Tata Steel Becomes India’s First Steel Company to Develop Steel Pipes for Hydrogen Transportation

#TataSteel #TataSteelHydrogenPipes #HydrogenMission

“Tata Steel has always been at the forefront of developing technologies for manufacturing critical steel grades. The successful testing of the new ERW pipes demonstrates our capabilities to deliver critical physical infrastructure for the energy sector, domestically.” - Prabhat Kumar, Vice President - Marketing and Sales (Flat Products), Tata Steel.

January 2025: : Tata Steel becomes India’s first steel company to demonstrate end-to-end capabilities to develop pipes for the transportation of hydrogen.

The API X65 ERW pipes processed at Tata Steel’s Khopoli plant, using the steel manufactured at the Company’s Kalinganagar plant, successfully achieved all the critical properties required for hydrogen transportation. The hydrogen qualification tests were carried out at RINA-CSM S.p.A, Italy, a leading approving agency for hydrogen-related testing and characterisation. The new hydrogen-compliant API X65 grade pipes can be used for the transportation of 100 percent pure gaseous hydrogen under high pressure (100 bar).

Prabhat Kumar, Vice President - Marketing and Sales (Flat Products), Tata Steel, said, “Tata Steel has always been at the forefront of developing technologies for manufacturing critical steel grades. The successful testing of the new ERW pipes demonstrates our capabilities to deliver critical physical infrastructure for the energy sector, domestically. We are proud to contribute to India’s National Hydrogen Mission, which by itself is a key component of the country’s ongoing clean energy transition. Tata Steel is proud to be the first Indian steel company to successfully take on this challenge and deliver products to cater to the emerging domestic and global demand for these special grade steel pipes.”

Tata Steel's Research and Development team has been extensively engaged in developing innovative and sustainable solutions for hydrogen transportation and storage. In this case, the complete technology development, from the design and development of the hot rolled steel to the pipe manufacturing, was done entirely in-house. In 2024, Tata Steel also became the first Indian steel company to produce hot-rolled steel for the transportation of gaseous hydrogen.

While various mechanisms of hydrogen transportation are available, steel pipelines are considered economically more viable for mass transportation.

Pro MFG Media Newsletter

Get regular manufacturing insights that matter and enable business.