RINA Clears Saipem’s Protocol for Subsea Hydrogen Pipeline Materials

Italian classification and marine engineering consultancy RINA has issued two certifications for Saipem’s methodology of qualification of the performances of subsea hydrogen pipelines.

One of the challenges of transporting hydrogen through converted or newly constructed pipelines is the risk of weakening materials.

In response, Saipem has developed its own protocol to evaluate the performance of the metallic materials and the relative welds to the passage of the hydrogen, which allows it to ascertain the compatibility of the pipelines in both the planning and operational phases.

RINA granted Saipem the Approval in Principle (AiP) and the Technology Qualification for the methodology - certifications of primary importance in the development of innovative technologies, which pave the way for further qualification processes and scalable methodology.

The certifications obtained from RINA pave the way for a large-scale use of the Saipem protocol for the qualification of the performance of materials used in the construction of subsea hydrogen pipelines for the transportation of gaseous hydrogen.