D7B.4 A roadmap on transport and storage of hydrogen and hydrogen carriers for five sectors in the Dutch economy

The Netherlands currently imports and partially produces coal, crude oil and natural gas in order to provide for electricity,heat, fuel and chemicals. The coal, crude oil and natural gas provide the molecules (carbon, nitrogen, hydrogen and oxygen) which can be turned into the desired service (electricity, heat) or molecule (fuel, chemicals). In a sustainable future, the source of these molecules, is renewable.

In order to get to this sustainable future, value chains for the sustainable alternatives need to be developed. Examples are value chains for hydrogen-for-mobility or value chains for sustainable (‘green’) ammonia for the production of fertilizers. These value chains start with producers (or import) and end with ‘end-users’. Between the producer and end-user there are multiple parts that need to be in place: transport, storage and sometimes chemical transformations. All with the right technology, capacity, safety, regulations and business models. To make matters more complicated: some chains have multiple options (will the product be made centrally or decentral? Will it be stored in liquid or gaseous form?).

Given the variety of hydrogen import supply chains that can be developed towards the Netherlands and NW Europe, it is of importance to have a thorough understanding of the technological and economic performance of these import chains to be able to make informed strategic, policy and investment decisions (see HyDelta 1 D7B.3). Subsequently, potential hydrogen value chains have been developed and modelled for five types of end-uses, providing insight in the 2030 cost breakdowns (see HyDelta 1 D7A.2). Once produced and arrived, it is crucial to know how to store and distribute the hydrogen in the Netherlands. That is why this document, the HyDelta 1 D7B.4 Innovation Roadmap study, aims to provide more insight in the context and required developments for transport and storage of hydrogen for five sectors in the Netherlands. The sectors studied are the high temperature heat, fertilizer, methanol, built environment and mobility sector. In order to do so, this document will focus on the following research question and three sub-questions:

What developments are required for transport and storage innovations for the large scale production and import/export of hydrogen in the NL?

1. End users: where will we need hydrogen & what are logical first end users?
2. Infrastructure: what technological developments do we need regarding storage and transport?
3. Regulation: what regulatory bottlenecks or drivers need to be tackled/in place?