“We are gradually moving to global industry decarbonisation”

from World Pipelines March 2022

Battling methane emissions head-on

The energy transition is picking up momentum. Major energy producers are looking for ways to diversify into greener energy sources. This requires significant investment in infrastructure and innovation, and suppliers who can move quickly to provide the technological solutions that will help their customers remain relevant.

As part of its focus on the renewable and green energy sectors, Russian steelmaker Severstal is developing a range of innovative large diameter pipe products for hydrogen transportation, and the company intends to launch sales in Europe in the not-so-distant future.

Vitaly Lipin, Head of Technical Sales at Severstal’s pipe-producing unit, gives us his insight into this new strategic direction for the business.

When do you expect to deliver Severstal’s first hydrogen pipes to the market? After two years of product development, we are expecting to be ready to supply the first products – pipes for hydrogen

World Pipelines sits down with Vitaly Lipin, Severstal, Russia, to discuss the role hydrogen pipelines play in the transition to renewable energy sources.

Figure 1. Vitaly Lipin, Head of Technical Sales at Severstal’s pipeproducing unit.

transportation and steel plates for these pipes – at the end of 2022 or the beginning of 2023. We believe that Severstal will be one of the first companies globally to produce LDP for hydrogen.

By that time, we expect to have completed all of our research and testing. Our products undergo extensive testing to make sure that they meet the quality requirements and technical specifications for hydrogen production and transportation. We are currently testing some very specific properties of the materials we’ll use to manufacture hydrogen pipes with our specialist R&D partner in Italy.

You already produce pipes for natural gas pipelines. How are pipes for hydrogen different? The characteristics of hydrogen are very different to natural gas (methane) that’s usually transported via largediameter pipes. The transportation of hydrogen can lead to degradation of the pipes’ mechanical properties (welds seams and base metal), which may potentially cause either dangerous leaks or lead to pipelines wearing out quickly.

Preventing these risks is hugely challenging. While the technological stages of constructing pipes for natural gas and pipes for hydrogen are basically the same – steel casting and slab production, then rolling and pipe production – we have to work out the proper chemical composition and microstructure of the steel. Then, we have to adjust the specific technological parameters of the steel rolling process, and the welding material and welding regimes for pipe production.

It is critical to ensure the highest quality at every stage. That means the best raw materials, control and testing during every step. Severstal is able to manage this quality control throughout the production process due to the fact that we are a vertically integrated company. We have a skilled team of highly qualified engineers and production staff that ensure we deliver our cutting-edge products with the highest level of precision.

We are also making sure we comply with new international standards for hydrogen products that are currently being developed. We took part in the joint industry project (JIP), teaming up with several market leaders with the goal of developing the best design and material solution for hydrogen pipelines.

Is Severstal looking for partners to support this initiative? We are in contact with several potential hydrogen transportation companies both in Russia and abroad, whose projects are still at the pre-feasibility study stage. We are very keen to participate in the first phase of a hydrogen project. When you start at an early stage you are better positioned to offer the best solutions and improvements that will eventually benefit the entire industry.

Severstal has extensive experience of developing new products to meet the future needs of our customers, often through R&D partnerships with customers and start-ups. We are very excited to develop solutions for hydrogen production and hydrogen transportation, and we are looking for partnerships with customers, R&D partners, and producers of similar products, since we believe that the exchange of experience can be very useful in achieving the best solutions.

Natural gas pipelines often run several thousand miles, requiring very large volumes of steel pipes. How will hydrogen pipelines compare – are they likely to be long or short distance and how will this affect demand for volumes? The hydrogen market is still evolving, and there are two different schools of thought on this issue.

The first states that there is no need to transport hydrogen over long distances. This argument is based on the view that transporting hydrogen will be more costly than transporting natural gas, while the materials used for building hydrogen pipelines are also expected to be more expensive. As the industry also has limited experience of operating transportation systems for hydrogen or hydrogencontaining mixes it would be logical in this case to build hydrogen production capacities in close proximity to where the hydrogen will be consumed. On this basis, hydrogen pipelines would not be lengthy at all.

The second school of thought is that the transportation of hydrogen and hydrogen-containing mixes (hydrogen mixed with natural gas) will actually follow a similar model to regular natural gas transportations. That means there’s potential for many kilometres of hydrogen transportation pipeline made from specially selected materials. Major hydrogen pipeline networks would negate the need for building multiple local capacities for hydrogen production next to their consumer bases. Hydrogen production could then be focused in certain zones and the gas transported to its points of consumption.

There is no final clarity yet on how the market will evolve, with different approaches being trialled in different

regions. For example, the Netherlands is developing its own hydrogen transportation system based on its existing natural gas transportation system. Once certain upgrades to the pipelines have been completed, the existing gastransportation system will be used to transport pure hydrogen or hydrogen-containing mixes. Minor upgrades to the pipe network would be required such as linking up the pipelines to new production capacities and consumers, but these would only account for 30% of the entire pipeline length, while 70% of transportation will run through existing pipelines.

So far, a lack of experience and a lack of regulatory framework makes it hard to project the requirements for building and maintaining such transportation systems. The JIP was created with the ambition of creating workable regulations.

With large diameter pipes for natural gas, you’ve historically focused on supplying domestic pipeline projects and only recently started export sales. When developing pipes for hydrogen, is Severstal expecting to sell more on export or in the Russian market? These things can’t be directly compared. With natural gas pipes, demand from our Russian clients historically absorbed all of our production. It was only last year that we significantly increased exports of pipes, which became 20% of our pipe sales. Hydrogen pipes are totally different. As one of the first movers launching these products, we will be evaluating the market opportunities globally from a very strong vantage point.

The fact is that the energy transition has become a reality, we are gradually moving to global industry decarbonisation. I am confident that in the nearest future we will have a large number of customers with many projects that require our hydrogen pipe products. We expect large scale demand to come first from Europe, then from Asia. Eventually, I expect we will see demand from all over the world.

Large-scale demand from the EU will come from a number of hydrogen transportation projects at different stages of implementation. Russia has some pilot hydrogen projects, but these are very local, running over short distances. So far there are no major projects that would consume large volumes of hydrogen pipes in Russia.

According to the European Hydrogen Backbone strategy, 11 600 km of hydrogen pipelines will be operational by 2030, which may expand further to 39 700 km by 2040. As part of this 39 700 km of infrastructure, construction of 12 450 km of new pipelines is planned. Severstal is looking to be among the first to support energy market players with hydrogen transportation solutions.

Severstal is also investing into hydrogen production itself. In February, the company bought a stake in Canadian start-up Ekona Power that develops technology to produce low-carbon hydrogen.