Hydrogen transport infrastructure is developing at half the pace of other clean technologies, creating a bottleneck that could put billions in clean energy investment at risk, new research from Heriot-Watt University shows.

A recent study from the university’s Edinburgh Business School found that while hydrogen production, storage and fuel cell technologies are accelerating fast, hydrogen distribution infrastructure is developing at half the speed.

Researchers warned that this is creating a critical bottleneck that could put billions in clean energy at risk, with distribution expenses taking up the lion’s share of hydrogen budgets, severely limiting the efficiency and growth of the hydrogen sector.

“Distribution will become the dominant cost in any hydrogen system,” said Dr David Dekker, Research Fellow at Edinburgh Business School and lead author of the study.

“Even as we get better at producing and using hydrogen, getting it where it is needed stays expensive. The problem is structural. Distribution requires massive pipeline networks and liquefaction plants that need billions in capital investment.”

The study, published in the journal Sustainable Futures, analysed 777,000 patents and 1.3 million citations spanning 182 years of hydrogen technology development, revealing clear differences in progress across the system.

The findings reveal where the hydrogen system is most vulnerable, showing that the pipes, terminals and liquefaction plants needed to move hydrogen safely and affordably are lagging.

The team said this matters because distribution networks knit the entire hydrogen system together. Without it, hydrogen production would remain concentrated near manufacturing sites, meaning the wider economy can’t make use of the energy created, and climate benefits never materialise. 

According to the researchers, distribution infrastructure is currently controlled by a handful of major firms, which “tend to share less knowledge” than innovators in other hydrogen fields, slowing progress across the entire sector.

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The problem has already been recognised by the UK government, which last year announced £500 million of funding for hydrogen infrastructure as part of a plan to boost the clean energy economy and hasten the decarbonisation of industrial sectors. 

However, the Heriot-Watt team argued that targeted policies, incentives for knowledge sharing, and the creation of open technical standards would further reduce risk for industry and speed up the development of viable distribution solutions.

“Industry will not commit at scale without pipelines, terminals and reliable delivery, but those networks will not be built at scale without firm industrial demand,” said Professor Mercedes Maroto-Valer, head of the UK Industrial Decarbonisation Research and Innovation Centre.

“Without targeted action to de-risk infrastructure, distribution costs and uncertainty will continue to hold the market back.”