| Project Detail |
Storing hydrogen underground in a safe way
Hydrogen is a versatile energy carrier that can replace fossil fuels in some carbon-intensive industrial processes. According to the International Energy Agency estimates, around 530 Mt of hydrogen are needed to reach a net-zero scenario in 2050 – a six-fold increase from today’s hydrogen production. However, hydrogen occupies a much larger volume than other gases under normal atmospheric pressure. Currently available storage options typically include surface tanks or salt cavern storage. Funded by the Marie Sklodowska-Curie Actions programme, the SHINE project will investigate the potential of porous subsurface rocks for large-scale hydrogen storage. The project consortium will explore the geotechnical and biogeological challenges arising across subsurface porous reservoirs during hydrogen injection and focus on the long-term storage safety issues.
Hydrogen is attracting global attention as a key future low-carbon energy carrier which could replace hydrocarbon usage in transport and fuel-intensive industry. However, to supply energy in the TWh-range necessary for Net Zero it requires storage at much larger volumes than the currently deployed surface tanks or cavern storage. The next solution for large-scale hydrogen storage are porous saline aquifers and depleted hydrocarbon fields. This perspective is scientifically attractive but remains technically challenging given the lack of active hydrogen storage knowledge and experience. The main target of the SHINE consortium is to explore the feasibility and address technical, geological, and hydrogeological challenges related to hydrogen storage across subsurface porous reservoirs. SHINE will bring together 5 leading universities and research groups, from five European countries, and 5 industrial partners to deliver new training and research skills to 10 young scientists. SHINE aims at providing this next generation of scientists with technical and transferable skills to integrate geosciences, engineering, and microbiology techniques to find solutions to existing open questions in hydrogen storage technologies. Our novel approach is to integrate analytical, monitoring and computing techniques to explore how hydrogen may react with the subsurface minerals, fluids and microbial community potentially affecting the storage operations; model the stress field changes across hydrogen reservoir/caprocks and monitor its geomechanical response during repeated injection/production cycles. The expertly trained cohort of young research scientists resulting from the SHINE consortium will therefore radically improve our understanding of this technology, implement and de-risk its application to potential projects providing the necessary insights into underground hydrogen storage for decision makers in government and industry and contribute actively to the EU transition energy |
