PetroChina Plans to Build A 5000 to 6000km Hydrogen Pipeline Network
From：
Zhonglin International Group Date：05-29 1041 Belong to：Industry Related
The 2023 World Hydrogen Technology Conference will be held from May 22 to 26, 2023 in Nanhai, Foshan. This conference is jointly hosted by the China Association for Science and Technology, the China Machinery Industry Federation, and the International Hydrogen Association, with the theme of "Hydrogen Energy and Dual Carbon Strategy: From Now to the Future". It focuses on the latest products, technologies, and equipment in the global hydrogen energy field under the dual carbon strategy, as well as the application of hydrogen energy in transportation, energy, chemical, metallurgy, and construction. MRHN CN live reports from the conference.
Li Guohui, Deputy General Manager of China National Petroleum Pipeline Engineering Co., Ltd., attended the Hydrogen Safety Technology Forum held on May 24th and delivered a keynote report titled "Technological Progress and Prospects of Pipeline Hydrogen Transportation Industry". The specific contents of the report are as follows:
Regardless of which white paper or market outlook, we are optimistic about the future utilization of hydrogen in our country. It is predicted that by 2060, we will reach a scale of about 100 million tons. But China's hydrogen resources are very uneven. All of our hydrogen resources are mainly distributed in the northwest, northeast, and central western regions where refining enterprises, wind and solar power generation, and natural gas resources are relatively abundant. However, our consumer market is mainly concentrated in the east and south, which is similar to our oil and gas resource market layout. Presenting a misaligned distribution of resource markets, we need to address this mismatch between time and space. So in the future, our medium to long distance storage and transportation needs will be relatively large. We will use pure hydrogen or hydrogen blending pipelines to solve the problem of hydrogen production and the last mile of hydrogen consumption. Therefore, we predict that by 2050, if our hydrogen energy scale reaches 70 million tons, more than half of it will need pipelines for transportation. That 35 million tons is equivalent to our current natural gas pipeline scale of about 380 billion cubic meters per year, which may require pipeline mileage between 150000 to 200000 kilometers.
So in the first part, let me share with you the development of our hydrogen blending pipeline transportation.
So far, even worldwide, no one dares to publicly announce that his hydrogen doping is successful in the commercial field. Similarly, our country has not carried out mixed transportation practices in the field of long-distance natural gas transportation. Only a few hydrogen blending platforms have conducted some hydrogen blending compatibility uation processes, equipment reliability, safety, and protection uations, as well as research on risk monitoring, detection, and control measures.
So actually, adding hydrogen to the natural gas pipeline network will have some impact on the entire process system. For example, it will reduce the energy transmission of the natural gas pipeline network. If it is transported in an equal proportion, the energy will definitely decrease. This is beyond doubt because its volumetric calorific value is lower than natural gas, which will also affect the operating parameters of the compressor unit and the overall pressure regulation ability of the pipeline network, Of course, there are also some measuring facilities, and even some other moving equipment. Even static equipment and seals need to undergo some modifications.
So looking at the efficiency of hydrogen blending transportation, if the same energy of hydrogen is transported, the power consumption required is 3.3 times that of natural gas. If the flow rate is constant, the energy of pipeline transportation will significantly decrease. If 5% hydrogen mixture is processed at a maximum operating speed of 5%, in this case, the operating power of the compressor needs to be increased by 10%.
Of course, we add it upstream, so if it's just ordinary combustion downstream, it won't be a problem. If we separate it downstream, we may need some purification technology. We can see that pressure swing adsorption is relatively mature, so the higher the pressure of hydrogen addition compared to high pressure, the lower the purification cost. We can see that if the extraction rate is 80%, the purification cost is very high, around 3.3 US dollars.
We have analyzed natural gas in some regions and found that, with the total amount of natural gas remaining constant and the total amount of mixed gas remaining constant, the heating value, density, viscosity, and compression factor of the entire hydrogen blending process will all have significant effects.
So, taking a certain mainline project as an example, after dismantling, we conducted some systematic research. We can see that as the amount of hydrogen added to the natural gas pipeline increases, its shaft power gradually increases, which is beneficial for our dynamic equipment compressor. In addition, for the downstream initial station, its shaft power is gradually decreasing. Meanwhile, the gas consumption along this route will gradually increase. In addition, from the initial station to the final station, we can see the impact of compressor unit speed, so the gas transmission capacity may not reach our entire score, showing a decreasing trend year by year.
For our main compressor equipment, from the initial station to the final station, we can see that the working point of the compressor gradually shifts towards the upper left corner, which will cause us to no longer be in the high-efficiency zone. We can see that the area at the back is approaching the edge of our area.
What about the cost of hydrogen blending pipeline transportation? Taking this project as an example, the transportation efficiency of pipelines with different hydrogen blending ratios shows an increasing trend as the hydrogen blending ratio increases.
What about the impact on the moving equipment? If we use domestically produced compressors, we can see that some of them can adapt to a 100% hydrogen blending ratio in terms of structure. Domestic F-class heavy-duty gas turbines can also adapt to a 20% hydrogen blending ratio, but a large number of foreign compressors can adapt to a 30% scenario ratio. At present, most operating centrifugal compressors allow a hydrogen blending ratio of less than 1%, but by adjusting some of its structures, such as impellers, these key equipment can adapt to 5%.
What about static equipment? In fact, domestic valve manufacturers believe that a 10% hydrogen blending ratio is acceptable, but some research on metering and heating furnaces is still in the theoretical research stage. For foreign countries, such as the German Gas and Water Industry Association, research has shown that most static equipment can adapt to 10% to 20%. At present, there is basically no need for renovation in this situation.
Another key issue is the impact of hydrogen addition on the pipes. The strength variation of materials in a hydrogen environment has little impact, which is a consensus. However, the impact on plasticity and toughness, especially toughness, is very significant. However, resilience is a very important indicator that affects the entire high-pressure natural gas pipeline network, and the higher the pressure, the higher the requirement for this indicator.
This is a hydrogen blending platform we have developed in Ningxia. At present, the testing process is underway, with a pressure of 4.5 megapascals and a hydrogen blending ratio between 3% and 24%. The main focus is on testing its flow meters, valve detection instruments, and some experimental combustible gas detectors to verify that there are still some hydrogen embrittlement phenomena in the sealing material of our gas pipeline network. At the same time, we used this computational fluid dynamics method to test the stratification situation under static conditions that are more concerned about gas. After testing for 72 hours over a period of two months, no stratification phenomenon occurred. However, because our testing time was not long enough, this phenomenon may occur when it is long enough.
This is the project we are currently undertaking, the 2022 National Major Special Project for Hydrogen to Enter Ten Thousand Households. We are preparing to conduct hydrogen blending and gas testing for one hundred thousand households and one hundred kilometers in Weifang High tech Zone. The project is currently in progress.
Below, we will share our research on pure hydrogen pipelines and our views and plans for the future.
At present, there are only three pure hydrogen pipelines in China, less than 100 kilometers, and about 5000 kilometers worldwide. Most of them are monopolized by these three major gas companies, Air Liquid, Air Product, and Linde. In China, most of them are based on refining and chemical engineering, and there are also very few hydrogen refueling stations, about less than one kilometer. The pressure of the existing hydrogen pipelines is all below four megapascals, which is still quite different from the seven megapascals operated abroad.
So what about large-scale continuous transportation? We made a comparison using pipelines and long pipe trailers, as well as liquid hydrogen tank trucks. We see that pipeline transportation has significant advantages over other long-distance transportation. However, long tube trailers are currently the mainstream method because the entire hydrogen industry has not yet been developed.
We have also developed a light industry chain model, and our conclusion is that when our hydrogen consumption reaches 20000 tons per year, using pipelines is significantly better than other methods, regardless of the distance. For example, if the transportation distance is 90 kilometers and the quantity is 50000 tons per year, the cost of using pipelines to transport gaseous hydrogen is 11% to 15% of that of long pipe trailers, which means the price is about 1/8 to 1/10 of it. Compared to liquid hydrogen tanker transportation, it is even lower, about 1/20 of it. So this cost advantage is still very obvious.
So let's take a look at the process of hydrogen transportation pipelines. In terms of technology, because it is gaseous, all of these technologies, including the technology for transporting natural gas, can be used for hydrogen transportation. For example, its software, etc., and the calculation results are basically similar. We are currently developing a systematic analysis of the pure hydrogen pipeline process.
But overall, for example, if the initial station pressure is 2.75 megapascals and the final station pressure is 1 megapascals, then the scale of pure hydrogen pipeline transportation is about 2.6 times that of natural gas transportation. So in terms of risk assessment, we have conducted some risk assessments, and compared to natural gas, the internal risk of the hydrogen stack is higher, which is similar to our most naive view. However, the risk level will rapidly decline with increasing distance. This is not contradictory to what the experts just said, it is consistent. It decays particularly quickly with increasing distance, as the escape performance of hydrogen gas is greater.
For these pipelines along the line, compared to hydrogen, natural gas pipelines have a larger distance under the same acceptable value. For example, at 10 megapascals, our natural gas pipeline may be within a range of about 200 meters, but the hydrogen distance is significantly smaller than this 200 meters, so it may be more dangerous in the upward space. Based on our understanding of pure hydrogen pipelines and the existing pure hydrogen pipelines we operate on. We actually built a pure hydrogen pipeline eight years ago and it has been running for eight years without any problems. Of course, there was a minor accident where one point leaked and caught fire. However, it was not as difficult as everyone imagined. After turning it off, we blew it with nitrogen gas, tightened the bolt, and then continued to operate without any problems. Therefore, based on this, we have also prepared some design specifications, construction specifications, and integrity specifications for hydrogen pipelines. These are some group standards, and we are currently in the process of preparing standards for this industry. We also hope that anyone who is willing to join us and work with us to complete this work can also contact us to join.
Introduce a few more typical projects. This is the pipeline we built eight years ago, from Jiyuan to Luoyang. So far, it is still the largest in diameter, highest in pressure, and highest in quantity. The entire length of this hydrogen pipeline is 25 kilometers, with a diameter of 508 and a pipe material of L245. The design pressure is four megapascals, and the maximum quantity is 200000 tons. The current quantity is 100000 tons.
In addition, for our future planning, we have also constructed a national hydrogen energy network that delivers hydrogen from the west to the east. According to the comparison between Nanyang University of Science and Technology in Singapore, the two methods of power transmission and hydrogen production are compared. If the design is based on an annual hydrogen transmission capacity of 25 billion cubic meters, with a pressure of 10 megapascals and a pipeline diameter of 1016 and a length of 2000 kilometers, the investment is about 40 billion yuan. However, if the same electricity is to be transmitted, the investment is about 80 billion yuan. The overall investment in power transmission is twice as expensive as hydrogen transmission. And the loss of power transmission is about 1% to 2%, but the loss of hydrogen transmission through pipelines is about 1 ‰.
Based on this, for our hydrogen planning, we have actually made some particularly large plans because we believe that from 2035 to 2050, almost all hydrogen will be transported through pipelines. We have built a northern hydrogen energy pipeline network with one horizontal, one vertical, and three branches connecting Ningxia, Inner Mongolia, Hebei, Beijing, Tianjin, Heilongjiang, Jilin, Liaoning, Henan, and so on, with a total hydrogen energy pipeline network of approximately 5000 to 6000 kilometers. Our goal is to work together with Inner Mongolia and Hebei, the largest hydrogen production provinces in the north, because Inner Mongolia is a region with abundant scenic resources. To solve the problem of time and space mismatch between resource and market policies in our Beijing Tianjin Hebei and Central Plains urban agglomerations, our ultimate goal is not to operate this pipeline, but to establish a more open hydrogen energy pipeline network platform in China. Anyone's hydrogen can enter the pipeline, and anyone who wants to use it can download it from this platform. So we need to unify the pressure, the purity of hydrogen, and the method of downloading.
At the same time, the entire hydrogen energy pipeline network can also solve the problems of discontinuous hydrogen production and continuous hydrogen consumption, and it is actually a large hydrogen storage container. On this basis, we also need to build a national hydrogen energy backbone network, including those in the northern region, the Yangtze River Delta, and the Pearl River Delta. Of course, we also have certain plans for the Sichuan Chongqing region. This is just a schematic diagram, in fact, we have already completed everything in detail. Thank you all, thank you.
Li Guohui, Deputy General Manager of China National Petroleum Pipeline Engineering Co., Ltd., attended the Hydrogen Safety Technology Forum held on May 24th and delivered a keynote report titled "Technological Progress and Prospects of Pipeline Hydrogen Transportation Industry". The specific contents of the report are as follows:
Regardless of which white paper or market outlook, we are optimistic about the future utilization of hydrogen in our country. It is predicted that by 2060, we will reach a scale of about 100 million tons. But China's hydrogen resources are very uneven. All of our hydrogen resources are mainly distributed in the northwest, northeast, and central western regions where refining enterprises, wind and solar power generation, and natural gas resources are relatively abundant. However, our consumer market is mainly concentrated in the east and south, which is similar to our oil and gas resource market layout. Presenting a misaligned distribution of resource markets, we need to address this mismatch between time and space. So in the future, our medium to long distance storage and transportation needs will be relatively large. We will use pure hydrogen or hydrogen blending pipelines to solve the problem of hydrogen production and the last mile of hydrogen consumption. Therefore, we predict that by 2050, if our hydrogen energy scale reaches 70 million tons, more than half of it will need pipelines for transportation. That 35 million tons is equivalent to our current natural gas pipeline scale of about 380 billion cubic meters per year, which may require pipeline mileage between 150000 to 200000 kilometers.
So in the first part, let me share with you the development of our hydrogen blending pipeline transportation.
So far, even worldwide, no one dares to publicly announce that his hydrogen doping is successful in the commercial field. Similarly, our country has not carried out mixed transportation practices in the field of long-distance natural gas transportation. Only a few hydrogen blending platforms have conducted some hydrogen blending compatibility uation processes, equipment reliability, safety, and protection uations, as well as research on risk monitoring, detection, and control measures.
So actually, adding hydrogen to the natural gas pipeline network will have some impact on the entire process system. For example, it will reduce the energy transmission of the natural gas pipeline network. If it is transported in an equal proportion, the energy will definitely decrease. This is beyond doubt because its volumetric calorific value is lower than natural gas, which will also affect the operating parameters of the compressor unit and the overall pressure regulation ability of the pipeline network, Of course, there are also some measuring facilities, and even some other moving equipment. Even static equipment and seals need to undergo some modifications.
So looking at the efficiency of hydrogen blending transportation, if the same energy of hydrogen is transported, the power consumption required is 3.3 times that of natural gas. If the flow rate is constant, the energy of pipeline transportation will significantly decrease. If 5% hydrogen mixture is processed at a maximum operating speed of 5%, in this case, the operating power of the compressor needs to be increased by 10%.
Of course, we add it upstream, so if it's just ordinary combustion downstream, it won't be a problem. If we separate it downstream, we may need some purification technology. We can see that pressure swing adsorption is relatively mature, so the higher the pressure of hydrogen addition compared to high pressure, the lower the purification cost. We can see that if the extraction rate is 80%, the purification cost is very high, around 3.3 US dollars.
We have analyzed natural gas in some regions and found that, with the total amount of natural gas remaining constant and the total amount of mixed gas remaining constant, the heating value, density, viscosity, and compression factor of the entire hydrogen blending process will all have significant effects.
So, taking a certain mainline project as an example, after dismantling, we conducted some systematic research. We can see that as the amount of hydrogen added to the natural gas pipeline increases, its shaft power gradually increases, which is beneficial for our dynamic equipment compressor. In addition, for the downstream initial station, its shaft power is gradually decreasing. Meanwhile, the gas consumption along this route will gradually increase. In addition, from the initial station to the final station, we can see the impact of compressor unit speed, so the gas transmission capacity may not reach our entire score, showing a decreasing trend year by year.
For our main compressor equipment, from the initial station to the final station, we can see that the working point of the compressor gradually shifts towards the upper left corner, which will cause us to no longer be in the high-efficiency zone. We can see that the area at the back is approaching the edge of our area.
What about the cost of hydrogen blending pipeline transportation? Taking this project as an example, the transportation efficiency of pipelines with different hydrogen blending ratios shows an increasing trend as the hydrogen blending ratio increases.
What about the impact on the moving equipment? If we use domestically produced compressors, we can see that some of them can adapt to a 100% hydrogen blending ratio in terms of structure. Domestic F-class heavy-duty gas turbines can also adapt to a 20% hydrogen blending ratio, but a large number of foreign compressors can adapt to a 30% scenario ratio. At present, most operating centrifugal compressors allow a hydrogen blending ratio of less than 1%, but by adjusting some of its structures, such as impellers, these key equipment can adapt to 5%.
What about static equipment? In fact, domestic valve manufacturers believe that a 10% hydrogen blending ratio is acceptable, but some research on metering and heating furnaces is still in the theoretical research stage. For foreign countries, such as the German Gas and Water Industry Association, research has shown that most static equipment can adapt to 10% to 20%. At present, there is basically no need for renovation in this situation.
Another key issue is the impact of hydrogen addition on the pipes. The strength variation of materials in a hydrogen environment has little impact, which is a consensus. However, the impact on plasticity and toughness, especially toughness, is very significant. However, resilience is a very important indicator that affects the entire high-pressure natural gas pipeline network, and the higher the pressure, the higher the requirement for this indicator.
This is a hydrogen blending platform we have developed in Ningxia. At present, the testing process is underway, with a pressure of 4.5 megapascals and a hydrogen blending ratio between 3% and 24%. The main focus is on testing its flow meters, valve detection instruments, and some experimental combustible gas detectors to verify that there are still some hydrogen embrittlement phenomena in the sealing material of our gas pipeline network. At the same time, we used this computational fluid dynamics method to test the stratification situation under static conditions that are more concerned about gas. After testing for 72 hours over a period of two months, no stratification phenomenon occurred. However, because our testing time was not long enough, this phenomenon may occur when it is long enough.
This is the project we are currently undertaking, the 2022 National Major Special Project for Hydrogen to Enter Ten Thousand Households. We are preparing to conduct hydrogen blending and gas testing for one hundred thousand households and one hundred kilometers in Weifang High tech Zone. The project is currently in progress.
Below, we will share our research on pure hydrogen pipelines and our views and plans for the future.
At present, there are only three pure hydrogen pipelines in China, less than 100 kilometers, and about 5000 kilometers worldwide. Most of them are monopolized by these three major gas companies, Air Liquid, Air Product, and Linde. In China, most of them are based on refining and chemical engineering, and there are also very few hydrogen refueling stations, about less than one kilometer. The pressure of the existing hydrogen pipelines is all below four megapascals, which is still quite different from the seven megapascals operated abroad.
So what about large-scale continuous transportation? We made a comparison using pipelines and long pipe trailers, as well as liquid hydrogen tank trucks. We see that pipeline transportation has significant advantages over other long-distance transportation. However, long tube trailers are currently the mainstream method because the entire hydrogen industry has not yet been developed.
We have also developed a light industry chain model, and our conclusion is that when our hydrogen consumption reaches 20000 tons per year, using pipelines is significantly better than other methods, regardless of the distance. For example, if the transportation distance is 90 kilometers and the quantity is 50000 tons per year, the cost of using pipelines to transport gaseous hydrogen is 11% to 15% of that of long pipe trailers, which means the price is about 1/8 to 1/10 of it. Compared to liquid hydrogen tanker transportation, it is even lower, about 1/20 of it. So this cost advantage is still very obvious.
So let's take a look at the process of hydrogen transportation pipelines. In terms of technology, because it is gaseous, all of these technologies, including the technology for transporting natural gas, can be used for hydrogen transportation. For example, its software, etc., and the calculation results are basically similar. We are currently developing a systematic analysis of the pure hydrogen pipeline process.
But overall, for example, if the initial station pressure is 2.75 megapascals and the final station pressure is 1 megapascals, then the scale of pure hydrogen pipeline transportation is about 2.6 times that of natural gas transportation. So in terms of risk assessment, we have conducted some risk assessments, and compared to natural gas, the internal risk of the hydrogen stack is higher, which is similar to our most naive view. However, the risk level will rapidly decline with increasing distance. This is not contradictory to what the experts just said, it is consistent. It decays particularly quickly with increasing distance, as the escape performance of hydrogen gas is greater.
For these pipelines along the line, compared to hydrogen, natural gas pipelines have a larger distance under the same acceptable value. For example, at 10 megapascals, our natural gas pipeline may be within a range of about 200 meters, but the hydrogen distance is significantly smaller than this 200 meters, so it may be more dangerous in the upward space. Based on our understanding of pure hydrogen pipelines and the existing pure hydrogen pipelines we operate on. We actually built a pure hydrogen pipeline eight years ago and it has been running for eight years without any problems. Of course, there was a minor accident where one point leaked and caught fire. However, it was not as difficult as everyone imagined. After turning it off, we blew it with nitrogen gas, tightened the bolt, and then continued to operate without any problems. Therefore, based on this, we have also prepared some design specifications, construction specifications, and integrity specifications for hydrogen pipelines. These are some group standards, and we are currently in the process of preparing standards for this industry. We also hope that anyone who is willing to join us and work with us to complete this work can also contact us to join.
Introduce a few more typical projects. This is the pipeline we built eight years ago, from Jiyuan to Luoyang. So far, it is still the largest in diameter, highest in pressure, and highest in quantity. The entire length of this hydrogen pipeline is 25 kilometers, with a diameter of 508 and a pipe material of L245. The design pressure is four megapascals, and the maximum quantity is 200000 tons. The current quantity is 100000 tons.
In addition, for our future planning, we have also constructed a national hydrogen energy network that delivers hydrogen from the west to the east. According to the comparison between Nanyang University of Science and Technology in Singapore, the two methods of power transmission and hydrogen production are compared. If the design is based on an annual hydrogen transmission capacity of 25 billion cubic meters, with a pressure of 10 megapascals and a pipeline diameter of 1016 and a length of 2000 kilometers, the investment is about 40 billion yuan. However, if the same electricity is to be transmitted, the investment is about 80 billion yuan. The overall investment in power transmission is twice as expensive as hydrogen transmission. And the loss of power transmission is about 1% to 2%, but the loss of hydrogen transmission through pipelines is about 1 ‰.
Based on this, for our hydrogen planning, we have actually made some particularly large plans because we believe that from 2035 to 2050, almost all hydrogen will be transported through pipelines. We have built a northern hydrogen energy pipeline network with one horizontal, one vertical, and three branches connecting Ningxia, Inner Mongolia, Hebei, Beijing, Tianjin, Heilongjiang, Jilin, Liaoning, Henan, and so on, with a total hydrogen energy pipeline network of approximately 5000 to 6000 kilometers. Our goal is to work together with Inner Mongolia and Hebei, the largest hydrogen production provinces in the north, because Inner Mongolia is a region with abundant scenic resources. To solve the problem of time and space mismatch between resource and market policies in our Beijing Tianjin Hebei and Central Plains urban agglomerations, our ultimate goal is not to operate this pipeline, but to establish a more open hydrogen energy pipeline network platform in China. Anyone's hydrogen can enter the pipeline, and anyone who wants to use it can download it from this platform. So we need to unify the pressure, the purity of hydrogen, and the method of downloading.
At the same time, the entire hydrogen energy pipeline network can also solve the problems of discontinuous hydrogen production and continuous hydrogen consumption, and it is actually a large hydrogen storage container. On this basis, we also need to build a national hydrogen energy backbone network, including those in the northern region, the Yangtze River Delta, and the Pearl River Delta. Of course, we also have certain plans for the Sichuan Chongqing region. This is just a schematic diagram, in fact, we have already completed everything in detail. Thank you all, thank you.
