Hydrogen from Wilhelmshaven to Cologne: The North-South corridor of the TSOs Thyssengas and Gasunie connects hydrogen production and import in the North Sea area with industry in the Ruhr region.
Starting in 2028, hydrogen produced in the coastal region of Wilhelmshaven or imported from Norway and elsewhere can be transported directly to the consumption centers on the Rhine and Ruhr via the North-South pipeline.
The H2 corridor will be realised by repurposing existing pipelines and building new sections.
Gasunie and Thyssengas have submitted PCI applications (Projects of common interest) to the European Commission for both sections.
The pipeline connects existing hydrogen clusters and projects. In the North it connects to Gasunie’s planned Hyperlink hydrogen network.
In the South it connects to Thyssengas’ GETH2 hydrogen initiative . In conjunction with other planned pipeline projects, the important consumption centers from the Münsterland via the Ruhr area to the Rhineland can be supplied with hydrogen.
The project is divided into two sections:
Northern section: the Wilhelmshaven-Hyperlink-Connection section, connecting the Energy Hub Wilhelmshaven and the planned hydrogen export pipeline from Norway to Germany with the Hyperlink hydrogen transport network and the hydrogen caverns of the Etzel storage facility.
– direct connection to the Dutch hydrogen network of Gasunie (“HyNetwork Services”) and to the Danish hydrogen backbone of Energinet.
– direct connection to the GETH2 hydrogen network in the Salzgitter area, which enables hydrogen to be transported to Berlin.
Southern section: Integrated network planning between Barßel (hyperlink) and the Rhine-Ruhr region
For this purpose, connections to the hydrogen cluster GETH2, to future hydrogen storage facilities and to the border crossing point for hydrogen in Vlieghuis (the Netherlands) are planned.
The integrated network planning of the different energy infrastructures of electricity, gas and hydrogen for NRW ensures that both medium-sized companies and large consumers such as chemical industrial parks and steel producers have a realistic prospect of being supplied with hydrogen in the near future.
The H2 network has been outlined in the hydrogen gas network development plan 2022-2032 for Germany (published in the hydrogen report of FNB Gas e.V.).
Source: Afkenel Schipstra (LinkedIn)
