This ambitious project emerges against the backdrop of the European Union’s Clean Hydrogen Alliance aiming to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050. With the hydrogen economy expected to burgeon, such infrastructure projects are increasingly critical to support anticipated demand.
Hydrogen as a fuel and raw material is recognized as one of the key technologies to reduce the ecological footprint of industrial activities on the way to a carbon-neutral economy by 2050. Based on Fluxys’ decades-long expertise in gas transport, the subsidiary Fluxys Hydrogen NV was established in 2023 to develop the necessary infrastructure for hydrogen transport. In April 2024, Fluxys Hydrogen was appointed as the operator responsible for the development and management of an open-access hydrogen transport network in Belgium (“Hydrogen Network Operator”).
The decision to build these first hydrogen pipelines was made after extensive consultations with the relevant authorities, the regulator, and industrial market players, and is aligned with the delayed market development. The federal government provides support for these important initial investments in open-access hydrogen infrastructure through the European “Resilience and Recovery Fund”. This new pipeline network will be a first step in facilitating the hydrogen economy with a transport network to which producers and consumers can connect, as provided for in the appointment as “Hydrogen Network Operator”.
In the port areas of Antwerp and Ghent, as well as between those ports (from Kallo to Zelzate), Fluxys will build new hydrogen pipelines to provide transport capacity to the market according to the principle of open access. These pipelines will also be constructed with multi-purpose technology, like the recent natural gas pipelines. The first step of this network will be ready in 2026 and will be gradually expanded over the coming years in line with market development, and to the extent that the investment risk in the start-up phase of the market is brought to an acceptable level by the government mechanisms.
