Challenges and opportunities of green hydrogen in the face of the changing energy model: applications in its storage and distribution

Description: Green hydrogen is defined at the EU level as hydrogen derived from the electrolysis of water using renewable electricity. Given the high availability of sustainable, variable resources in Andalusia (sun, wind), our region is in a privileged position for the production of green hydrogen. Within Andalusia, Western Andalusia has a significant industrial sector that understands and uses (fossil) hydrogen for the production of ammonia, refined petroleum products, and other chemicals, with a production of “captive hydrogen” (hydrogen produced on-site for consumption at the plant itself) of approximately 200,000 tons/year. This area has geological characteristics that could allow the construction of underground storage systems (UHS) compatible with large-scale green hydrogen storage. This possibility presents significant opportunities for large-scale energy storage at the national and regional levels, where technological challenges must be appropriately addressed and where there is a great need for technology transfer to industry. Several energy companies consider underground hydrogen storage as a fundamental aspect of their development.

To understand the impact that green hydrogen and its large-scale storage can have on the decarbonization of industry, it is necessary to analyze not only the technical aspects and their viability at the local level, but also to properly understand existing climatic and geological models, and how they could be affected by the scalable use of hydrogen globally. Therefore, this project aims to analyze the impact of green hydrogen and propose solutions for its large-scale storage and distribution. In this regard, the project aims to identify the technological challenges associated with the development of a hydrogen storage and transportation network, analyzing and proposing solutions for the construction and operation processes of mass storage methods (such as salt caverns), as well as network management control throughout the lifecycle. In fact, underground hydrogen storage encompasses several disciplines and technologies such as geology and 3D geological modeling, cavern construction and mining technologies, drilling technologies, storage integrity, hydrogen compression and storage space filling, rock mechanics and thermodynamics, reservoir engineering, and operations and asset management.