Decarbonisation Technology - February 2025 Issue

Repurposed natural gas pipeline

Ammonia shipping

New hydrogen pipeline

E-methanol shipping

1.0

Liquid H shipping

Compressed gas H shipping

E-LNG

shipping

LOHC shipping

Liquid H road tankers

0.1

E-fuels shipping

100

1,000 Compressed gas H Road tube trailers

5,000

10,000

Distance (km)

Figure 4 Hydrogen and hydrogen derivatives transport options when considering volume and distance

there must be a meaningful minimum to de- risk the business case. Higher avoided CO₂ emissions costs should be an upside rather than a risk multiplier and business case killer. Common infrastructure for biogenic, geogenic, and fossil CO₂ The most important area for governmental focus in the second half of this decade must be a comprehensive pipeline network to link CO₂ emitters with CO₂ storage, utilisation, and removals projects (see Table 1 ) . Liquid CO₂ storage terminals will be required to allow aggregation and transportation modality transitions within the CO₂ logistics chain. Western Europe is an ideal place to implement this concept. There is a dense industrial cluster and CO₂ storage potential in the North Sea. The Gulf Coast of the USA would have similarly high potential. In both locations, repurposing oil and gas pipelines could help offset some of the cost. CO₂ entering and leaving the pipeline should be treated in the same way as biogas entering and leaving the gas transmission grid. Biogenic, geogenic, and fossil CO₂ must be allowed to mix and share the infrastructure. Metering and monitoring for mass balancing will be required as a key enabler. If this is not done, we will stimulate long-distance transportation of biogenic CO₂ for utilisation or CDR in parallel to fossil and geogenic CO₂ for geological

storage. Allowing this parallel system to develop would be the most absurd waste of capital and resources. Mass balancing and hydrogen purchase agreements If we accept that hydrogen, produced by any means, will play a central role in future energy systems, pipeline infrastructure to move hydrogen around will also be an essential investment. Pipelines are, by far, the most economical way to move hydrogen short and medium distances over land. However, due to the long investment cycle and high capital requirement, there is no business case for this today, so a huge amount of belief and supporting capital from governmental bodies is required to get this underway (see Figure 4 ). Low-cost, high-capacity underground hydrogen storage in salt and rock caverns must complement the pipeline network. It will enable seasonal supply and demand balances to be smoothed. It will also allow intermittent hydrogen production renewable power that would otherwise be curtailed, at exceptionally low cost. As with the CO₂ pipeline, the hydrogen pipeline must operate in the same way the electricity grid carries green, grey, and pink electrons: the hydrogen pipeline must be colour agnostic. Hydrogen purchase agreements (HPAs), like renewable power purchase agreements, can be used to link green hydrogen