Gleiche Länge, unterschiedliche Logik: Chinas industrielle Wasserstoffpipeline im Vergleich zu Deutschlands Backbone - CleanTechnica

The article compares Germany's hydrogen backbone pipeline with China's industrial hydrogen pipeline, highlighting significant differences despite their superficial similarities. Both projects involve long-distance hydrogen transport and are framed as climate-friendly infrastructure essential for industrial decarbonization. However, Germany's hydrogen backbone was developed under assumptions of universal hydrogen demand across multiple sectors—power generation, industrial heat, transport—without binding contracts or concrete industrial transition plans. The first 400 km section is completed but lacks significant customers, and its costs are already included in electricity tariffs. Projections of hydrogen demand in Germany have drastically declined from an initial 110–130 TWh to a more realistic 4–14 TWh, mainly limited to petrochemical uses and niche ammonia production, revealing a major mismatch between infrastructure scale and actual demand. In contrast, China's hydrogen pipeline, reportedly over 1,000 km long, is integrated into a more focused and established hydrogen usage pattern. China already produces and consumes millions of tons of hydrogen annually, primarily gray or black hydrogen used