Program

Potential advantages of hydrogen

Introducing hydrogen into the future energy system in a more pronounced way may have several advantages:

• Hydrogen is not only an energy carrier, but can in itself serve as feedstock for the industry. Several industrial processes that currently run on natural gas can be changed to be based on hydrogen (e.g. steel production, direct and indirect high-temperature heating, etc.). Potentially, this can be broadened towards the mobility sector (heavy duty transport) and households as well.
• Transport of (hydrogen) gas can be done through pipelines, which have usually higher capacities than electricity cables. In general, transport through pipelines is cheaper than the development of electricity cables. Additionally, existing natural gas pipelines might be re-used for hydrogen transport (whether or not modifications are needed).
• Hydrogen can be stored in large volumes both above ground as well as in the subsurface. Storage of hydrogen in depleted salt caverns will offer the opportunity to seasonally store energy in large volumes.

As these could be important flexibility options, production, transport and storage of hydrogen is currently studied intensively in various NW-European countries.

Project goals

The project goals of the HY3 project are to:

• Analyse the feasibility of a transnational green hydrogen economy in the border area of the Netherlands and North Rhine-Westphalia
• Examine the potential of GHG-reduction and increase of the renewable energy deployment in the industry sector by a transnational green hydrogen economy
• Examine possible business cases for future green hydrogen economy by using transnational (Dutch-German) hydrogen production and transportation infrastructures
• Examine industrial interest in green hydrogen economy and potential field of applications
• Describe the existing regulatory framework in the context of green hydrogen production, transport, trading and usage and examining the framework that would be needed to establish transnational green hydrogen economy as well as respective business cases

Scope

The HY3 project focusses on green hydrogen production, import, transport storage and use. Production of hydrogen includes national production of hydrogen from offshore wind in the Dutch and German offshore, leading to a north-south oriented transport routing from offshore to the main demand centers. Import is considered for the largest Dutch harbour - Rotterdam. This leads to a west-east oriented transport routing. The main demand center considered in this study is the Ruhr area in Germany. Demand is focussed on industrial purposes of hydrogen as well as the application of hydrogen in the mobility sector.

Approach

This study is a collaboration between the Netherlands and Germany. The different parts of the hydrogen value chain are studied by different institutes. This concerns three workpackages:

• Hydrogen demand
• Hydrogen Transport & Storage
• Hydrogen production from Offshore Wind

These work packages are led by respectively Forschungzentrum Jülich (Germany), TNO (the Netherlands) and DENA (Germany). The study build upon an extensive range in experience and scenarios that are available for the development of a hydrogen transport network as well as demand and production on both national and European level. By bringing together the relevant knowledge from these studies and plans, the HY3 project hopes to highlight the opportunities for cross-border collaboration in the field of hydrogen.