FORCE Technology, Danish Gas Technology Center and a group of enterprises are calling for clarity around the handling of the future vast amounts of green hydrogen in Denmark – and they are willing to lead the way. First step is a new guideline, which will make it easier for the full value chain to engage in the roll out of pipes and components for facilitation and transport of hydrogen.

Variable green electricity from wind and solar, the need for energy storage, flexibility as well as pipes and components… These are among the key drivers that will make hydrogen an integral part of the future energy system in Denmark as well as rest of the World. The hydrogen will be used for green fuels and will be produced from the vast amounts of renewable energy, which will soon be the energy system’s main supply.

In order to facilitate the transition to a higher utilization of hydrogen in the energy system, a group of partners have developed a guideline for the documentation necessary for the future hydrogen infrastructure. Ditte Bilgrav Bangsgaard, specialist in FORCE Technology, explains:

”Confusion is widespread when it comes to documentation requirements for hydrogen infrastructure. For the producers, distributors and offtakers of hydrogen it can be quite difficult to navigate through rules and regulations. That is a problem, because we are short of time to reach our common climate targets, and hydrogen can certainly help us achieve them. That is why we have developed a common guideline – for the benefit of the full value chain in Denmark and potentially rest of Europe.”

She has participated in the work with the new guideline, which has been organized under the South Danish lighthouse project for green energy and sector coupling (GESEK).

The guideline is designed to help the companies within the lighthouse project as well as companies and authorities at national and European level.

“We need to build things the right way, and the national guideline can support the industry in doing just that”

Ditte Bilgrav Bangsgaard, specialist in FORCE Technology

Demand for flow meters

FORCE Technology and Danish Gas Technology Center have been leading the project, which has also involved Energinet, Evida, Everfuel, AVK International, Elster-Instromet, svenske Euromekanik, Fluoroseal, Honeywell, RMA, Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy, MS-Flowtechnic and the Danish Safety Technology Authority.

The new guideline is based on a review of available standards and guidelines for both hydrogen and natural gas in order to assess relevant documentation requirements for various components in the future hydrogen infrastructure. This could include valves, flow meters, sensors, pipe materials, as well as products in the existing energy infrastructure, which can eventually be reused for hydrogen after a possible upgrade. The end product is a guideline suited to help all stakeholders active within the field of hydrogen, when they want to understand rules and regulations.
Emil Christensen, project engineer at Danish Gas Technology Center, explains:

“We want to make our new guideline available for everyone who needs to know how to evaluate components to be used for pure hydrogen and to determine whether these are suited for the purpose. This project can help the industry to navigate in present regulations in relation to specific tests.”

Setting directions for the industry

As part of the innovation project the Danish project partners have also had dialogue with Swedish and German players in the market for hydrogen infrastructure. The point of focus has been the Frøslev-Egtved pipeline in Southern Denmark, an illustrative case in relation to a future export of hydrogen for Germany.

“Europe as well the rest of the World will need huge amounts of green hydrogen for the green transition; especially for heavy transport. Infrastructure is therefore highly important – also between single countries – and therefore regulation, safety, standards and much more needs to be in place, once we start the upscaling. We need to build things the right way, and the national guideline can support the industry in doing just that”, says Ditte Bilgrav Bangsgaard.