Fluxys and Gasunie A leap forward

In 2026 a frst major hurdle for the creation of a workable market for hydrogen within the whole North Sea Port area will have been cleared. Energy infrastructure operators Fluxys and Gasunie will then have installed a cross-border pipeline that will link the open-access hydrogen networks they are each developing on their side of the port area.

Fluxys, Gasunie, and North Sea Port will work closely together to construct within about four years a pipeline between Zelzate and Sas van Gent to connect the Dutch and Belgian hydrogen networks in the port area. With its concentration of industrial players, its existing hydrogen hub – the largest in the Benelux with 580,000t of yearly production and consumption – and its ambition to become an international hub for green and low-carbon hydrogen, the cross-border port offers a perfect platform to establish one of Europe’s frst open-access crossborder networks for this new energy vector.

are already working hard, in close cooperation with the industry, academic institutions, and other stakeholders, at developing the needed infrastructure and bringing together supply and demand in their own working area. The goal is to have the two networks operational by 2026 and then connect them at the border, opening the door for a hydrogen value chain throughout the whole North Sea Port area, where several hydrogen production and storage projects are planned or already underway. This will add critical mass – unlocking additional possibilities for sourcing and supplying hydrogen, and for balancing supply and demand – and thus momentum to the reorientation towards a climate-neutral and circular economy, which is one of the pillars in the port’s strategy. And it will help attract more sustainable industries to the port area. The stakes are high, says Fluxys Spokesperson Laurent Remy. “Without infrastructure, the energy transition will simply not happen.”

On both sides of the borders, the regional network will connect to the national hydrogen infrastructure and to a larger international hinterland of other industrial clusters and ports in Europe. In Belgium, the federal government wants to have an openaccess ‘H2-backbone’ connecting the big seaports to the industrial zones and neighbouring countries in place by 2030. For the Flemish part of North Sea Port, Fluxys has worked out a proposal for a hydrogen grid composed of about 30 kilometres of pipelines, with the main route on the right bank of the sea canal to Terneuzen, two branches serving the chemical and industrial areas on the left bank, and one serving the recycling cluster and industrial companies in Hulsdonk/Desteldonk. But this routing is purely indicative and this blueprint can be adapted to meet specifc market demands, even if they come from outside the proposed coverage area, the Belgian energy infrastructure operator underlines.

The connection to the Dutch part will be located between Zelzate and Sas van Gent. Gas pipelines already cross the border at that point. The idea is to add lines for hydrogen along the same route in order to minimise the impact on the surroundings. The future hydrogen network will consist of new-built and repurposed infrastructure. Mr Remy expects the cross-border pipeline, a few kilometres long, will be a new-laid one. “Ideally, the most economical solution is to progressively repurpose parts of the existing natural gas network. Together with the University of Ghent we have started a study that will map our existing infrastructure to identify which parts can be reused for hydrogen. But this study will not be concluded before 2025.” The needed investment will depend on the capacity the new line will be given, which again will have to be based on the demand for the transportation of hydrogen.

On this subject, the talks with industrial players have entered a new phase, following the Request for Information and the Matchmaking phases. The feedback that will be obtained during the so-called ‘Open Season’ process – “a call for subscriptions allowing transparent and non-discriminatory allocation of access capacity to infrastructures” – should allow Fluxys to further defne the necessary geographical lay-out, capacity, timing, and phases of the new hydrogen grid. “This Open Season will offer all participants, even if they did not participate at the RFI or the matchmaking process, the possibility to join the commercial process for the development of the proposed hydrogen network”, Fluxys says in a document. The time line again reaches to 2026, when at least the frst part of the new network will have to be operational. The required investments will this time have to be backed up by binding commitments.