Assessing Europe’s potential for underground hydrogen storage
Renewable hydrogen is produced using renewable electricity to split water into hydrogen and oxygen. It is a promising clean energy source, one which could lead to a completely decarbonised European economy. Yet in 2022, less than 1 % of the 8 million tonnes of hydrogen used in the EU was produced using renewable electricity. Meanwhile, demand for European hydrogen could double or even triple by 2050, according to the IEA’s World Energy Outlook 2024. “In order to meet decarbonisation targets, this hydrogen demand must be fulfilled by renewable or low-carbon hydrogen, and the expectation is therefore that the share of renewable hydrogen in the hydrogen mix will rise significantly,” says Holger Cremer, senior project manager at the Netherlands Organisation for Applied Scientific Research (TNO). Large-scale storage of hydrogen will therefore be essential to its success. In the HyUSPRe project, a consortium of researchers explored the feasibility of storing hydrogen in porous reservoirs, such as depleted gas fields and aquifers, across Europe, and assessed how this could help Europe achieve a zero-emissions energy system by 2050. The results showed that storage capacities in the range of 80-270 TWh will be required in 2050, two thirds of which in porous reservoirs. “From the results of this research, the HyUSPRe consortium concluded that there are no ‘showstoppers’ for implementation and therefore results can be considered encouraging,” adds Cremer, HyUSPRe project coordinator.
Understanding the processes and risks of using porous reservoirs
One of the aims of HyUSPRe was a better understanding of the key processes and risks associated with storing hydrogen in porous reservoirs in the subsurface. Through an extensive series of laboratory experiments, the consortium investigated fundamental geochemical, geomechanical, microbiological, and flow and transport processes in porous reservoirs in the presence of hydrogen. HyUSPRe focused on understanding and minimising the risks associated with reactions and interactions with rocks, fluids and microbes in reservoirs, and on the durability and integrity of reservoir rock, cap rock and well materials exposed to hydrogen.
Mapping out Europe’s potential for renewable hydrogen storage
Beyond the main experimental findings, the project produced an atlas of European underground hydrogen storage (UHS), to give an overview of the potential for using existing underground gas storage sites across Europe. Another major result was a report on the EU-scale hydrogen system that assesses the role of hydrogen storage in porous reservoirs within the future European hydrogen system. And the team created a roadmap for the successful deployment of UHS in porous reservoirs in Europe.
Creating a European hydrogen storage community
Research into subsurface hydrogen storage is still in its infancy, so further research and development are needed to further derisk and upscale this technology towards commercial implementation. The work of HyUSPRe will continue in the EUH2STARS project, funded under Horizon Europe, which will demonstrate hydrogen storage in a porous reservoir in Austria. “If successful, this demonstrator will be a crucial step towards a future hydrogen underground storage infrastructure in Europe,” notes Remco Groenenberg, lead scientist of the HyUSPRe project at TNO. The consortium is proud of the results and insights gained through the experimental and modelling work, all in close collaboration with industry partners. “In this way, we have certainly contributed to forming a European hydrogen storage community,” both Cremer and Groenenberg remark.
Keywords
HyUSPRe, renewable hydrogen, energy, green, storage, porous reservoirs, community
