Hydrogen storage – are pipelines the solution?
Callum Peace A * , Schree Chandran A , Yuri Tkach B and Lachlan Strickland AA
B
Callum leads the Wood’s CCUS and H2 Pipeline Task Forces. These are dedicated to developing internal H2 and CO2 pipeline R&D. Callum has nearly 15 years of experience in pipeline design. He has lead hydrogen pipeline design for FEED projects both in UK and Australia. He is chartered with the Institute of Civil Engineers. |
Sridharan (Schree) Chandran is a Chartered Materials/Welding professional with 20+ years of experience, working for Wood since 2012. He has supported various oil and gas pipeline projects as a subject matter expert on materials, welding, NDE and coordinated ECA and fracture mechanics testing for pipeline projects. Schree supports new energy projects such as hydrogen and CCS pipeline ECA and materials engineering. |
Dr Yuri Tkach joined Wood in July 2011. He is Technical Authority responsible for fracture integrity and fitness-for-service assessment. He is member of the BSI Committee that develops and maintains the UK flaw assessment Procedure BS 7910. Within the BSI committee, Yuri chairs Technical Panel on Strain Based Assessment also being a member of Fracture, Fatigue and Material Properties Technical Groups. He is also a co-author of the European FITNET fitness-for-service procedure. |
Lachlan is a Senior Engineer who has been working within the oil and gas, and new energy since 2018. Since joining Wood, Lachlan has been involved in green hydrogen and ammonia production facilities as well as carbon capture. Lachlan’s experience prior to Wood includes design and component procurement advice for a range of fluid systems. |
Abstract
The energy transition is well underway, with pipeline operators and hydrogen producers managing hydrogen supply and demand. This paper compares hydrogen storage solutions, including bullets, drilled caissons, containers, and pipelines. It focuses on hydrogen pipelines and their challenges, such as hydrogen embrittlement, which reduces toughness and increases fatigue crack growth. Crack growth rates in hydrogen service are 10–50 times greater than in natural gas service, requiring careful pipeline design. The paper presents industry best practices for hydrogen pipeline fatigue design using ASME (2024), IGEM (2024), DNV (2023), and San Marchi et al. (2024). Determining the fatigue performance of carbon steel pipelines for hydrogen service requires considering the impact on the pipe body, seam welds, and girth welds. Case studies show that girth welds subjected to large axial stress differentials due to temperature fluctuations during storage lead to early design life failure. The paper discusses differences in fatigue performance between carbon steel pipelines in natural gas and hydrogen service.
Keywords: ASME, crack growth, DNV, ECA, embrittlement, fatigue, fracture, girth weld, hydrogen, IGEM, pipeline, seam weld, storage.
Callum leads the Wood’s CCUS and H2 Pipeline Task Forces. These are dedicated to developing internal H2 and CO2 pipeline R&D. Callum has nearly 15 years of experience in pipeline design. He has lead hydrogen pipeline design for FEED projects both in UK and Australia. He is chartered with the Institute of Civil Engineers. |
Sridharan (Schree) Chandran is a Chartered Materials/Welding professional with 20+ years of experience, working for Wood since 2012. He has supported various oil and gas pipeline projects as a subject matter expert on materials, welding, NDE and coordinated ECA and fracture mechanics testing for pipeline projects. Schree supports new energy projects such as hydrogen and CCS pipeline ECA and materials engineering. |
Dr Yuri Tkach joined Wood in July 2011. He is Technical Authority responsible for fracture integrity and fitness-for-service assessment. He is member of the BSI Committee that develops and maintains the UK flaw assessment Procedure BS 7910. Within the BSI committee, Yuri chairs Technical Panel on Strain Based Assessment also being a member of Fracture, Fatigue and Material Properties Technical Groups. He is also a co-author of the European FITNET fitness-for-service procedure. |
Lachlan is a Senior Engineer who has been working within the oil and gas, and new energy since 2018. Since joining Wood, Lachlan has been involved in green hydrogen and ammonia production facilities as well as carbon capture. Lachlan’s experience prior to Wood includes design and component procurement advice for a range of fluid systems. |
