Updating safety standards and requirements
As the largest country in Africa with a size of more than two million square kilometres and almost 1.600 kilometres of coastline, Algeria offers huge potentials for renewable energy production. Coupled with its geographical proximity and existing infrastructure for transporting hydrocarbons to Europe, the country could become a green hydrogen powerhouse. Algeria’s national hydrogen strategy presented in March 2023 takes these potentials as the basis for ramping up its domestic hydrogen production.
Algeria has a vision to build up its capacities significantly to produce and export between 30 to 40 terawatt-hours of hydrogen and derivatives by 2040. This would satisfy ten percent of Europe’s green hydrogen needs. Given this ambition, establishing, or strengthening appropriate safety measures and systems along the value chain will play an important role.
Safety measures and standards for green hydrogen
At our recent webinar, Mr Florian Michl, principal engineer in hydrogen safety and performance at TÜV SÜD Industrie Service GmbH, presented existing risks and dangers as well as technical safety standards relevant to the green hydrogen value chain to Algerian professionals and academics.
Mr Michl gave insights on the safe handling of hydrogen, safety regulations, different types of EU safety standards for hydrogen production, use and storage equipment, namely containers, electrolysis units and pipelines, and safety standards applied in the mobility sector.
The audience asked about the extent to which experience, infrastructure or standards for natural gas can be applied to the case of hydrogen.
While both are inflammable pressurized gases, the difference in characteristics calls for a careful examination of which aspects can be transferred or not.
Florian Michl, Principal Engineer in Hydrogen Safety and Performance at TÜV SÜD Industrie Service GmbH
In the coming months, the PtX Hub’s experts in Algeria will support the Algerian government in developing a regulatory framework on Power-to-X. In the framework of the National Hydrogen Development Strategy, Algeria aims to agree on the regulatory, normative and institutional frameworks until 2025.
Watch the webinar on YouTube:
This webinar was the 10th edition of a series on technical, economical, and social aspects relating to green hydrogen and Power-to-X. The webinar series was launched in January 2023 and is co-organised with the German development bank Kreditinstitut für Wiederaufbau (KfW).
For more on the PtX Hub’s work in Algeria, visit the country page.
