The first filling with hydrogen and the start of the test operation are planned from late summer onwards.
03/14/2023
Source: Energy & Management Powernews
Solving out the salt dome is complete. The first hydrogen injection is to take place in late summer.
The Oldenburg-based EWE Group is making progress with the construction of a hydrogen storage facility in Rüdersdorf near Berlin. The company said that the brining of the hydrogen test cavern has been completed. "It took three months to create the underground cavity with a volume of about 500 cubic meters." The work was preceded by extensive leak tests of the supply line to the cavern down to a depth of 1,000 meters, he said.
Since March 13, the contracted company has been in the process of dismantling the pipes again for the brining. The next step is to install the hydrogen testing equipment in the 1,000-meter well. The initial filling with hydrogen and the start of the test operation are planned from late summer, according to EWE. The main purpose is to "test the interplay between the injection and withdrawal of hydrogen."
The hydrogen cavern will serve as a test object. The findings provided by the research cavern are to be transferable to caverns with 1,000 times the volume. In addition to the operational use of the cavern, it is also important to check the quality of the hydrogen after it has been stored. According to EWE, a purity of almost 100 percent is important for future applications, especially in the mobility sector.
The house-sized cavern is located in an underground salt dome. This rock salt layer beneath the storage site in Rüdersdorf, where EWE has already built two large cavern storage facilities, begins at a depth of about 600 meters and extends to 3,200 meters below the earth's surface.
The cost of the project, called "HyCAVmobil," is about €10 million. 4 million of this is EWE's own funds. Theoretical storage facilities with a volume for hydrogen of 500,000 cubic meters are available in Germany. "With 37 salt caverns, EWE alone has 15 percent of all German cavern storage facilities that would be suitable for storing hydrogen in the future," the Oldenburg-based company says.
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