Gasnetz Hamburg makes natural gas pipeline fit for hydrogen

Hamburg needs a variety of solutions to reduce CO₂ emissions from buildings and businesses. This is why Gasnetz Hamburg wants to develop a solution option in its "H₂-SWITCH100" pilot project that can also ensure the supply of energy for old buildings that are difficult to renovate and for commercial energy requirements.

"Converting the natural gas pipelines to hydrogen-only operation is certainly not a solution for the whole of Hamburg", admits Michael Dammann, Technical Managing Director of Gasnetz Hamburg. "But continuing to use existing infrastructure with green gas can be a sensible addition to options such as district heating expansion and heat pumps in certain building structures and locations. With 'H₂-SWITCH100', we want to find out specifically what effort and costs are associated with such a changeover and whether there are any technical hurdles."

A network section was selected for the pilot project that represents the average of the Hamburg gas network in terms of connections, pipe materials and the years of construction of the individual pipe sections. This is located at the Harburg Tempowerk in the streets "Zum Fürstenmoor" and "Moorwinkel". Here, experts will first analyse the existing infrastructure and develop a plan to convert the existing natural gas infrastructure for green hydrogen. However, green gas will only flow through the pipeline as soon as the Hamburg hydrogen industrial network in the immediate vicinity is activated in 2027.