The steel pipelines installed in the German gas network are suitable for the transport of hydrogen, according to a study by the German Technical and Scientific Association for Gas and Water (DVGW).
According to the study, the pipelines show no differences in terms of fundamental suitability for the transport of hydrogen compared to natural gas. Both operational aging and the required fracture toughness correspond to the expectations of a decades-long, safe availability, so the result of the research project "Random testing of steel materials for gas pipelines and plants to evaluate for hydrogen suitability". It was conducted by Open Grid Europe and the University of Stuttgart, according to DVGW.
"The research results point the way to the hydrogen future. Of the three challenges along the value chain - production, transport and utilization - transport has now been fundamentally solved," DVGW board chairman Gerald Linke said. "In pipeline networks, the pipes will continue to be able to be used, and only individual installation parts or station elements will need to be upgraded or replaced."
He added that the German government must now exploit this great potential and pave the way for the hydrogen economy in order to live up to its claim of accelerating climate protection. Instead of building a new gas network to transport hydrogen, he said, the existing German gas network, which is more than 550,000 kilometers long, could be converted to transport hydrogen at a total cost of around 30 billion euros.
For the research project, samples of the steels used in German pipelines were reportedly subjected to comprehensive measurement methods that, compared with previous studies, would have taken into account additional variables such as the influence of hydrogen pressure. These new methods enabled more accurate service life predictions and correspondingly longer predictable operating times for pipelines, which at the same time allowed for better planning and maintenance of the gas network.
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