08/10/2023
Source: Energy & Management Powernews
At its Bierwang natural gas storage site, east of Munich, Uniper is planning to store hydrogen in a pore storage facility as part of a research project.
Currently, Uniper is working on commissioning the gas storage facility. The first hydrogen should be injected from September this year. This is announced by Uniper in a statement on August 8. The research project runs under the name "HyStorage". It aims to investigate the influence of hydrogen on porous rock formations. The suitability of pore storage facilities for storing hydrogen is thus to be put under the microscope.
Uniper has set up the facility for the storage test at the site of its Bierwang natural gas storage facility, about 80 kilometers east of Munich, on a designated drilling site. Uniper's gas storage company - Uniper Energy Storage - is the consortium and operations manager in the project and will be responsible for the trials under mining law, according to the statement.
A consortium is behind the Hy Storage research project. In addition to the Uniper subsidiary, this includes the transmission system operator Open Grid Europe (OGE) and the Austrian storage operator RAG Austria. Also involved are SEFE Securing Energy for Europe (formerly Gazprom Germania) and the Slovenian company NAFTA a.s., which operates gas storage facilities in Europe and investigates and produces hydrocarbons. The project is supported by interdisciplinary partners from industry and science and has been approved by the Southern Bavarian Mining Authority.
Independent operation from the Bierwang natural gas storage facility
The partners' storage test envisages storing different methane-hydrogen gas mixtures in a smaller former natural gas reservoir in three operating phases - initially a 5 percent hydrogen content is planned, then 10 percent and finally 25 percent. After a standby period of about three months, the hydrogen is to be stored again. According to Uniper, the storage horizon is independent of the existing Bierwang natural gas storage facility.
"Hy Storage is a promising project to test the existing natural gas infrastructure for the potential transition to green hydrogen," explains Doug Waters, managing director of Uniper Energy Storage. The project would provide insights into how pore storage and gas-fired facilities will perform as the hydrogen economy ramps up.
Waters attributes great importance to the project, saying, "The need for storage capacity will increase as renewable energy expands, and real data is needed for informed decision-making. Pore storage has enormous potential to provide the flexibility for the emerging hydrogen market, but also to connect to European hydrogen corridors."
First results expected as early as 2024
The consortium partners expect that, in addition to the operation of hydrogen-only pipelines, the share of hydrogen in the natural gas grid will increase, reaching underground gas storage facilities. Pore storage would have the major advantage of providing a large-volume conversion and storage solution for volatile renewables.
"The future hydrogen infrastructure must function safely and reliably. This also includes the transfer point from transport to storage of hydrogen," emphasized Thomas Hüwener, a member of OGE's management board. OGE's focus with Hy Storage, he says, is on checking the gas quality during injection and withdrawal.
According to Uniper, hydrogen storage in pore storage facilities necessitates an individual examination of the storage sites. The expertise of the project partners and the scientific support of the trial should ensure that the data collected is fully analyzed and evaluated. Reliable technical assessments for the storage of hydrogen in pore storage facilities are expected as early as 2024, he said.
Author: Davina Spohn
Accessibility
Language
