The hydrogen storage projects HPC Krummhörn in Lower Saxony and HyStorage in Bavaria, where a gas mixture of natural gas and hydrogen is stored in a pore storage facility, are part of the implementation of Uniper’s strategy and serve to prepare commercial storage projects for hydrogen.
The pilot cavern in Krummhörn, with a geometric volume of approximately 3,000 cubic meters, was created using solution mining at an existing borehole on-site. With a total storage capacity of nearly 500,000 normal cubic meters of green hydrogen, this facility will be one of the first of its kind. Surface equipment for injection has already been installed, and a gas tightness test planned for 24 September will mark the start of trial operations.
Once approved, the next step will be the initial gas filling and operation of the demonstration plant, including various injection and withdrawal cycles in the coming year. Throughout the project, equipment and materials will be tested for hydrogen compatibility in a real-world environment. Additionally, valuable insights will be gained regarding the quality of the stored hydrogen, thermodynamics, and rock mechanics. Further technical components will be installed at the Krummhörn storage facility, including a hydrogen test facility that will determine gas quality under various realistic injection and withdrawal scenarios and test process technologies for hydrogen processing. Hydrogen will be analysed to identify any changes that may have occurred during the storage phase in the cavern. Additionally, moisture and any other possible residues will be removed from the hydrogen to ensure it is suitable for customers.
Unveiling plans for the future, Doug Waters, Managing Director of Uniper Energy Storage, said: “In the future, the Krummhörn storage site is to be expanded to provide the market with a storage capacity of 250 GWh of hydrogen in a first step. In total, Uniper Energy Storage plans to develop salt caverns for the underground storage of hydrogen with a planned capacity of up to 600 GWh by 2030. To this end, existing and new sites along the hydrogen core network in Lower Saxony and North Rhine-Westphalia are being investigated.”
