Industrial

Europe’s first national hydrogen pipeline network to start construction this month

The first 30km stretch of pipelines linking the Port of Rotterdam to a nearby industrial hub is set to start operations in 2025, with extension into rest of Europe from 2030

An aerial photo of Maasvlakte 2 in the Port of Rotterdam in June 2020.
An aerial photo of Maasvlakte 2 in the Port of Rotterdam in June 2020.Photo: Danny Cornelissen/Port of Rotterdam

The first 30km stretch of the proposed 1,200km Dutch national hydrogen network is set to officially start construction on 27 October, with operations set to begin in 2025.

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While Europe currently has around 1,600km of H2 pipelines across the continent, with 570km operated by industrial gases firm Air Liquide in Belgium alone, the Dutch development is the first to be set out as a national hydrogen network, which will be operated by state-owned gas transmission system operator Gasunie.

The pipelines, on which Gasunie took a final investment decision (FID) to spend more than €100m on construction in June, will run from between the Port of Rotterdam’s Maasvlakte 2 development to the Pernis area of Rotterdam.

Pernis sites a number of petrochemical refineries including the Shell Energy and Chemicals Park, which is set to receive volumes of renewable hydrogen from the oil major’s 200MW Holland Hydrogen I project located in Maasvlakte 2 once it starts operations in 2025.

However, beyond transporting H2 from port-side to industrial plants in the city, Gasunie plans to ultimately extend the hydrogen network to not only other clusters within the Netherlands, but into Germany and Belgium from 2030 onwards — although a timeline on when FID will be taken on the rest of this network has not been disclosed.
Germany and Belgium have both started to progress plans for their own national hydrogen networks, with the two countries pledging an H2 pipeline connection between each other by 2028.
But while Belgium has approved €250m in public funding towards constructing these pipelines, Germany is still mulling exactly how the proposed 11,200km network will be financed.
While the Netherlands’ first stretch in Rotterdam will consist of new pipelines, the company has previously told Hydrogen Insight that 85% of the full hydrogen network will consist of repurposed gas pipelines, such as infrastructure from the Groningen gas field, which stopped extracting fossil gas at the beginning of this month.

Gasunie is also one of the co-developers of the open-access ACE Terminal at Maasvlakte 2, which aims to facilitate imports of green ammonia from early 2026.

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PipelinesNetherlandsBelgiumGermanyRotterdam
Published 4 October 2023, 10:25Updated 4 October 2023, 10:45