Underground Hydrogen Storage
Globally, there is a growing industrial and political drive to expand renewable energy production capacities in combination with renewable and low-carbon hydrogen as a possible energy carrier.
Underground Hydrogen Storage (UHS) will play a critical role in scaling up the hydrogen value chain, thus enabling a reliable and resilient low-carbon emission energy supply.
Industry and technical experts represented in TCP-Task 42 have confidence in the technical feasibility of UHS in salt caverns and porous reservoirs (e.g., depleted gas fields and saline aquifers). Where UHS in salt caverns is closest to commercial-scale implementation, UHS in porous reservoirs requires further technical validation.
However, as the mature storage designs and established practices in underground natural gas storage (UGS) are generally transferable to UHS, most of the remaining uncertainties regarding technical feasibility are not considered unbreakable barriers to the general development of UHS facilities.
Local settings and geological characteristics will be key to assessing the technical, economic, environmental, and societal viability of individual projects.
Solutions for mitigating technical challenges are available, but may come with additional costs, whereas technical questions concerned (e.g. regarding interactions between hydrogen molecules and surrounding materials and microbial communities) are currently being addressed in scientific studies and pilot projects.
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