Hydrogen Transportation and Distribution

Hydrogen Transportation and Distribution

Transportation Methods

The process of transporting and distributing hydrogen is carried out either using pipelines from production sites to consumption areas, or using trailers. Hydrogen can be transported either in a liquid state or in a gaseous state under high pressure, or transported using tankers after converting the hydrogen into ammonia for transport to markets far from production areas.

Pipelines are the best way to transport large quantities of hydrogen, especially since they may themselves be used as a storage method for it. However, they require huge initial investments to build networks connecting production sites with consumption centers.

Hydrogen Transportation Networks

Globally, hydrogen transportation and distribution networks already exist, but they are limited to linking production sites with consuming sectors in specific industrial areas.

The Arab region has a strong infrastructure that can be exploited to export hydrogen to Europe in the future, at a lower cost than building new export networks.

Using Gas Lines for Hydrogen Transport

The option of using existing natural gas transportation networks to transport hydrogen has emerged to save the large capital cost required to build new hydrogen networks. Some countries have begun to study the maximum permissible limits for mixing hydrogen with gas in existing gas transportation networks.

Several studies have emerged on this topic, including a study prepared by the US Department of Energy, which concluded that it is possible to mix hydrogen with natural gas up to 15% by volume with some moderate modifications to the existing gas networks.

Limits of Permissible Hydrogen in Gas Mixtures

Globally, companies operating natural gas transportation and distribution networks are responsible for setting permissible limits for the percentage of hydrogen in natural gas. Countries differ among themselves according to the percentage of hydrogen permitted locally in the gas mixture.

In Germany, the percentage reaches 10% in specific cases, but it varies between 2% and 6% in other countries.