As world leaders negotiated an historic climate deal last week, a natural gas engineer in Italy was exploring an innovative solution: how to repurpose thousands of miles of pipelines across Europe once nations wean themselves off fossil fuels into carrying zero-emission hydrogen instead. He found it simpler than expected: companies already possess infrastructure capable of transporting it – an intertangled web of natural gas pipelines which, untangled would circle the Earth four times!
Green hydrogen from the Mediterranean to Central and Eastern Europe would form an essential link between areas with abundant solar, wind and hydro-energy potential and areas with high consumption rates – tapping into growing demand for clean energy sources. A proposed pipeline – part of EastMed gas pipeline which connects Israel’s gas reservoirs to Greece – has undergone an initial technical assessment and qualified for inclusion on a European list of projects of common interest, according to Greek grid operator DESFA’s announcement Thursday.
Ultimately, this plan could see Greece join Spain and Italy in contributing to Mediterranean hydrogen infrastructure and further facilitate renewable energy in Europe’s industrial heartland by connecting areas with high consumption to production capacity. Dubbed White Dragon by its backers – including gas and oil companies – this initiative is already applying for recognition as “project of common European interest” under EU’s hydrogen backbone initiative.
Europe is well positioned to transition towards cleaner energy future, and pipeline projects converting natural gas to pure hydrogen is an early indicator. But Europe faces its own unique set of obstacles: physical properties differ significantly between hydrogen and natural gas – it is less dense, more volatile and may attack certain grades of steel which make pipes designed to transport gas far more likely to leaks than when carrying natural gas.
Gas network operators such as Spain’s Enagas, Portugal’s REN and France’s GRTgaz and Terega that run existing pipelines, such as Enagas in Spain and GRTgaz and Terega in France, are conducting technical studies, possible pipeline layouts and cost assessments as part of preparation for hydrogen transportation through their networks; testing how hydrogen can be transported using existing pumps and compression stations while adapting them for handling hydrogen fuel.
