The hydrogen economy: built of broken?

The proposed hydrogen economy is seen as a panacea to many woes. When burned in vehicles, utilities, or homes, the colourless, odourless gas provides energy and heat while emitting nothing but harmless water vapour. The security-of-supply worries due to nefarious energy suppliers is avoided by the fact that hydrogen can be produced anywhere. Finally, hydrogen production using renewables-based electrolysis dramatically reduces emissions from the manufacture of fertilizers, steel and a host of other products.

In order to transform the energy landscape, however, the hydrogen economy needs to establish three industrial-scale components; manufacturing plants, dedicated pipelines, and consumers.

Production

China currently has over 200 000 tpy of hydrogen plant capacity currently in operation, including the Daye Green Power plant in Hubei province, the Songyuan plant in Northeast China, and several facilities in Inner Mongolia.

Europe is also strongly pro-hydrogen; in addition to €13 billion that has already been earmarked for improving hydrogen technology, production, and demand, the EC announced plans in December 2025, to distribute up to €1.2 trillion to beef up electricity grids through 2040, including €240 billion for the production, transportation, and consumption of hydrogen. Iberdrola’s plant in Spain is producing 500 000 tpy, and major plants in Germany, France, and Sweden are expected to add over 200 000 tpy of capacity in 2026.

In the US, Air Products is building the Louisiana Clean Energy Complex in Burnside, Louisiana, US. The US$4.5 billion facility will produce 750 million ft3/d of blue hydrogen which will then be converted into 600 000 tpy of blue ammonia. When it enters production in 2029, the plant will capture and sequester approximately 5 million tpy of carbon dioxide. RIC, based in Spain, is now in the planning and permitting stage for its 120 MW electrolyser plant on the Cadiz Ranch, located in the Mojave Desert 300 km east of Los Angeles, US. The facility will use solar power to produce up to 50 short tpd of green hydrogen.

In Canada, Air Products is building a hydrogen energy complex in the Fort Saskatchewan industrial region near Edmonton, Alberta. The facility will create 800 000 tpy of blue hydrogen, using auto thermal reforming (ATR). The budget has increased from US$1.3 billion to US$3.3 billion, and the timeline for completion pushed back to 2027. Once commissioned, Air Products will use its 55 km pipeline network to deliver blue hydrogen to Shell’s diesel refinery, as well as to third parties in the industrial region.

Japan is deficient in traditional fossil fuels, and views hydrogen as a next-generation energy source that will decrease greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and augment security; the government has announced plans to boost hydrogen supplies from 4 million tpy to 12 million tpy by 2040. The country’s first green hydrogen plant entered service in late 2025 when Green Hydrogen Park Hakushu in Hokuto City went online. The US$122 million plant produces 2200 tpy for use at Suntory’s nearby whisky-making facilities. Mitsubishi Heavy Industry, Toyota, Hokkaido Electric Power, and the Japan Atomic Energy Agency all have plans to build green hydrogen plants.

Pipelines

China has a long-term goal of building up to 6600 km of dedicated hydrogen pipelines to move the gas from solar-rich western desert regions to industrial consumers in the east. Currently, the 1000 km Kangbao-Caofeidian Pipeline Network and the 400 km Inner Mongolia-Beijing Pipeline are under construction.

In the EU, Dutch gas network operator Gasunie is building a 1200 km hydrogen pipeline network to serve both domestic customers and export to neighbouring countries. The first section, a 32 km stretch in the Port of Rotterdam, was completed in 2025. Further work includes the Delta Rhine Corridor (DRC), which will run from Rotterdam to Germany’s Ruhr and Rhineland industrial regions. The company expects the system to be in operation by 2033.

Germany’s hydrogen production and distribution network has been estimated to cost US$21.6 billion and extend for 9700 km. In late 2025, Germany’s gas transmission association FNB Gas announced that the first 525 km of the grid had been built from the Baltic Sea to Saxony-Anhalt, largely using existing natural gas lines. They estimated that the entire system would be completed by 2032.

The US already has approximately 1600 km of dedicated hydrogen pipelines in the US Gulf Coast (USGC). The largest operator is Air Products’ Gulf Coast network, which stretches almost 1000 km from Galveston Bay, Texas, to New Orleans, and serves over four dozen major industrial customers.

Southern California Gas (SoCalGas) has entered into the planning, development and regulatory approval stages for Angeles Link, a dedicated, green hydrogen pipeline system that could deliver enough hydrogen to displace the equivalent of 3 million gal./d of diesel fuel. The pipeline would likely originate in the wind and solar-rich desert east of Los Angeles, and terminate at the port of Los Angeles.

Several North African countries have plans to leverage existing gas pipelines to Europe. Tunisia is looking to export as much as 8 million tpy of hydrogen through the Trans-Med gas pipeline that links Tunisia to Italy by 2050. In July 2025, Algeria’s Ministry of Energy, Mines, and Renewable Energies announced plans to spend up to US$25 billion developing a national green hydrogen network and exporting up to 1 million tpy to Europe by 2040.

In December 2025, Australia’s APA Group concluded a feasibility study to investigate whether a section of its Parmelia gas pipeline near Perth could be converted to hydrogen. The study concluded that the 43 km line could be converted to 100% hydrogen service in a technically feasible, safe and efficient manner. Plans are now underway to establish commerciality.

In January 2026, Oman announced that it is building a 400 km network of dedicated hydrogen pipelines. The Middle East country has plans to produce 1 million tpy of renewable hydrogen by 2030; the network will gather the clean energy for distribution to domestic users and for export to Europe.

The full article is available starting on p. 8 of the April issue of World Pipelines.

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