First green hydrogen to be fed into gas transmission system in Northern Germany

For the first time, green hydrogen converted in an electrolyser using renewable electricity from wind turbines will today be fed into the gas transmission pipeline system in Haurup (municipality of Handewitt, Schleswig-Flensburg district) in Schleswig-Holstein in Northern Germany.

The green hydrogen will be blended with the gas in the DEUDAN pipeline up to a concentration of two percent. This level is in keeping with applicable technical rules and regulations. The pipeline stretches from the German-Danish border crossing at Ellund to Quarnstedt in Schleswig-Holstein.

The DEUDAN shareholders Gasunie Deutschland Transport Services GmbH, Hanover, and Open Grid Europe GmbH, Essen, have taken extensive technical measures to make this happen, including the construction of a hydrogen blending facility, complete with metering and pressure-regulating equipment, two independent compressor units to raise the hydrogen pressure to the DEUDAN pipeline pressure, and the construction of two connecting pipelines, each 75 metres long.

The connectee is Energie des Nordens GmbH und Co KG, which operates the electrolyser and is responsible for producing the hydrogen. The hydrogen production plant has a capacity of one megawatt and can produce 210 standard cubic metres of green hydrogen per hour.

Using surplus wind energy to produce hydrogen fed into the transmission pipeline system is a forward-looking contribution to sector coupling, i.e. the interconnection of gas, electricity and heat consumption. The hydrogen blending facility in Haurup is a building block for the establishment of a nationwide hydrogen infrastructure. Europe is to become the first climate-neutral continent by 2050, and hydrogen is set to play an important role in this process. Hydrogen transportation will require a dedicated pipeline network, 90 percent of which can be built using the gas networks already available today.