Innovative and Development Projects

Storage facilities are playing a critical role in the gas chain. Thanks to the vision of cooperation in renewable resources, they clearly have something to offer for the future of energy, too.

NAFTA’s many years of technical experience in underground natural gas storage will also be capitalized in the planned transition to low-carbon energy, particularly in the incorporation of innovative energy storage methods. It has been actively engaged in innovative and development projects for some time. There is a strong view among us of the possibilities for cooperation between gas and renewable energy in the future. Our innovation department is concentrating on the development of potential joint ventures both in this area and in our own projects.

The advantage of storing renewables in the form of H₂ in existing natural gas storage facilities is both their enormous capacity and seasonality. No other technology today can warehouse so much energy over the long term - months or even years - like molecular storage. There is space not just for natural gas storage facilities, but also for the entire gas industry as an element in the low-carbon transformation of energy and the energy economy.

Joining a call from Important Projects of Common European Interest (IPCEI), NAFTA has succeeded in the national selection process for research, development and innovation projects and the Henri project was born.

We are seeking to identify both an appropriate location for storing hydrogen mixed with natural gas and the maximum possible concentration that could be stored in a porous geological structure.

The first phase of H2I S&D has experts seeking an appropriate location for storing hydrogen mixed with natural gas. Having identified an appropriate underground geological structure, laboratory research is being carried out to define the maximum permitted concentration of hydrogen. A broad spectrum of parameters would be researched, such as possible geochemical and microbial reactions and changes in the rocks.

The second phase of the project involves constructing a pilot test of the technology to generate hydrogen through water electrolysis. The hydrogen would then be mixed with natural gas at concentrations defined in the first phase of the project, with the mixture stored in underground facilities. The objective is not one-cycle testing, but rather to test multi-cycle production and injection in order to obtain more data about the impact and behavior of hydrogen stored underground, thereby creating a comprehensive image of how it can be stored in specific rock structures. Results from laboratory testing and the models thereby created will also be verified, with the models corrected by real data.
 

Uniper Energy Storage is the consortium leader, operator and responsible for the test under mining law. The consortium is further consisting of the companies OGE, RAG Austria, SEFE Securing Energy for Europe and NAFTA, which contribute their expertise, and is also supported by interdisciplinary partners from industry and science. The project has been approved by the Southern Bavarian Mining Authority.