TransHyDE - Developing Solutions for Designing Ideal Hydrogen Infrastructures to Maximise Efficiency and Resilience

Dear readers,

With the adoption of the National Hydrogen Strategy (NWS) in June 2020 and its update in July 2023, the German government strengthens the establishment of a hydrogen economy in Germany to achieve the Paris climate goals and to build an energy system based on renewable energies.

To meet the required demand international imports will complement the national production. Supra-regional storage and transport infrastructures for green hydrogen are needed to ensure efficient temporal and spatial distribution.

This is where TransHyDE comes in as one of three hydrogen flagship projects funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF). The project is coordinated by Prof. Robert Schlögl (Max Planck Society), Prof. Mario Ragwitz (Fraunhofer Institute for Energy Infrastructures and Geothermal Energy IEG) and Jimmie M. Langham (cruh21 GmbH - Part of Drees & Sommer).

Over 100 partners and associated partners are working to resolve technological and economic barriers, analyse gaps in technical codes and regulatory frameworks, and contribute to closing them. This is implemented by ten TransHyDE projects for the energy vectors gaseous and liquid hydrogen as well as liquid organic hydrogen carriers (LOHC) and ammonia. The results are continuously communicated via target-specific measures, e. g. whitepapers, scientific papers and events, to the scientific community, political decision-makers and the general public.

This special issue of the scientific journal Energy Technology mirrors the comprehensive thematical set-up of the TransHyDE projects by illustrating their aspects of the transport and storage infrastructure of hydrogen and its derivates. The perspectives of the featured articles and reviews are remarkably diverse and span the full range from higher level topics like transitioning paths towards climate neutral gas grids to providing answers to specific, in-depth technological questions that need to be solved to make the models become reality. The technology-open approach of TransHyDE is clearly visible in this special issue as it is not limited to one specific hydrogen transport option or infrastructural component, where for example hydrogen storage with LOHC technology, as well as underground storage in sandstone formations and the direct usage of ammonia in combustion engines are examined next to one another. Studies on public acceptance and societal risk perception add to the technological perspectives and allow putting them into action.

With this broad range of topics, the TransHyDE special issue invites readers to take a holistic approach to future transport and storage infrastructure of hydrogen and its derivates in Germany. We firmly believe that only by putting all our knowledge together and remaining technology-open we will be able to find efficient solutions to sensibly conclude the ongoing energy transition.