March 2025, Vol. 252, No. 3
Features
Germany Begins Pipeline Conversions to Fulfill Lofty Hydrogen Ambitions
By Andreas Walstad, European Correspondent
(P&GJ) – Germany has launched ambitious plans for a 5,617-mi (9,040-km) hydrogen pipeline network that could be completed in 2032 at a cost of $20 billion if everything goes to plan.
Once completed, the network will have the potential to transport 278 TWh of low and zero-carbon hydrogen, which could help decarbonize Germany’s industrial sector in particular.
About 60% of the hydrogen network will be repurposed gas pipelines, according to plans, while the remainder will be new hydrogen pipelines.
Some 15 transmission system operators (TSOs) and 10 distribution system operators (DSOs) are involved in developing the network. One of the developers is ONTRAS, which operates the gas grid in eastern Germany.
As a first step, ONTRAS will develop a 372-mi (600-km) hydrogen network, of which 80% will be conversions of existing gas pipelines. A final investment decision (FID) for this section of the network has already been taken.
Initially, ONTRAS will connect the Leipzig region with what is known as the central German chemical triangle: the industrial centers in Saxony-Anhalt and Lower Saxony, the Berlin area and the Meissen industrial arc.
Work is already underway on a pilot known as the Energiepark Bad Lauchstädt project, in the state of Saxony-Anhalt, which is funded by the German Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Protection. The pilot involves a 16-mi (25-km) gas pipeline, which ONTRAS is converting to transport green hydrogen. The hydrogen will be produced by a 30 MW electrolysis plant using electricity produced by a wind farm as input.
Christian Decker, who is part of the technical asset management at ONTRAS, told P&GJ that the project is progressing according to plans and that the pilot pipeline will be filled with hydrogen in the coming weeks.
“In the project Energiepark Bad Lauchstädt, we are talking about a high pressure gas pipeline, with a diameter of [19.5 inches] 500 millimeters, which was built back in the 1970s. It is a steel pipe with gas pressure up to 55 bars. For conversion to hydrogen transport, we will lower the pressure to 40 bars. That’s the plan. We are now finished with all the technical measures,” he said.
Decker said the gas pipelines will be converted on a case-by-case basis depending on their age and characteristics.
“Our grid was mostly built during the GDR era. Our oldest pipeline is from the 1930s, but the main part was built in the 1960s and 70s, Decker added. “And of course the pipelines have different conditions. The pipelines built in the 1990s are generally better than the ones built in the 60s and 70s so every pipeline we plan to convert is a separate case. But the steps we are doing are all the same — the pipelines will be completely overhauled and will then be able to transport hydrogen for at least 20–25 years, in all likelihood.”
Testing Complete
Decker adds that every pipeline the company plans to convert in the next 7–8 years have completed the documentation review process together with an official certified technical expert. And for these pipelines, ONTRAS has finished all the testing.
“The plan is to fill the 25-km [pilot] with hydrogen at the end of the first quarter of 2025. The other pipelines are currently in realization stages.”
Blending hydrogen with natural gas is currently not an option under consideration. This is partly because blending does not make commercial sense, as one would lose track of the expensive hydrogen content.
Instead, ONTRAS will separate the hydrogen grid from the existing natural gas grid, so whole sections will have to be cut off. In other words, they will be completely separate grids; one for 100% natural gas transport and the other one for 100% hydrogen.
“In general, it is more or less irrelevant to the pipeline if the share of hydrogen is 10%, 50% or 100% — our grid is able to transport a mixture. When we used town gas in the past, the share of hydrogen was up to 50-60%, so our pipelines are used to blending. Anyway, blending hydrogen and natural gas is not something we are planning to do. We will go for 100% hydrogen and 100% natural gas in the separated grids,” said Decker.
The hydrogen debate among researchers and policymakers is generally quite heated and prone to controversies. To this end, pilot projects are very welcome, in order to test for challenges such as leakage, Hannah Lentschig, a Research Fellow with the Clingendael Institute in the Hague, tells P&GJ.
“I think one problem is that current feasibility studies on how to safely repurpose gas pipelines for hydrogen are largely based on computer simulation,” said Lentschig. “There is a need for commissioning and operating pilot projects on the ground, in order to really measure, for example, the permeability of materials to ensure that leakage is minimized. Hydrogen leakage is a major safety concern, due to the flammability of air-hydrogen mixtures, and its safe handling has different requirements than gas transports, due to hydrogen’s distinct chemical properties. This safety perspective is currently also the main concern for operators.”
Stranded Assets
Another pressing issue is whether there will be enough renewable and low-carbon hydrogen available on the market to fill the pipelines once they are completed. Hydrogen production from renewable electricity (green) and natural gas with carbon capture and storage (blue) is currently lagging expectations with many projects cancelled or delayed.
The EU’s goal of 10 mt of production by 2030 looks extremely ambitious, considering high costs and muted interest from end-users. Steelmaker ArcelorMittal recently warned it will review its decarbonization strategy at plants in Germany and France, as green hydrogen is evolving very slowly towards commercialization and customers have limited appetite when it comes to paying a premium for low-carbon or green steel.
Current hydrogen consumption in Europe is 7.2 mt, of which 99.7% is produced from unabated natural gas, the Agency for the Cooperation of Energy Regulators (ACER) said in a report from November last year. Moreover, installed capacity of electrolyzers in Europe in 2023 was only 216 MW, the report noted, while 100 GW of electrolyzer capacity was needed for Europe to reach the 2030 target of 10 mt of domestic production.
The EU’s 10 mt target for hydrogen imports by 2030 also looks very ambitious.
“Clean hydrogen will play an important role in the future low-carbon energy system in Germany and elsewhere. But discussions of a ‘hydrogen economy’ might potentially be overstating what the reality will be. Above all, a global market for clean hydrogen still needs to develop, and this is not going to happen in five years’ time,” said Lentschig.
She continues:
“We are talking about longer time horizons and competition from alternative clean energy sources here, not just in terms of technical developments needed for clean hydrogen to be cost-competitive with other low-carbon and even fossil-based options, but also [in terms of] the economically feasible application of hydrogen across industries. Finding Germany and Europe’s competitive edge will require significant structural changes, including transforming industrial value chains in hydrogen end-use sectors.”
Lentschig believes investments will become more targeted instead of “every sector” being a potential hydrogen off-taker.
“Hydrogen use for decarbonization is really about emissions-intensive industries, mainly steel and chemical production and heavy-duty transport like aviation and shipping, and not about using it for domestic heating, commercial vehicles and other sectors, where electrification, the use of biomass and other renewables are more competitive.”
First Section Readied
Despite the supply challenges, 342 mi (552 km) of hydrogen pipelines in Germany is expected to be completed by the end of 2025. However, Ralf Borschinsky, spokesperson for ONTRAS, told P&GJ that despite the hydrogen conversions, there should still be sufficient transport capacity for natural gas in the future.
“In eastern Germany, we have a special kind of grid, due to the fact that in the past we transported so-called ‘town gas,’ which only had a third of the calorific value of today’s natural gas, meaning you needed 3 cubic meters of town gas to transport the same energy as one cubic meter of natural gas today. So, you needed more pipelines to transport the same amount of energy,” he said.
“The switch from town gas in East Germany was finalized in the mid-1990s. That means we now have pipelines in some regions that can be converted to transport hydrogen without cutting natural gas capacities too much.”
Borschinsky notes that conversion is a much cheaper option than building new hydrogen pipelines.
“We are also planning about 62-mi (100 km) of new hydrogen pipelines in areas where there are either no usable or existing gas pipelines and these are currently undergoing administrational approval processes. However, building new pipelines is about 80% more expensive than conversions,” he said.
In Germany, the financing is now in place for the pipelines to be completed by 2027. The respective TSO have the FID for that, Borschinsky said.
Meanwhile, the regulatory framework is still under development for gas quality standards.
“We don’t know what the gas quality for hydrogen will be. For methane it is given, [while] for hydrogen there are different estimates. There are no final decisions yet,” said Borschinsky.
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