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Underground Hydrogen Storage (UHS) – Expectations, Potentials and Research Challenges

Hydrogen is expected to become a keystone of the energy transition to reach climate neutrality. In the future hydrogen economy, underground hydrogen storage (UHS) will become an integral part of the European hydrogen infrastructure.

The German hydrogen demand is expected to increase from 2030 on and a hydrogen storage demand of ca. 10% of the annual hydrogen demand is estimated. To meet this storage demand, existing storage capacity needs to be converted and new capacity installed. While current natural gas storage is mainly seasonal, hydrogen storage needs to be more dynamic to meet a growing hydrogen demand on the one hand and a fluctuating supply of green hydrogen on the other hand.

Next to operational challenges, underground hydrogen storage in salt caverns and porous reservoirs also faces several research challenges.Geochemical and microbiological processes in geological formations and their impact on hydrogen quality, storage integrity and reservoir performance are some of the main R&D demands for the safe implementation of UHS.

The BGR project "Generation, Migration and Degradation of Hydrogen – BiMiAb-H2" was developed to enable a quantitative investigation of the influence of geochemical and microbial processes on reservoir performance and caprock integrity.

This paper provides an overview of expectations and potentials for UHS in Germany and current research at BGR to address some of the remaining research questions.

Details

Author
Philipp Weniger1
Institutionen
1Bundesanstalt für Geowissenschaften und Rohstoffe (BGR), Germany
Veranstaltung
GeoSaxonia 2024
Datum
2024
DOI
10.48380/402f-a623