Naturalhy is an Integrated Project, co-financed by the European Commission through the Sixth Framework Programme (2002-2006) for research, technological development and demonstration (RTD).

The main objective of NATURALHY project is to contribute to the preparation for the hydrogen economy by:

• Identifying and removing the potential barriers inhibiting the development of hydrogen as an energy carrier, using the existing natural gas system as a catalyst for change;
• Initiating the near-future practical transition towards the hydrogen economy

Project Summary

The use of hydrogen as an important energy carrier is an essential element for global sustainable development. However, there are many significant challenges for implementing all the components of a complete energy system based on hydrogen. Despite these challenges, there is global interest in hydrogen as an energy carrier with commercial competition emerging for the European Union (EU) from Japan and the US. Urgent progress towards the development of a full hydrogen system requires a practical strategy within the context of an existing, extensive natural gas system which has resulted from substantial capital investment over a long period of time. The transition to a full hydrogen system will be lengthy, costly and will require significant research and development.

The aims of NATURALHY are to test all the critical components of a hydrogen system by adding hydrogen to natural gas in existing networks. This transitional approach will provide further experience with the transmission of mixtures of hydrogen and natural gas and, by means of innovative separation technologies, the hydrogen utilisation in stationary end use applications.

NATURALHY will achieve these aims by means of coherent and complementary objectives. The development by IP HYWAYS of the road map for the increased use of hydrogen in the EU will be supported. Obstacles will be isolated and possible solutions will be identified. The economic, social and environmental costs and benefits of hydrogen systems including production technologies will be evaluated and compared with existing systems. Issues of safety, durability and pipeline integrity will be investigated. A Decision Support Tool will be developed to assist the technical implementation of a hydrogen system. In cooperation with NoE HYSAFE, awareness of the prominent attractions of hydrogen will be raised amongst all stakeholders.

A systematic and co-ordinated approach for the generation of clear outcomes will be adopted in NATURALHY with a comprehensive collection of work packages which focus on all vital components of transitional hydrogen systems. A European consortium of 39 partners with extensive experience and skills is assembled for NATURALHY which involve major network operators, hydrogen producers, specialist practitioners and academic researchers in all relevant fields. In addition to a highly skilled management team, guidance will be provided by a Strategic Advisory Committee consisting of representatives from relevant (inter)national organisations. Potential collaboration and synergies will be fostered with complementary projects. Established information networks will be used in dissemination.


Project Objectives

The main objectives of the project is to prepare for the hydrogen economy by:

• Identifying and removing the potential barriers inhibiting the development of hydrogen as an energy carrier, using the existing natural gas system as a catalyst for change;
• Initiating the near-future practical transition towards the hydrogen economy.

For the urgent progress towards developing hydrogen as a realistic energy option, a practical strategy must be adopted within the context of the existing, extensive natural gas system. This is the only realistic solution to large-scale distribution of hydrogen in Europe in the next 30 to 50 years. The main basis of this view is that:

• Significant financial and economic benefits can arise from the use of the existing infrastructure with its inherent economic value of several hundreds of billions of Euros;
• Using the existing gas infrastructure for the change to the hydrogen economy accelerates the transition rate and the innovations in all relevant fields.

This vision is also supported by the United States Department of Energy as reported in the National Hydrogen Energy Roadmap (April 2-3, 2002): “Vision of hydrogen delivery: A national hydrogen supply network will evolve from the existing fossil fuel-based infrastructure to accommodate both centralized and decentralized production facilities”.

Further to this vision, the NATURALHY Project aims to identify and solve the barriers for progressively introducing hydrogen to natural gas networks and to support the development of a roadmap towards the full hydrogen economy by IP HYWAYS. Gaining experience with testing key components of hydrogen systems will speed up the transition process. The NATURALHY Project will achieve these aims by means of the following set of coherent and complementary objectives:

• To define the technical conditions under which hydrogen can be accommodated in the existing natural gas system with acceptable risks, to avoid leakage and significant degradation of the system and consequences for the end users.
• To analyse the socio-economic aspects of transitional natural gas/hydrogen systems and compare these with current natural gas and related systems with particular reference to job creation and maintenance, capital investment and total economic costs.
• To carry out life cycle assessment as a means of comparing the major resource inputs and environmental outputs of current natural gas and related systems, transitional natural gas/hydrogen systems and the full hydrogen system including methods of hydrogen production.
• To develop innovative devices (membranes) to separate hydrogen from hydrogen/natural gas mixtures: these devices will enable an early establishment of hydrogen growth centres that will advance a gradual transition to the full hydrogen economy.
• To motivate all stakeholders in the whole chain from production up to and including end use to welcome .hydrogen.. Such stakeholders consist of among others, the public, end users, manufacturers of appliances, owners and operators of gas transmission grids, hydrogen producers, local, regional and national authorities, manufacturers of all kinds of equipment and components for gas, etc. This objective will be met in cooperation with IP HYWAYS and the NoE HYSAFE.
• To assess the current situation of standards and regulations regarding hydrogen/natural gas mixtures and to identify necessary modifications and to initiate required changes.
• To develop a Decision Support Tool for the assessment of the suitability of an existing natural gas system (transmission, storage, distribution, end user infra structure and end user appliance) for mixtures of hydrogen/natural gas and to develop models to determine the economic and environmental aspects of the whole chain from sustainable hydrogen production up to and including end user appliance.

Project Approach

The NATURALHY project focuses on the chain from hydrogen production up to end user appliances and concerns life cycle analysis, socio-economic aspects, technical aspects  and dissemination to all stakeholders involved (partly in cooperation with HYSAFE and HYWAYS).

Concerning the more technical aspects, the project is dedicated to safety, measures to guarantee safety on the longer term, norms and standards and stationary end user appliances, but leaves out hydrogen production.

NATURALHY integrates the necessary activities to successfully prepare all stakeholders to welcome hydrogen by using the existing natural gas system for transportation of hydrogen/natural gas mixtures. The technical activities are focused on existing situations/materials/constructions/circumstances /equipment in relation to the specific physical properties of hydrogen/natural gas mixtures. The potentials will be mapped out of the existing natural gas system during the transition towards the full hydrogen economy. In addition, the means (including membranes) for local full hydrogen areas (growth centres) will be developed and demonstrated, based on the separation of hydrogen from hydrogen/natural gas mixtures at/near the location of the end user.



As indicated in the above figure, the attention for the technical aspects in this project is limited to:

•  Gas transmission;
•  Gas storage;
•  Gas distribution systems;
•  End-user infra structure and stationary appliances.

Whereas for all non-technical issues (upper part of the figure), the whole chain including:

•  Various sustainable hydrogen production facilities and processes, and;
•  Natural gas exploitation is taken into account.

The Life Cycle and Economic Analyses Work Package concern the use of the existing gas system for hydrogen/natural gas system and the full hydrogen situation with a new dedicated hydrogen infrastructure. The existing situation will be the reference case. No physical work is planned regarding hydrogen production: including hydrogen production would make the project too extensive for framework 6. However, hydrogen production aspects are taken into account in the Life Cycle Analyses. Hydrogen producers participate in this project and several partners participate in projects dedicated to sustainable hydrogen production.

The Technical Work Packages 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6 originate from the impact on safety by the fact that the properties of hydrogen differ significantly from natural gas: the diffusion of hydrogen into the pipeline material can have a negative effect on the mechanical properties of the material (embrittlement of steel pipelines). Consequently, activities have been defined regarding the acceptability of corrosion defects and sharp defects contained in these brittle zones, to update the associated assessment criteria (WP3) and the maintenance procedures, repair techniques and equipment to assess the integrity of pipelines in presence of hydrogen and natural gas mixtures (WP4). The needed sensitivity of monitoring equipment for defects for the hydrogen situation is higher than in the case of natural gas and the smallest defect might be critical in the situation of hydrogen/natural gas. Nevertheless, the questions on the permeation of hydrogen/natural gas mixtures through the wall of polymer pipelines are also seriously considered in the NATURALHY-project.