for
petrol. Adding only a few percent of nitrogen has virtually
no effect on the methane number of rich LNG. Higher
methane numbers (and thus higher levels of knock resistance) can be obtained, for example, by mixing the gas
with lean LNG or pipeline gases containing only low levels
of higher hydrocarbons (Fig. 2). This has also become
usual practice.

LIQUEFIED NATURAL GAS (LNG)

Following commissioning of the first plants in 2006, the

treatment of biogas to obtain natural gas quality (biomethane) has seen noticeable growth in Germany. More
than 50 plants have been injecting biomethane into the
natural gas network for quite some time now without
causing problems for networks or consumers.

LNG is available in lean, medium and rich qualities. While

lean qualities roughly correspond to today's pipeline gases
from Russia or medium qualities to those from the North
Sea, rich qualities have high superior calorific values and
Wobbe indices and low methane numbers (Table 1). This

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BIOMETHANE

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Table 1: Gas qualities of different natural gases (pipeline), LNG and biomethane

Gas composition

Symbol

Unit

Russian North Sea Danish

Libya
Group H Group H Group H LNG (rich)

Nigeria
LNG
(mean)

Egypt
LNG
(lean)

Bio
methane

Bio
methane
+LPG

methane

CH4

mol%

96.96

88.71

90.07

81.57

91.28

97.70

96.15

90.94

nitrogen

N2

mol%

0.86

0.82

0.28

0.69

0.08

0.08

0.75

0.69

carbon dioxide

CO2

mol%

0.18

1.94

0.60

2.90

2.68

ethane

C2H6

mol%

1.37

6.93

5.68

13.38

4.62

1.80

propane

C3H8

mol%

0.45

1.25

2.19

3.67

2.62

0.22

5.00

n-butane

n-C4H10

mol%

0.15

0.28

0.90

0.69

1.40

0.20

0.50

n-pentane

n-C5H12

mol%

0.02

0.05

0.22

n-hexane

n-C6H14

mol%

0.01

0.02

0.06

hydrogen

H2

mol%

oxygen

O2

mol%

0.20

0.19

total

mol%

100

100

100

100

100

100

100

100

superior calorific
value

Hsv

MJ/m

40.3

41.9

43.7

46.4

44.0

40.7

38.3

41.9

superior calorific
value

Hsv

kWh/m

11.2

11.6

12.1

12.9

12.2

11.3

10.6

11.6

relative density

0.574

0.629

0.630

0.669

0.624

0.569

0.587

0.641

Wobbe Index

Ws

MJ/m

53.1

52.9

55.0

56.7

55.7

53.9

50.0

52.3

Wobbe Index

Ws

kWh/m

14.8

14.7

15.3

15.8

15.5

15.0

13.9

14.5

92

79

73

65

71

92

103

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methane number MZ

Biomethane from fermentation processes is a very simple gas: when injected into group-H gas networks it consists
of 96 to 98 % of methane as well as of carbon dioxide and
air. Its superior calorific value and Wobbe index are low
(Table 1). By conditioning with liquefied petroleum gas
(LPG) the superior calorific value of biomethane can be
adjusted to the superior calorific value prevailing in the
network, if necessary.
It is the oxygen content (0.1 to 0.5 %) that may be problematic when injecting biomethane into high-pressure transportation networks as even very low oxygen concentrations
(e.g. as low as 0.01 %) may cause significant problems in humid
underground storage facilities: corrosion on steel pipes as well
as detrimental effects on storage characteristics caused by
the formation of elementary sulphur and clogging of pores
[1]. Other undesirable accompanying or trace substances are
not known for biogas plants operated on quality-assured
feedstock (energy crops, liquid manure, green waste) and
equipped with a suitable gas treatment system [2,3].

78

But where contaminated feedstock is used, biomethane

may contain trace substances (such as silicon compounds
or halogens) which may cause problems in gas utilisation:
for example silicon deposits on turbine blades. As it contains a vast number of potentially hazardous substances,
landfill gas should not be injected into the natural gas
network for safety reasons even after treatment.

HYDROGEN
With the fast pace in developments, in particular in the field
of wind energy, the known problem of electricity storage has
gained a new dimension. Pumped storage power stations
have been used for decades to store electricity on a larger
scale. The number of power stations and their potential are
limited in many countries. The concrete idea is being pursued
to use surplus electricity for the generation of hydrogen by
electrolysis and inject the hydrogen generated directly into
the natural gas network. This will cause natural gas and electricity networks to become even more interdependent (Fig. 3).

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In Germany almost 1,000 TWh (1012 kWh) of energy in
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the form of natural gas are transported annually; this is
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If hydrogen from surplus renewable electricity is injected

into the natural gas network, the enormous transportation
capacity and the huge storage capacity of the existing natural
gas infrastructure including underground storage facilities can
be used directly (Germany as an example: approx. 500,000 km
of pipelines and more than 20 billion m of working gas in
storage facilities). This can make an important contribution to
the transportation and storage of surplus or non-transportable
renewable electricity and is particularly attractive if it helps to
avoid construction of a new electricity line.
But the volume of hydrogen that may be added to natural gas is limited. Studies [4] have shown that, with certain
restrictions, admixture of approx. 10 to 15 mol % is not critical in most cases except for three important applications:
Modern gas turbines with premixed burners (a great
number of manufacturers currently specify a limit value
of 5 %).
T
 anks in NGVs and CNG fuelling stations (the current
limit value is 2 %; but activities to increase the value
are under way).
Underground porous rock storage (studies have been
initiated to determine a reliable limit value).
Of course, hydrogen could also be used to produce methane, the main constituent of natural gas. But the process
would involve further capital expenditure and energy losses. This option will therefore only be used to a limited
extent for economic reasons.
What does it mean to inject 10 % of hydrogen into the
natural gas network? The two examples below illustrate
the situation:

Fig. 1: Wobbe index for a mixture consisting of rich LNG

(Libya) and nitrogen as a function of the amount
of nitrogen admixed

Fig. 2: Methane number for a mixture of rich LNG (Libya)

and lean LNG (Egypt) as a function of mixture ratio

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almost twice as much as the electricity consumed. 10 %

of hydrogen admixed to natural gas would correspond
to an energy quantity of approx. 30 TWh. For comparison:
the total capacity of the pumped storage power plants
in Germany is 0.04 TWh per cycle (40,000 MWh).
A
 medium-sized natural gas transportation pipeline
has a capacity of, for example, 1 million m/h. Injection
of 10 % (100,000 m/h) of hydrogen would require an
electrical input of more than 400 MW for the electrolysis
reaction, which corresponds to the maximum output
of several large wind farms taken together.
The examples make it clear that injection of a hydrogen
volume into the natural gas network seemingly as low as
10 % would significantly contribute to solving the problem
of transporting and storing surplus electricity generated
from renewable resources.

GASES FROM SOLID BIOMASS

GASIFICATION
This option for generating renewable gases is also gaining
importance; some test plants are being built or in operation [5]. Gas composition may vary greatly depending on
process control. Aside from methane, the gas may also
contain hydrogen, carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide or
other undesirable trace substances. Stringent quality control is therefore required prior to injection into the natural
gas network. Comprehensive operational experience with
larger plants is not yet available.

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REPORTS

Gas Quality

Fig. 3: Converging electricity and gas infrastructures

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Fig. 4: S uperior calorific value as a function of Wobbe

index for different gases with or without 10 %
hydrogen admixture (25 C/0 C)

Fig. 5: Methane number as a function of Wobbe index

for different gases with or without 10 % hydrogen
admixture (25 C/0 C)

COMBUSTION CHARACTERISTICS
RANGES

combustion behaviour in residential gas appliances. Fig. 5

shows methane number as a function of Wobbe index
calculated on the basis of the AVL method [7] using a DGC
program [8]. The accuracy is within approx. 2 methane
numbers. The wide range with values from 103 (biomethane without LPG) to 62 (rich LNG with 10 % of hydrogen) is
remarkable. But even without hydrogen admixture, some
LNG qualities and pipeline gases are in the range from 65
to 75. This must be taken into account when designing gas
engines for packaged cogeneration plants and vehicles.
The design could be based on a methane number of 70
while methane numbers are usually higher in practical
operations, but can also be as low as 65 in some cases.
As using gas as a motor fuel has become increasingly
important over the past few years, methane number as a
fuel property should be included in international gas quality specifications and will also be an important parameter
in European gas quality standardisation.

The most important combustion characteristics are Wobbe

index, relative density, superior calorific value and methane number. Table 1 lists these characteristics for selected
group-H gases as used in Europe today. Table 2 shows the
combustion characteristics for the gases listed in Table 1
following admixture of 10 % of hydrogen. The data were
calculated with the GasCalc program [6], the methane numbers in line with [7, 8] (25 C / 0 C reference temperatures).
Fig. 4 shows superior calorific value as a function of
Wobbe index including the EASEE-gas recommendations
[9] for the Wobbe index range (49/57 MJ/m) (red lines). The
blue symbols stand for the gases with hydrogen admixture.
Fig. 4 confirms that, prior to hydrogen admixture, all
gases listed comply with with the EASEE-gas recommendations. But, as already mentioned, the very high Wobbe
indices of rich LNG (just under 57 MJ/m) are not acceptable
in most European countries for safety reasons. Biomethane
without LPG (approx. 96 % methane) is in the lower Wobbe
index range. Admixture of 10 % of hydrogen reduces the
Wobbe index for all gases. In the case of gases with very
high methane content relative densities may be slightly
lower than the minimum value recommended by EASEEgas (0.555) (Table 2). But according to our experience and
findings from [4] this is not problematic with respect to

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ACCOMPANYING AND TRACE

SUBSTANCES
The EASEE-gas recommendations for accompanying and
trace substances are an important basis for European gas
quality standardisation (CEN TC 234, 408):
Total sulphur: 30 mg/m
H2S+COS: 5 mg/m (S)

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Table 2: Gas qualities of different natural gases (pipeline), LNG and and biomethane with admixtures of 10 mol % of hydrogen
Russian North Sea Danish
Libya
Group H Group H Group H LNG (rich)

Nigeria
LNG
(mean)

Egypt
Bio
LNG (lean) methane

Bio
methane
+LPG

Gas composition

Symbol

Unit

methane

CH4

mol%

87.26

79.84

81.06

73.41

82.15

87.93

86.54

81.85

niotrogen

N2

mol%

0.77

0.74

0.25

0.62

0.07

0.07

0.67

0.62

carbon dioxide

CO2

mol%

0.16

1.75

0.54

2.61

2.41

ethane

C2H6

mol%

1.23

6.24

5.11

12.04

4.16

1.62

propane

C3H8

mol%

0.41

1.13

1.97

3.30

2.36

0.20

4.50

n-butane

n-C4H10

mol%

0.14

0.25

0.81

0.62

1.26

0.18

0.45

n-pentane

n-C5H12

mol%

0.02

0.05

0.20

n-hexane

n-C6H14

mol%

0.01

0.02

0.05

hydrogen

H2

mol%

10.00

10.00

10.00

10.00

10.00

10.00

10.00

10.00

oxygen

O2

mol%

0.18

0.17

total

mol%

100

100

100

100

100

100

100

100

superior calorific
value

Hsv

MJ/m

37.5

39.0

40.6

43.0

40.9

37.8

35.7

38.9

superior calorific
value

Hsv

kWh/m

10.4

10.8

11.3

12.0

11.4

10.5

9.9

10.8

relative density

0.523

0.573

0.574

0.609

0.568

0.519

0.535

0.583

Wobbe Index

Ws

MJ/m

51.8

51.5

53.5

55.1

54.2

52.5

48.8

51.0

Wobbe Index

Ws

kWh/m

14.4

14.3

14.9

15.3

15.1

14.6

13.6

14.2

methane number

MZ

83

74

68

62

67

83

97

71

Mercaptans

(RSH): 6 mg/m (S)

0.001 mol% (0.01 mol% in exceptional cases)
Carbon dioxide: 2.5 mol %
Water dewpoint: - 8 C at 70 bar
Hydrocarbon dewpoint: - 2 C (1 to 70 bar)

Oxygen:

Future discussions will focus on the following aspects:

Total sulphur limit value
The value of 30 mg/m seems too high today as most
non-odorised natural gases transported in Europe as well
as biomethane are virtually sulphur-free (1 to 3 mg/m).
When used as a motor fuel, similar requirements are
expected in Europe for natural gas as for diesel and
petrol (10 mg/kg; this corresponds to approx. 8 mg/m
for odorised natural gas).
Oxygen

When coming out of the well, natural gas does not

contain oxygen. Oxygen might be entrained during

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treatment; but this is usually not the case. When producing biomethane, on the other hand, oxygen is
contained in small volumes (e.g. 0.2 %) for processinherent reasons.
Separation of oxygen to obtain values of 0.01 % or
0.001 % requires additional capital and operational
expenditure. It should therefore be carefully examined
which oxygen limit value is really required, in particular
with respect to humid underground storage facilities.
Hydrogen

As mentioned in Section 4, the natural gas infrastructure still includes some sensitive elements where even
hydrogen volumes of less than 10 % may cause problems. Further R&D input in the fields of CNG tanks, gas
turbines and underground storage facilities is therefore
required.
Once the results are available, future gas quality specifications and standards should include hydrogen.

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blems in most European countries as their Wobbe indices
e.
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are in a range from 49 MJ/m (13.6 kWh/m) to just under
w

Siloxanes,

halogens and other trace substances

As mentioned, biomethane produced from contaminated feedstock may involve the risk of unwanted
trace substances. Careful gas treatment and quality
control are therefore indispensable prior to injection
into the natural gas network. Todays very high natural
gas quality levels must not be affected to protect both
the consumer and the image of natural gas. Tests have
confirmed that the purity level of natural gas is similar
to the level of breathing air with respect to the content
of metals, halogens or similar [10].

CONCLUSION
The natural gas qualities in Europe will become increasingly diverse involving greater variations in combustion
characteristics (Wobbe index, methane number). Except for
rich LNG qualities, natural gases expected to come to the
market and biomethane will not pose any utilisation pro-

56 MJ/m (15.5 kWh/m). With certain restrictions this also

applies where up to 10 % of hydrogen is admixed except
for three important applications (CNG tanks, gas turbines
with premixed burners, underground storage facilities).
These areas still require R&D input. Biomethane produced
from contaminated feedstock may contain undesirable
trace substances. Particularly careful treatment and quality
control are then necessary.
Hydrogen or methane produced from surplus renewable energy has a high level of purity and, similar to biomethane, contributes to further reducing carbon dioxide
emissions. This will make natural gas an even more climateprotecting fuel compared with other fossil fuels. Standardisation (harmonization) of gas quality specifications will
help to ensure smooth natural gas trading across borders.

LITERATURE
[1] Gronemann, U.; Forster, R.; Wallbrecht, J.; Schlerkmann, H.: Oxygen
Content in Natural Gas Infrastructure. gwf International 2010, pp.
26-30.

[9] EASEE-gas Common Business Practice Nr. 2005-001/02, (harmonisation of gas quality) EASEE-gas European Association for the
Streamlining of Energy Exchange gas.

[2] Graf, F.; Kppel, W.: Ergebnisse des DVGW Messprogramm Biogaserzeugung und -aufbereitung. gwf Gas/Erdgas 151 (2010), pp.
110-119.

[10] van Almsick, T.; Kaesler, H.: Bestimmung von Spurenkomponenten in Erd- und Biogasen. gwf Gas/Erdgas 150 (2009).

[3] Graf, F.; Bajohr, S.: Biogas-Erzeugung, Aufbereitung, Einspeisung.

Oldenbourg Industrieverlag GmbH, 2010.
[4] Florisson, O. et al.: NaturalHy Preparing for the hydrogen economy by using the existing natural gas system as a catalyst;
An integrated project, Final Publishable Activity Report: http://
www.naturalhy.net/docs/project_reports/Final_Publishable_
Activity_Report.pdf
[5] Kopyscinski, J.: Production of synthetic natural gas (SNG) from coal
and dry biomass A technology review from 1950 to 2009. Paul
Scherrer Institut; Fuel, 89 (2010) 8, pp. 1763 1783.
[6] www.gascalc.de
[7] Christoph, K.; Cartellieri, W. und Pfeiffer, U.: Bewertung der Klopffestigkeit von Kraftgasen mittels der Methanzahl und deren praktische Anwendung bei Gasmotoren. MTZ 33, (1972) No 10, pp.
389-429.

AUTHORS
Dr. Klaus Altfeld
E.ON Ruhrgas AG
Essen, Germany
Tel.: +49 (0)201/ 184-8385
klaus.altfeld@eon-ruhrgas.com

Dr. Peter Schley

E.ON Ruhrgas AG
Essen, Germany
Tel.: +49 (0)201/ 184-8323
peter.schley@eon-ruhrgas.com

[8] DGC Danish Gas Technology Centre. Methane number calculation of natural gas mixtures. Software Version 1.0.

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