Part one of this two-part series looked at how to clean and assess existing pipelines to ensure they're ready for the transition to hydrogen. Here, David Stordeur, T.D. Williamson, Belgium, discusses how intervention and isolation can support the transition during the repair, transformation or extension of new and existing networks. The promise of hydrogen as a clean future fuel depends in no small part on pipelines. Plans to build hydrogen infrastructure are underway, but that will take considerable time and money. The conversion of existing natural gas pipelines for pure or blended hydrogen service is a faster, more efficient alternative. This option is gaining momentum around the globe. Perhaps the best measure of its potential is presented in the recently released European Hydrogen Backbone (EHB) report. The EHB is a dedicated hydrogen transport network expected to have 39 700 km (24 600 miles) of pipelines in 21 countries by 2040 and more than two-thirds of them (69%) will be repurposed natural gas lines. To fully appreciate the significance of this effort, consider that currently there are only about 4500 km (2800 miles) of hydrogen pipelines in operation worldwide. More than half of them are concentrated along US Gulf Coast, primarily connecting production facilities to refineries and chemical plants and running at lower pressure than will be needed for long-distance transmission.
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