Will hydrogen flow through the gas pipelines instead of natural gas in a few years? The gas industry wouldn’t mind. A study has now examined whether the lines are suitable for this.
According to a new study, the German natural gas network is suitable for transporting hydrogen. This is the result of a study published on Tuesday by Germany’s largest transmission system operator, Open Grid Europe, and the Materials Testing Institute at the University of Stuttgart.
The client was the German Technical and Scientific Association for Gas and Water (DVGW), which is responsible for setting technical regulations in the gas and water industry. For the research project, steels used in German and European pipelines were exposed to extreme operating and aging influences under hydrogen and technically tested.
The study finds that the steel pipelines installed in the gas network do not differ in terms of their basic suitability for transporting hydrogen compared to natural gas. “Millions of natural gas customers could be supplied with hydrogen quickly and at low cost,” the association concluded from the study results.
Transport now solved in principle
Hydrogen produced in a climate-neutral manner should play a central role in the energy and climate transition. The role it should play in generating heat for buildings is still a matter of debate.
“Of the three challenges along the value chain – generation, transport and utilization – transport has now been fundamentally solved,” said DVGW CEO Gerald Linke. The pipes could continue to be used in pipeline networks. Only individual built-in parts or station elements need to be upgraded or replaced.
“That makes economic sense because we can draw on an existing infrastructure with an investment volume of around 300 billion euros over many decades.” Left called on the federal government to use this “great potential”. Instead of building a new gas network for the transport of hydrogen, the existing German gas network, which is more than 550,000 kilometers long, could be converted for the transport of hydrogen at a total cost of only around 30 billion euros, Linke continued.
The DVGW has more than 13,600 members from the gas and water industry, including numerous municipal utilities. (dpa)