Engineering Poster E3: Developing Australia’s underground hydrogen storage through demonstration
Max Watson A *A CO2CRC Ltd. Carlton, Vic., Australia.
The APPEA Journal 62 - https://doi.org/10.1071/AJ21415
Published: 3 June 2022
Abstract
Poster E3
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.
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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. |
