Sempra Infrastructure has formed an agreement with Tokyo Gas, Osaka Gas, Toho Gas, and Mitsubishi Corporation to evaluate a proposed e-natural gas project in the US Gulf Coast, according to a news release.
“If the project is successful, it could be the first link of an international supply chain of liquified e-natural gas, a synthetic gas produced from renewable hydrogen and carbon dioxide,” the release states.
The project would produce some 130,000 tons of e-natural gas per year that would be liquified to become liquified e-natural gas via Mitsubishi’s tolling capacity at the Cameron LNG terminal in Southwest Louisiana and exported to Japan, where the product is commonly referred to as e-methane.
It would include the production or procurement of green hydrogen, as well as the construction of facilities to produce the gas.
The consortium is comprised of three of the leading gas utilities in Japan and Mitsubishi Corporation which have been conducting preliminary feasibility work on the project since 2022.
The project would allow existing natural gas infrastructure, including the global liquefied natural gas supply chain and the gas distribution systems, to be used for delivery of the fuel.
The U.S. Department of Energy and Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry are currently implementing a Memorandum of Cooperation in the field of carbon capture, utilization and storage, conversion and recycling, and carbon dioxide removal. This proposed project would meet many of the objectives in the memorandum, and could complement it, should the policy frameworks recognize e-natural gas as a carbon-neutral fuel.
