First major hydrogen plant connected to the Dutch hydrogen network
Gasunie subsidiary Hynetwork has connected the first hydrogen plant to the Dutch hydrogen network. The so-called “golden weld” of the customer connection has been completed between the 200 MW Holland Hydrogen 1 plant on Rotterdam’s Maasvlakte and the hydrogen pipeline. The connection works were carried out by contractor Hanab. For the first time, a producer of green hydrogen has been directly connected to the national hydrogen infrastructure. This marks the next step in the development of the hydrogen network that links Dutch industry with each other and with foreign markets. An important prerequisite for decarbonising industry in the Netherlands and Northwest Europe.
The connection follows the successful completion of the first 32 kilometres of hydrogen pipeline earlier this year, after it was filled with green hydrogen and brought to the correct pressure. The hydrogen pipeline was built by Hynetwork and runs largely parallel to the A15, within an existing energy corridor that also concentrates other key infrastructure. This corridor includes, among other assets, the CO₂ pipeline for the Porthos project.
Close cooperation with Porthos
The realisation of this first hydrogen pipeline section took place in close cooperation with the Porthos project. For 19 kilometres, the hydrogen pipeline and the CO₂ pipeline run only 40 centimetres apart.
Jan Willem Rongen, Project Manager Hydrogen Network Rotterdam (Hynetwork): “We set up the projects in such a way that we disrupted each other as little as possible. Thanks to intensive cooperation between Hynetwork and Porthos and its construction partners HANAB and Denys, we were able to align schedules, resolve bottlenecks and jointly safeguard safety. That cooperation was essential to success: together we delivered an enormous achievement.”
Foundation for a growing hydrogen network
With this first connection, an important step has been taken in the development of a nationwide hydrogen network. The infrastructure will be further expanded in the coming years with new producers and off-takers. What starts in the port of Rotterdam must grow into a national, and ultimately international, network linking industrial clusters across Northwest Europe.
