Hydrogen Fact #11 – Hydrogen pipelines will allow hydrogen from clean sources of energy to be viable

(Note: This is Hydrogen Fact #11 from “Twelve Hydrogen Facts” which is part of the Hydrogen Manhattan Project.)

Although nearly all of the hydrogen produced in the U.S. today comes from natural gas, the grand vision for a hydrogen economy is for the hydrogen to be produced from clean sources of energy such as wind or solar power.

In order for this to happen, hydrogen pipelines will be needed to transport the hydrogen from where it is produced (e.g. large wind farms in the Great Plains region or large solar facilities in the Mojave Desert) to storage facilities close to where the hydrogen will be purchased at fueling stations.

There are currently around 700 miles of hydrogen pipelines in the U.S.  They are located close to where the hydrogen is used which is typically in refineries or chemical plants.

Just like most of the existing natural gas pipelines, these hydrogen pipelines are made of carbon steel.  However, the problem with carbon steel hydrogen pipelines is that they are expensive and have leakage and embrittlement issues.

Dr. Tim Armstrong, research scientist at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, says that:

“Laying pipelines of different iron-based alloys costs $1 million per mile.  One significant cost is welding.  Every weld point changes the microstructure, making hydrogen leakage more likely.”

Due to the leakage and embrittlement problems, carbon steel hydrogen pipelines can only work at distributing hydrogen up to around 500 psi (pounds per square inch).

However, polymer hydrogen pipelines are much less expensive and far more effective at distributing hydrogen.

Dr. Armstrong notes that:

“Current polymer technology allows the manufacture of mile-long polymer pipelines for the oil industry, reducing the number of connections and potential leaks.  Using mobile factories we estimate the cost of laying pipeline would be cut 50%, to half a million dollars a mile.”

Furthermore, polymer hydrogen pipelines can distribute hydrogen at up to 1500 to 2000 psi, which means much more hydrogen can be sent through them.  Another advantage of polymer hydrogen pipelines is that they do not have embrittlement problems.

Smart Pipe is a company based in Houston, Texas that restores damaged pipelines.  The company uses a portable factory to allow for installation lengths up to ten miles.

This portable factory technology could be used for laying the polymer hydrogen pipelines.  Pictures of this fascinating technology can be found on pages 6-20 in the following link.

The future hydrogen pipeline national infrastructure will be much like the existing long-distance natural gas pipeline network.  Although there are about 2.2 million miles of natural gas pipelines, only 300,000 miles are long-distance transmission pipelines.  The distribution pipelines that bring the natural gas all the way to the consumer make up 1.9 million miles of the total 2.2 million miles.

The future hydrogen pipeline national infrastructure will likely be much closer to 300,000 miles of polymer hydrogen pipelines, because trucks are the most practical way to distribute the hydrogen locally to fueling stations.

(Update on September 13, 2008 - A key benefit of polymer hydrogen pipelines is that both natural gas and hydrogen could be distributed through them.  This could be done by having bundles of pipe.  For example, a bundle of four pipelines could carry two hydrogen pipelines and two natural gas pipelines.  This is extremely important, because the existing natural gas infrastructure is getting very old.  Therefore, it makes sense to replace these pipelines with inexpensive ones that can distribute either hydrogen or natural gas.)