In spring 2023, a study on the development of a port-related hydrogen economy in the German Federal State of Bremen was presented to the public. The study was prepared by the Institute of Shipping Economics and Logistics and the Technology Transfer Centre Bremerhaven in cooperation with port infrastructure owner bremenports. In the investigations, two fundamental aspects are examined, namely, on the one hand, the future role of Bremen's ports in the handling of hydrogen and PtX energy carriers with respect to import and export and, on the other hand, the identification of local potentials for the development of transhipment terminals for renewable energy carriers. The study thus offers a solid basis for upcoming political decisions with regard to the future of Bremen's ports in the field of hydrogen-based energy carriers.

The German national hydrogen strategy with 9 billion euros, a political framework and 38 measures will set the framework for domestic hydrogen production, foreign H2 production and import. Germany is well positioned to play a key role as a connecting node for Europe's hydrogen backbone. In order to support the development of a hydrogen economy, the Federal Republic of Germany is starting to regulate (green) hydrogen with regard to its production, storage, and use and approval procedure to build production capacities. In addition to industrial applications, hydrogen will contribute to the decarbonization of the mobility sector: Germany is the leader here with more than 50% of H2 filling stations in Europe. The German national hydrogen strategy will support the introduction of climate-neutral hydrogen fuels to decarbonize sea and air transport through various measures (first pilots and quotas). Several funding, incentive and financing schemes (grants, CCfD etc.) at federal and state level (regional programs) support demonstration and commercial projects. In combination with EU structures and mechanisms (IPCEI, Hydrogen European Bank, Innovation Funds), the framework conditions for massive investment opportunities and cooperation along the entire supply chain from the product to the components to the materials has been created in Germany.

Hamburg offers one of the largest cohesive industrial areas in Europe with a perfectly suited site for large scale green hydrogen producers and industrial, logistics and aviation offtakes alike. The Free and Hanseatic City is thus perfectly positioned to become a model region for the whole hydrogen value chain. This includes advanced spatial planning for a gas infrastructure (which is to be connected to the European Hydrogen Backbone) and use cases in various sectors like transport and shipping as well as the basic and raw materials industries and heating. Hamburg is at the same time also positioning itself to become an import hub for green hydrogen and synthetic green fuels.

The European Union has very ambitious plans for hydrogen but there are considerable challenges to overcome to meet the targets. There is also currently uncertainty over unbundling requirements and how different hydrogen colours will be treated. This presentation will identify these challenges and compare them with the those present in the introduction of and development of the natural gas markets over more than 50 years. It will look at the risks faced by different players along the supply chain and suggest how they can be overcome. Reference will be made to selected large projects currently in the planning phase.

In this presentation, the challenges of developing integrated solutions in an ever-evolving hydrogen market are discussed. By talking about the challenges that integrated solutions face in a rapidly expanding and novel market while presenting several examples of how they evolved as the hydrogen market grew strong foothold, we present the important interplay between technological development based on market forces and user requirements.

This panel discussion will address how to make the hydrogen network a reality- focussing on hydrogen distribution, collaboration opportunities in order to scale-up and assess future market trends.

What a new pipeline order will look like in terms of specification and testing requirements, pathways in repurposing existing pipelines and pipeline design methodology; combining test data, defect sizing and design loads in the Engineering Critical Assessment (ECA).

Hydrogen is an energy carrier of the future and is to be transported in the long term, above all from other countries to Europe and to Germany. The electrolysers that are built in Europe are also partly built offshore. But how can hydrogen be transported over longer distances or offshore? As liquid hydrogen by ship, in the form of other energy carriers such as ammonia, by pipeline or in the form of LOHC (Liquid organic hydrogen carrier)? To what extent are the costs dependent on distance and quantity? What technical challenges are there? What sample projects are there today? In this lecture, these different options will be compared from a technical and economic point of view and with specific examples, and the risks and opportunities will be addressed as to which solution would be possible in the short, medium, and long term.

The presentation looks at the ongoing conversion of Metrobus 100+ buses decarbonization and how hydrogen is already playing a role with one of the largest hydrogen Refuelling Stations in Europe. It depicts the remaining challenges of such endeavours and what legislators need to act on to ensure decarbonization of transport at scale becomes a reality.

Hydrogen is foreseen to play an important role as an energy carrier in the coming years and decades. Applications which are currently powered by natural gas, will switch over to hydrogen or to mixtures of natural gas and hydrogen. As part of the gas distribution infrastructure, accurate flow measurement is needed when the ownership of the hydrogen changes from producer to consumer (i.e. custody transfer). For these applications certified flowmeter and certified flow computers are required. The main challenge is to find instrumentation that is suitable for natural gas and for hydrogen. In a joint industry project together with several transmission system operators for gas and with instrumentation vendors, the ALTOSONIC V12 has been tested in an third party flow laboratory on mixtures on natural gas and hydrogen. The results of this study will be shown.

While significant savings in primary energy and CO2 emission in housing can be achieved easily by improved insultation and electric heat pumps, doing the same in mobility and transportation proves to be a hard nut to crack. It is very clear that the more we look into heavy duty mobility the more energy we need inside the vehicle. A car consumes on average 15-20 kWh per 100 km, so a 100kWh battery system which weighs around 400-500 kg can deliver sufficient range and be loaded from 20-80% in around half an hour. A large truck of 40-60 tons requires 120 – 150 kWh per 100 km and should be able to drive around 1000 km before refuelling / recharging. A 1.5MWh battery would weigh around 50 tons and would need 2-3 hours to recharge. NEUMAN & ESSER is convinced that only by providing trucks together with the H2 infrastructure including H2 generation and refuelling systems we can achieve the breakthrough of the new technology in heavy duty logistics. Both the infrastructure and the trucks must communicate with each other on a data platform to achieve the efficiency, reliability and robustness to replace the fossil-based technology with a sustainable and renewable system. The integration of proven compression technology together with H2 generation systems combined with Fuel Cell electric trucks running in a digital environment offers the biggest potential to successfully master the challenge of achieving carbon neutrality in heavy duty mobility and transportation.

This panel discussion will address the need for greenhouse gas accounting, green energy certification and safety training for the emerging hydrogen workforce; highlighting how stakeholders can take action.

Net Zero targets have catalysed sustainable aviation initiatives, including Hydrogen fuelled aviation. Expected to play a crucial role in the decarbonization of modern aviation, the energy carrier holds immense potential to change the face of the industry as we know it. A tripartite energy mix consisting of Electricity, Hydrogen (Fuel Cell & Combustion) and Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) will offer a pathway for the industry to attain ambitious climate targets.

The application of composites offers significant advantages for light-weight liquid hydrogen storage and distribution systems in comparison to metals.The major challenge, which has prevented commercial applications of composites for cryogenic applications yet, is the tendency to form micro-cracks when in contact with liquid hydrogen. Two technologies have been identified to prevent the formation of micro-cracks in composites: Thin-ply technology and thermoplastic technologies. CTC and a consortium of partners has launched the project LeiWaCo to combine both technologies and to utilize them in a liquid hydrogen tank, that fulfills requirements from four different sectors: The trucking industry, train industry, the shipping industry and the aircraft industry. LeiWaCo covers the development of thermoplastic materials, the development of design methods and manufacturing technology for these materials and validation of the technology using a demonstrator. The project started at the end of 2022 and by September 2023 we will be able to present the first results on this new and promising approach for liquid hydrogen tanks.

Hydrogen embrittlement testing in 875 bar hydrogen gas at -40°C has been performed on two versions of the austenitic stainless steel 316L, one with 11% nickel and one with 13% nickel. The results shows that the high nickel version is resistant against hydrogen embrittlement and whereas the low nickel version is not. The aim of the paper is to explain the difference in behaviour that where the low nickel version has a microstructure is not stable enough to remain fully austenitic during the in-situ hydrogen gas testing. The results clearly indicates that high Ni content is a prerequisite for austenite stability and hence resistance to hydrogen embrittlement in 316L grades.

This presentation will discuss the critical considerations for fluid system components used in hydrogen applications and systems. As a small-molecule gas, hydrogen can migrate through tiny crevices and diffuse into the materials designed to contain them. Also, high storage and dispensing pressures, as well as rapid thermal and pressure changes, are challenges for the processing of H2 as a fuel source. Specification of high-performing fluid system components designed for these challenging applications will help ensure the long-term, leak-tight operation of the system.

By mixing hydrogen as a fuel for powering gas turbines, there is a potential to provide more stability in future energy systems that involve increasing shares from renewable sources, and to fulfill the requirements of a wide spectrum of applications in terms of efficiency, reliability, flexibility, and environmental compatibility. Based on our innovative technologies, Siemens Energy gas turbines can already operate on fuel with a wide range of hydrogen content. The ones that do not operate yet can be upgraded to fit hydrogen in order to reduce future retrofit costs.

The Hydrogen Market is growing rapidly from MW projects to even GW projects. The big question: How can all these electrolyzer projects be connect to the grid? What impact do these huge electrolyzer systems have on our electricity grid infrastructure? How can electrolyzer projects even support the grid stability and which technologies are necessary to provide additional grid services? The presentation gives answers to these questions. It furthermore shows power conversion solutions which allows a quick scaling-up of electrolyzer applications. SMA Altenso has already contracted over 70 hydrogen projects. This presentation will give a short insight on some of these references.

The North meets North hydrogen dialogue brings together five northern German states and England’s North to actively shape and progress UK-DE hydrogen business collaboration. Join our discussion and learn more about the emerging hydrogen eco-systems in these two northern powerhouses, hear from industry reps in both regions about current projects and their views on the challenges of system integration and infrastructure.

By understanding and exploiting the unique fluid properties of hydrogen and carbon dioxide, and designing the production and transmission networks in a more integrated way, we can achieve significant energy and cost savings without the need for major redevelopment of core components (e.g. compressors, heat exchangers). In this presentation, I will draw on my experience in designing compression systems for CCUS and in developing space access engines utilising hydrogen, to discuss the key properties that should be considered in designing these integrated fluid system networks and the critical role of thermal management in achieving an optimised solution.

In this session, thermochemical compression is presented with a 2-stage laboratory scale MH compressor using different materials. MH and MHC are compared to assess the impact on compression productivity. The materials were filled into two double-walled pressure vessels and cycled between 20 and 100 °C. By using MHC with high thermal conductivity, the productivity of each stage of the compressor was increased by more than 200%. Finally, with two compression stages hydrogen was compressed from 5 to 70 bar.

Compressors are an essential part of the hydrogen value chain and are needed to efficiently transport and store hydrogen from its point of production to end-use. Especially Green hydrogen applications are unique in that there is significant production variability due to the intermittent nature of wind and solar. This places unique requirements on compressor solutions, particularly when it comes to turndown / flow flexibility. However, there are also other key variables that must be considered when selecting a compressor, including CAPEX, OPEX, footprint, maintenance requirements, etc. Balancing these factors to arrive at an optimized compressor solution is a complex undertaking that requires careful evaluation of each application on a case-by-case basis. This presentation will aim to provide decision-making support to plant developers by discussing the advantages and disadvantages of various compressor technologies for hydrogen (i.e., Reciprocating and Turbocompressors).

In this session, we will dive into the 3 factors of a successful sealing system: sealing material, design and hardware surface. Our focus will be on how to determine the optimum compound for challenging hydrogen applications and have confidence in a material selection for even basic applications. We will discuss the various available standards, test routines and programmes we have entered and provide a summary of results that demonstrate the range of non-metallic options available, from elastomers to thermoplastics and how they can be affected by challenges such as explosive decompression, permeation, interface leakage and low temperature conditions. The presentation will guide the audience to a range of options for hydrogen value chain applications to suit a variety of conditions.

This presentation will discuss the key material parameters required to meet the stringent wear and sealing requirements in the hydrogen environment and introduce some of the unique advantages of Vespel® polyimide parts.

At present no specific standards for valves and hydrogen exist. The main focus on standards is for piping, where other materials are used. This presentation discusses the latest developments in standardisation for valves (e.g. CEN TC69, API6Z) and possible impact from piping standards as ASME B31.12. The presentation further discusses emissions and hydrogen.