Infrastructure for Hydrogen

The development of a large-scale hydrogen infrastructure is a crucial piece of the puzzle for North Rhine-Westphalia and Germany on the way to a climate-neutral, diversified energy supply. Efficient transportation options and storage facilities must be established in order to compensate natural gas as a fossil fuel by hydrogen in the future, while at the same time helping to relieve the power grid when there is a large supply of renewable electricity and contributing to security of supply when electricity generation from renewables is low.

Compared to electricity, hydrogen is easier to transport over long distances and store for longer periods of time, thus offering the opportunity to convert fluctuating wind and solar energy and make it usable for a variety of applications at different times and locations. In the future, it can be assumed that very large quantities of hydrogen will be required in NRW and Germany, both in the industrial and mobility sectors and in the energy industry. Transitional transportation by rail, road or ship is possible: under high pressure, in liquid or chemically bound form - for example using methanol, ammonia or liquid organic hydrogen carriers (LOHC). However, in order to be able to cover large industrial requirements economically in the long term, these locations will be dependent on a connection to a hydrogen pipeline network.

Enabling hydrogen transportation between production, storage and consumers

In future, a Germany-wide hydrogen transport network will connect important consumption hubs such as industrial centers or power plants in southern and western Germany via pipelines with the large-scale electrolysis sites in northern Germany, which are primarily located near the coast. It also enables the connection of large seaports such as Wilhelmshaven, Rotterdam and Antwerp, which will play a central role as import hubs for hydrogen and hydrogen derivatives. In addition, hydrogen cavern storage facilities will be connected, which are required as large-scale storage sites. To implement this project, the Federal Ministry of Economics and Climate Action (BMWK) and the Association of Transmission System Operators (FNB Gas) have presented plans for a hydrogen core network covering around 9,700 km. Around 60% of these pipelines can be realized by converting the existing natural gas transmission network; however, the remaining pipeline sections must be newly constructed. This hydrogen core network will be commissioned in sections between 2025 and 2032.

The GET H2 Nukleus project is particularly important for NRW, as it is the starting point for the Germany-wide hydrogen infrastructure with an initial 130 km hydrogen pipeline. The project connects an electrolysis site in Lower Saxony with industrial sites in NRW and is scheduled to be in operation by 2025. A comprehensive expansion of this north-south axis through NRW with connections to the German North Sea coast, to southern Germany and to the Dutch, Belgian and Czech borders is expected to include more than 2,000 km of hydrogen pipelines by 2030 as part of the H2ercules project. Both the GET H2 Nukleus and H2ercules projects as well as the hydrogen core network are hydrogen pipelines at transport network level and therefore form the first stage of the network ramp-up. Further expansion stages at distribution network level and individual connection lines will follow and successively expand the hydrogen pipeline network.

Various storage options for hydrogen

In addition to efficient transportation routes, efficient storage is also essential for the development of a large-scale infrastructure. There are various ways to store hydrogen efficiently. In its pure form, as a hydrogen molecule, it can be stored and transported in gaseous form under high pressure or in liquefied form at ambient pressure and extremely low (cryogenic) temperatures of -253 degrees Celsius or colder. The liquid product has a higher density and therefore a higher energy content per unit volume. It therefore requires less storage space. However, the realization of such cryogenic processes is technically extremely demanding and very energy intensive.

Storage facilities with high capacities are required in order to be able to flexibly meet the enormous demand for green hydrogen expected in the future. As things stand at present, the only large-scale storage option for hydrogen is salt caverns, which have so far been used to store natural gas. In principle, both the conversion of these natural gas cavern storage facilities and the creation of new hydrogen cavern storage facilities are possible. A first cavern storage facility for the storage of hydrogen at the Epe site in North Rhine-Westphalia is to be transferred to commercial operation by 2027 as part of GET H2.