Work Package 4

Upscaling / Converting and Optimisation 

WP 4 aims at demonstrating the technical (TRL-8) and economic feasibility of large-scale underground hydrogen storage (UHS) in depleted gas fields and existing underground natural gas storages at a unit cost below 5 €/kgH2 . WP 4 is considering relevant site-specific parameters and summarise (regional, geological, design and operational) conditions under which the individual UHS can be realised. However, the actual construction and commissioning of these UHS facilities will, depending on the market development, happen in parallel or after this project is finished. The fact that the five replicator facilities will be “order ready” at the end of the project will on the one hand ease the way for their actual implementation and on the other hand give other operators the opportunity to customise the results for their respective UHS sites. 

The work package will deliver the customised subsurface design and surface facilities basic engineering for relevant subsurface geological formations for UHS sites in Austria (RAG, tasks 4.2 and 4.3), the Netherlands (Shell, task 4.4), Hungary (HGS, task 4.5), and Spain (TES, task 4.6) through upscaling/ conversion, replication and optimisation of the Rubensdorf demonstrator propertieslearnings elaborated in WP 3.  

The UHS replication examples in tasks 4.2 to 4.6 have been chosen because of their relevance for the European subsurface infrastructure and comprise the transformation of existing underground natural gas storages (UGS) and the development of new UHS sites in depleted natural gas reservoirs. The UHS replication sites will be developed within those tasks and complemented with the data and know-how gathered in WP 3.  

WP 4 includes advanced material testing of steel and elastomers, contributing to the wells and facilities engineering of the replicator sites by applying the prevailing subsurface conditions and demonstrating which materials can be operated safely without failing. 

WP 4 largely connects across other work packages of this project to facilitate the transfer of learnings and to achieve an optimised design for each of the replicator sites, which includes findings and best practices from the Rubensdorf demonstrator (WP 3), monitoring technology included in wells and facilities design (WP 2), specifics on market needs or infrastructure integration (WP 5) and societal embeddedness (WP 1).  

As one of the key objectives of this project, a techno-economic summary (task 4.7) will provide a broad overview on the CAPEX that will be necessary to realise storage projects in different environments, integrating not only technical costs (tasks 4.2-4.6), but also socioeconomic aspects from WP 1.