Page 6 - EurOil Week 25 2021

EurOil COMMENTARY EurOil

Hydrogen storage poses

challenge: GIE

The low volume density of hydrogen means that Europe’s existing gas storage

facilities are nowhere near enough to support the future hydrogen market

EU THE EU has embraced hydrogen as a key tool utilised as well,” GIE said. “To be ready for sub-
in decarbonising heavy industry and other sec- stantial hydrogen demand and regional pipeline
WHAT: tors, but a new report suggests that developing networks by 2030, we need to start on the storage
Europe will need to enough storage capacity for the fuel could be a now.”
expand its gas storage significant hurdle. There is no time to waste, GIE said, noting
capacities greatly to Even if all existing natural gas storage capac- that repurposing storage sites can take as much
support the future ity across the 21 countries included in the report as seven years from feasibility studies to the start
hydrogen market. was repurposed for hydrogen, Europe would of operations. Creating new sites can take up to
still fall “far short” of the capacity it needs for a decade, it warned. It will be up to storage oper-
WHY: anticipated hydrogen demand in the future, ators to drive forward progress, by investigating
The low density of the report by Gas Infrastructure Europe (GIE) whether their facilities are suitable for conver-
hydrogen means that concludes. The report looks at hydrogen devel- sion. Several pilot projects are already underway.
existing facilities are opment in the same countries expected to play “More field testing and R&D is needed, how-
nowhere near enough. a role in European Hydrogen Backbone, an ini- ever,” GIE noted. “Certain repurposing actions
tiative by transmission system operators (TSOs) could be standardised to streamline the proce-
WHAT NEXT: to establish a 40,000-km hydrogen pipeline net- dure. Some storage operators have also taken a
Action must be taken now work by 2040. commercial role in the planning of new hydro-
given the lengthy period The countries could store up to 264.8 TWh of gen projects.”
required to develop new hydrogen by 2050 using existing gas sites, but as The industry association added that a
storage projects. much as 466.4 TWh of capacity would be needed “clear business case and an enabling regula-
to support demand, GIE said. Although there is tory environment need to be present to enable
1.1 PWh of working gas storage capacity avail- decisions to repurpose or develop large-scale
able, hydrogen has a far lower density than gas, underground hydrogen storage. Collaboration
meaning four times as much space is needed to between supply, demand, infrastructure opera-
store the equivalent amount of energy. tors and regulators will be key. Integrated infra-
“This insufficient capacity is mostly caused structure planning including hydrogen storage is
by the much lower volumetric energy density necessary for a cost-efficient and timely energy
of hydrogen compared to natural gas, which transition in Europe.”
leads to a decrease in the amount of energy that GIE envisages the hydrogen market initially
can be stored in an unaltered storage site,” GIE developing in clusters that manage their supply
explained. “Additional storage sites would be locally. Underground storage will be integral
needed to be developed or existing sites would for these so-called hydrogen valleys to function
have to be expanded.” properly. By 2030, these clusters could begin to
Salt caverns are currently the only types of connect with each other, gradually forming a
storage facility proven to be suitable for hydro- continental network.
gen, but repurposing all them would only pro- Hydrogen is already being stored in salt cav-
vide 50 TWh of storage capacity by 2030, but erns in Teesside in the UK as well as in Texas
GIE estimates 72.2 TWh is needed. Another in the US. Storage operations are also expected
issue is the fact that most of this space, 39.5 TWh, to start at a lined rock cavern site in Sweden in
is found in Germany. 2022, and studies are underway in multiple
While storing hydrogen in salt caverns is “a countries on depleted gas fields and aquifers.
low-hanging fruit,” other types of storage sites These porous structures are “showing fair poten-
are needed to realise hydrogen’s potential, GIE tial to cover further storage needs for pure and
said. blended hydrogen.” But the levelised costs of
“Depleted gas fields and aquifers are likely hydrogen storage are lowest in salt caverns, fol-
to be usable for hydrogen and are present more lowed by depleted gas fields, aquifers and hard
widely across Europe, so these will need to be rock caverns. ™

P6 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 25 24•June•2021