Hydrogen pipeline cost

Parker, N. (2004). Using Natural Gas Transmission Pipeline Costs to Estimate Hydrogen Pipeline Costs. Technical Report No. UCD-ITS-RR-04-35. University of California Davis, Institute of Transportation Studies. 

A complete hydrogen pipeline infrastructure would include both transmission and distribution to minimize the overall hydrogen transport cost [6], When one considers the cost for pipeline infrastructure, there will be some semioptimized operating pressure range that determines the overall costs, including the cost of compression based on the distance... 

Because of high capital costs and potential HE of steel pipelines for high-pressure hydrogen transport, the investigation of fiber reinforcement or other plastic composites as substitutes for steels is one of the major R D tasks within the DOE hydrogen delivery program. The purpose of the work is to achieve reduction in installation costs, better reliability, and safer operation of hydrogen pipelines. 

Pipelines may be the least expensive way to deliver large quantities of hydrogen. Pipelines are the main choice for moving refined petroleum products across the country. They are less than 10% the cost of rail, road or water tankers. The U.S. has almost 200,000 miles of interstate pipelines for petroleum products. There is another 200,000 miles of interstate natural gas pipelines. 

Hydrogen transport in natural-gas pipelines Several studies discuss the use of existing natural-gas pipelines to transmit either pure hydrogen with modifications or hydrogen and natural gas blends, because the hydrogen transport costs could be considerably reduced if the natural-gas infrastructure could be adapted to hydrogen. 

Generally, distance and volume are decisive factors. For a short distance, a pipeline can be very economic because the capital expense of a short pipeline may be close to the capital cost of trailers, and there are no transportation or liquefaction costs. As the distance increases, the capital cost of a pipeline increases rapidly, and the economics will depend on the quantity of hydrogen pipelines will be favoured for larger quantities of hydrogen. For small... 

For large quantities of hydrogen, pipeline delivery is cheaper than any other option. Pipelines are characterised by very low operating costs, mainly for compressor power, but high capital costs. The investment for pipelines is in proportion to the delivery distance, while the influence of capacity is lower. 

Hydrogen transport costs are in the range of 1 to 4 ct/kWh, with a downward trend in later periods due to the economies of scale achieved by large scale pipeline transport. 

If and when extensive new hydrogen transmission pipelines are needed in the decades ahead, research in such areas as lower-cost pipeline materials, technology for dual-use natural gas-and-hydrogen pipeline connection techniques, layout optimization, and even pipeline emplacement technologies may be of significant value. However, the committee sees this as a priority research area only to the extent that such efforts directly benefit distributed production techniques, which are expected to dominate over the next 20 to 30 years. 

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