D1a.1 Overview of basic elements for hydrogen purity standards

For a successful implementation of hydrogen in the distribution network a clear and transparent hydrogen quality specification is crucial to guarantee the pipeline integrity and optimal and safe performance of end-use equipment. At a national level, the first proposals for a hydrogen quality standard for high pressure transmission grids are under development but at present no developments are ongoing to develop a hydrogen quality specification for the hydrogen gas distribution network. When developing hydrogen quality specifications there should be a balance wherein the end user is protected and receives the required hydrogen quality and at the same time unnecessarily strict specifications should be avoided, which leads to high costs. Once the hydrogen specifications are in place, hydrogen quality monitoring and control protocols are needed.

In this study the building blocks for the development of a hydrogen quality standard are investigated. The project is divided into two phases. In phase 1 a literature inventory is performed on the following items:

1) Hydrogen quality delivered from various hydrogen carriers, production technologies and suppliers.

2) Hydrogen quality requirements of end-users. 

3) Hydrogen purification technologies – state of the art.

The results from the literature inventory serve as input for phase 2, to be published later this year, in which a hydrogen purity cost model is used to provide insights into the overall hydrogen purification costs for three hydrogen purities. Also, in phase 2 the impact of re-used network/asset parameters on the hydrogen purity will be discussed.  In this report presents the results of the literature inventory from phase 1.