Developing Australia’s underground hydrogen storage through demonstration
Max Watson A * , Jonathan Ennis-King B , Allison Hortle C and Matthias Raab AA CO2CRC Ltd. Carlton, Vic., Australia.
B CSIRO Energy, Clayton, Vic., Australia.
C CSIRO Energy, Kensington, WA, Australia.
The APPEA Journal 62 S196-S199 https://doi.org/10.1071/AJ21070
Accepted: 16 March 2022 Published: 13 May 2022
© 2022 The Author(s) (or their employer(s)). Published by CSIRO Publishing on behalf of APPEA.
Abstract
For Australia to capitalise on the growing hydrogen (H2) economy, the current capability gap for large-scale, secure and cost-effective H2 storage must be addressed. Large-scale underground hydrogen storage (UHS) in porous reservoirs offers the required capacity to balance discrepancies between demand and supply over seasonal durations, and support decarbonisation and security in Australia’s energy system. This becomes essential for export and domestic markets from 2030 onwards. UHS in depleted gas fields can address the infrastructure and safety challenges, as well as supporting long-term supply security while decreasing delivery price through economies of scale. However, the technical readiness for Australia’s industries to undertake UHS is low, with scientific challenges around how stored H2 interacts with subsurface rocks and fluids, and how this impacts the storage efficiency. A commercially relevant demonstration of UHS is essential for providing the knowledge and confidence for large investment into commercial scale UHS. CO2CRC and CSIRO are collaboratively developing such a demonstration, utilising data and learnings from the Otway International Test Centre, as a proxy for commercial-scale UHS operations.
Keywords: demonstration, depleted gas field, energy security, hydrogen, Otway, storage, UHS, underground.
Max Watson is the Senior Manager for Technology Development at CO2CRC Ltd and is Australia’s Delegate for the Carbon Sequestration Leadership Forum, a ministerial-level international climate change initiative. Max has over 20 years’ experience in developing industry-relevant, low-emission technologies including carbon capture, utilisation and storage (CCUS) and more recently hydrogen storage. Max has worked in academia, industry and R&D management sectors, gaining insights from a variety of countries and business types. He completed his PhD at the University of Adelaide. |
Jonathan Ennis-King is a senior research scientist with CSIRO Energy. He received a PhD in Applied Mathematics from the Australian National University in 1994. He subsequently held postdoctoral positions at the University of Melbourne, Lund University (Sweden) and the Australian National University, researching theoretical chemical physics. He joined CSIRO in 1999 to work on the geological storage of carbon dioxide. He has been a key researcher in all stages of the CO2CRC’s Otway International Test Centre, and since 2019 has been involved in leading work on underground hydrogen storage. |
Allison Hortle is a Senior Researcher with CSIRO and a Research Group Leader in the Energy Business Unit. Allison has over 20 years’ experience in the geological storage of carbon dioxide and the link to the near-surface environment for long-term monitoring and verification. Her current focus is on the development of large-scale CCS and H2 hubs, and the role of CCUS in enabling industrial decarbonisation. |
Dr Matthias Raab is CO2CRC’s Chief Executive and committed to Australia’s energy transition as a leader in the global scientific, engineering, energy and resources sectors. He is an expert in low-emission technologies. |
References
Bermudez JM, Hannula I (2021) ‘Hydrogen.’ (IEA: Paris)Ennis-King J, Michael K, Strand J, Sander R, Green C (2021) ‘Underground Storage of Hydrogen: Mapping Out the Options for Australia.’ (Future Fuel CRC)
PwC (2020) ‘Embracing Clean Hydrogen for Australia: How the Journey Towards Decarbonisation can be Fuelled by Hydrogen.’ (PricewaterhouseCoopers: Australia)
