Europe is planning to construct a network of Hydrogen pipelines to deliver this clean burning fuel and low emissions feedstock to hard-to-abate industries. Similarly, a network of CO₂ pipelines will be required to deliver captured CO₂ from industry and Direct Air Capture facilities to sequestration sites and to facilities for beneficial use of the CO₂. Total investment costs of the envisaged 2040 European Hydrogen Backbone are expected to range from €80 to €143 billion which will partly consist of new pipelines and partly repurposed existing pipelines.

Germany announced a €3.3 billion plan to advance industrial decarbonization, focusing on carbon capture and storage (CCS), alongside a €3 billion scheme to support the construction of the domestic Hydrogen Core Network. These initiatives are a critical part of Germany's broader strategy to achieve net zero by 2045.

To efficiently transport CO₂ via pipelines, it is often compressed to a super-critical phase liquid which can cause long running fractures in the event of failure. Dehydration also needs to be carefully addressed to avoid corrosion and hydrate formation. Both these issues require a very different approach to the design of CO₂ pipelines to effectively mitigate the risk. Similarly, H₂ pipelines also require a very different approach due to the potential for embrittlement and need to also provide line pack and storage introducing fatigue concerns.

This paper describes the alternative engineering approach to designing these pipelines to safely transport and store these energy transition fluids, including a methodology to avoid full-scale burst testing to verify fracture arrest, and a methodology to prevent crack growth due to fatigue and Hydrogen embrittlement in both welds and line pipe.