| Hydrogen
of the fossil gas (mainly methane) industry. Hydrogen pipelines are developed technology, although IRENA (International Renewable Energy Agency) figures say there are less than 5000 km of hydrogen pipelines worldwide. In some cases, hydrogen could be transported through repurposed fossil gas infrastructure and in the UK, technical investigations have been carried out and plans announced by National Gas for ‘Project Union’ – a ‘hydrogen backbone’ using repurposed methane pipelines (see map).
In 2024 Germany’s Federal Network Agency (Bundesnetzagentur) gave the go-ahead to a 9040 km hydrogen pipeline network connecting demand clusters with hydrogen sources that will include both repurposed methane gas pipelines and new hydrogen pipelines. The high capital cost and uncertainty over the eventual users of a hydrogen network will mean that they have to be underwritten by the government. Hydrogen pipelines would not be feasible for export-orientated hydrogen programmes such as that of Brazil. Instead, the industry will have to follow the fossil gas industry and find ways to transport hydrogen by ship. Fossil gas is transported as liquefied natural gas (LNG) and similar technology is under investigation for hydrogen. Hydrogen’s different characteristics in terms of compression and liquefaction, however, suggest the energy required and the costs of transport will be higher than for fossil gas. Other options, such as adsorbing hydrogen onto a solid material, or using an organic liquid as a transfer medium, are also at an early stage. One transport medium that has sparked interest is ammonia, created from hydrogen at its production site and shipped in that form. There is a mature global ammonia market because of the importance of ammonia in making fertiliser (which is of course a major market for green hydrogen in any case). This might allow the hydrogen industry to use the global ammonia industry to build up its customer base, either directly – ammonia can be used as
a fuel in power plants, although it produces NOx emissions that have to be managed – or splitting the hydrogen from the ammonia.
Changing use cases
None of these transport options comes without significant energy requirements at both the start
and the end of the journey and the need to invest in port or terminal infrastructure.
What progress is being made on the demand side of the hydrogen triangle? Of course there are sectors that already use hydrogen (such as fertilisers and industries that require high-temperature direct heat) and that are expected to take most of the early production of low-carbon hydrogen to reduce their carbon emissions. Otherwise, the initial view of hydrogen as an all-purpose tool has changed.
Michael Liebreich from Bloomberg New Energy Finance has encapsulated the changing view of use cases for hydrogen in a ‘hydrogen ladder’, updated several times, that allocates potential hydrogen according to whether the hydrogen option is ‘unavoidable’ or ‘uncompetitive’. In the most recent (fifth) version, the most economic and necessary uses of hydrogen are not in the ‘energy’ sector at all, but in chemical processes, first in the list being fertiliser production. Global trade in ammonia and in urea for fertiliser use are both more than 180 Mt per year, and the industry is hoping to decarbonise by replacing current high-fossil hydrogen (produced by steam reforming gas, coal and oil) with its green equivalent.
In the long term, it seems likely that hydrogen will take on those aspects of power supply and security that are not easily delivered by renewables or nuclear. In a report produced in November for the UK government, the GB National Energy System Operator (NESO) set out ‘Clean Power 2030’ pathways in which it said over 80% of power would be provided by offshore wind and nuclear. It added that “After 2030, low carbon dispatchable power could be built up to replace the need for the remaining unabated gas generation.” Unabated gas plants make up less than 5% of total annual generation but NESO said the system had to be able to cope with sustained cold periods with low wind, where they “play a critical and sustained role over several hours or days.”
NESO adds, “Hydrogen in the long run can be produced via electrolysis at times of high renewable output and stored for later use when renewable output is low, without reliance on fossil gas or residual emissions”. But hydrogen storage “appears unlikely before 2030.” That fits with Liebreich’s hydrogen ladder,
Visualisation of Whyalla hydrogen fuelled power plant. Source: Office of Hydrogen Power, Government of South Australia
which foresees hydrogen as a storage medium for use in ‘long term gas balancing’, with a secondary role in short term grid balancing (a role otherwise being increasingly fulfilled by batteries). That general consensus is also echoed by Japan, whose Agency for Natural Resources and Energy (part of METI (Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry) said in a recent hydrogen summary that its likely uses are in the mobility, industry and power generation sectors. It said, “By replacing fuels used at thermal power stations with hydrogen, carbon dioxide emissions can be reduced”.
METI says Japan has a “technical advantage in hydrogen power generation”, citing Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, which is aiming to replace natural gas in turbines completely with hydrogen by “developing suitable equipment for mono-firing.”
Towards the 100% hydrogen power plant
The goal for NESO and other network operators is a power plant that can be fuelled with 100% hydrogen. In late 2024 GE Vernova said it would claim that with its LM6000VELOX package, which includes an aeroderivative gas turbine it says will operate on 100% renewable hydrogen, to be supplied to Australia.
The Australian project is also one that brings together supply of hydrogen and demand customers, without the need for transport
Hydrogen storage
Electrolyser buildings
Substation generation Visualisation of Whyalla hydrogen site. Source: Office of Hydrogen Power, Government of South Australia
www.modernpowersystems.com | January/February 2025 | 31 Power
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