Hydrogen pipeline in Zeeland has been proving added value for three years

The vast majority of the national transport network for hydrogen will consist of pipelines that were previously used for natural gas transport. Re-use is technically possible, reliable and safe. In Zeeuws-Vlaanderen, a converted natural gas pipeline for hydrogen transport has been in use for three years now.

The converted hydrogen transport pipeline between locations of Dow Benelux and Yara is 12 kilometres long. In 2018, it was the first existing natural gas transmission pipeline to be made suitable for hydrogen transport. Through the pipeline, hydrogen for industrial application is efficiently and safely exchanged.

"The fact that this hydrogen pipeline has now been operating reliably and safely for three years is important," explains Inge Aardse, managing director of Hynetwork Services. "It is on a regional scale what we will be realising nationally in the Netherlands over the next few years. We are going to use the knowledge and experience we have gained in Zeeuws-Vlaanderen to realise the national backbone for hydrogen."

The hydrogen backbone creates a national network that connects the demand for and supply of hydrogen: within and between the industrial clusters, with storage locations and with foreign countries. This spring, the State Secretary for Climate & Energy announced to ask Gasunie to develop the national infrastructure for transporting hydrogen. On Budget Day, the government then announced that it would be reserving 750 million euros in order to limit the risks of full-scale implementation. The actual development of the hydrogen backbone will be executed by Hynetwork Services.