If hydrogen does indeed become the energy carrier of the future, as intended, this will have major consequences for the Netherlands. This will mean, among other things, that very large quantities of toxic ammonia, which is used to make hydrogen, will be transported through our country.

This is evident from a report by Arcadis, Berenschot and TNO commissioned by the Ministries of Infrastructure and Water Management and Economic Affairs and Climate. Ammonia can be transported by water, rail or – the researchers suggest – a system of pipelines that has yet to be constructed. The government must already take measures to limit the safety risks, the call reads.

“It is difficult to make an exact prediction, but we are moving towards much more transport,” says research project leader Vincent van der Vlies. “We are talking about megatons that will be transported by thousands of ships and tens of thousands of wagons.” By way of comparison: in the current situation about 2000 wagons and 250 ships per year transport ammonia.

Consequences big

“In principle, the transport is super safe,” assures Van der Vlies. “But they are such large quantities and the substance is so toxic that at a certain point we decided to keep it to a minimum. Because if something happens, the consequences are really big.”

Since 2004, the government has been discouraging ammonia transport by rail because the safety risks are great and the effects of a major incident cannot be foreseen. In order to safely transport this enormous increase in ammonia substances from A to B, the researchers argue that the government must now make choices.

“When we were working on the research, we were at one point quite surprised about the quantities that could come our way. With this size, the current policy will become unsustainable,” the researchers conclude.

“As far as we are concerned, choices must therefore be made now, otherwise you will be too late and things like this will happen to you,” said Van der Vlies. The research institutes have mapped out what the energy transition using hydrogen will mean for the various forms of transport in ten years’ time. And also researched how to arrange this safely.

Pipe fittings

The researchers outline a possible alternative: transporting hydrogen via a system of pipelines. The construction of this will take years, so they are calling on the government to start thinking about this now. A complication is that the ammonia supplied to the port must first be converted into hydrogen.

This is done in so-called ammonia crackers. Studies are already underway in the port of Rotterdam on a large-scale ammonia cracker that should be able to produce 1 megaton of hydrogen per year. According to the research, dozens of these types of squatters are needed.