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Editorial comment

Featured in our news section this month (starting on p.5), is the news that Germany has joined the Mediterranean hydrogen pipeline project. Germany joins its neighbours France, Portugal and Spain in the €2.5 billion H2Med project, which will deliver green hydrogen from the Iberian Peninsula, under the Mediterranean Sea, to the rest of Europe. Expected to be in operation in 2030, the ‘BarMar’ pipeline between Barcelona and Marseille will be capable of transporting 2 million tpy of green hydrogen from Spain, becoming the first ‘green corridor’ in Europe.


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H2Med opens up a way to transport renewable gas by sea. By 2050, it is estimated that 20% of all energy in Europe will be renewable hydrogen. Green hydrogen is created by water electrolysis, in a process using renewable energy.

Announced at an EU summit in October 2022, H2Med offers an alternative to the partially built, now abandoned, MidCat pipeline project, which was to have carried natural gas across the Pyrenees from Spain to France. MidCat was cancelled after significant environmental protest, and after Spanish and French regulators rejected investment requests for the project over profitability concerns, and worries about its long-term use.

The new pipeline project paves the way for “the completion of the EU energy market” and to strengthen “the energy transition in the framework of the Green Deal”, according to a statement from the Elysée ahead of a summit last year. According to the French President’s office, the pipeline should still have the capacity to transport, in a “limited” way, natural gas, which it called “a temporary and transitory energy source”.1

Next month’s issue of World Pipelines includes a special feature on green hydrogen pipeline transport. Tree Energy Solutions (TES, Germany) discusses developing a closed loop scenario for CO2 that would facilitate the hydrogen economy. The article states: “A hydrogen backbone is being planned through the EU’s Important Projects of Common European Interest (IPCEI), but until that is ready, we can start by introducing synthetic green methane into the existing natural gas grids.”

In another article next month, Strohm (Netherlands) explains how it sees CCUS as a first step in the transition to sustainable energy, with green hydrogen being the end goal: “Green hydrogen is quickly gaining traction as a scalable alternative fuel that could power a climate-neutral economy. But since it is much less dense than most other energy carriers, it poses a significant and often-overlooked logistics problem – specifically, its transportation from future production sites to points of use.” Strohm is developing pipeline solutions whereby green hydrogen generated at offshore wind turbines can be transported to shore via subsea pipe infrastructure.

Finally, we’ll be featuring a Q&A with Oxford Flow (UK) about repurposing existing gas grids for hydrogen transport, thereby future-proofing gas networks. The piece recognises that “the operational safety implications around transporting, storing and utilising hydrogen are significant.”

As for this month’s issue, our keynote article takes a look at the opportunities for North American midstream companies to diversify in this arena. Gordon Cope outlines the potential for transport of CO2 sequestration and green hydrogen products. Read the article (p.10) to find out how alternative pipeline networks could hold the key to future prosperity in the US and Canadian pipeline sectors.

  1. www.euractiv.com/section/energy/news/france-trades-midcat-pipeline-for-an-already-controversial-new-project

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