This week is #NetZeroWeek in the UK - a week of events to build awareness of the need to reduce CO2 emissions to their lowest possible level and offsetting any remaining emissions where required. One important aspect of reaching NetZero is to reduce our reliance on fossil fuels, and instead source our energy from clean energy sources that do not emit CO2 into the atmosphere. There has been great progress made in the UK over recent years to increase our capacity to produce electricity from wind energy (Figure 1) and this is set to continue with recent successful licensing rounds for offshore wind farm acreage.
However, renewable energy sources such as wind and solar, can only produce electricity when the conditions are right - the wind is blowing, or the sun is shining. And this may be at odds to times when demand requires that energy. Hydrogen could be a solution. Green energy can be converted into hydrogen and temporarily stored until electricity demand increases. Then, that hydrogen can be converted back into electricity and used as required.
However, hydrogen storage at scale remains challenging. Surface storage tanks would need to be huge, and hydrogen is a very small molecule very susceptible to escaping! Storage of hydrogen within salt caverns underground could be the answer. And this forms the subject of my latest research.
Along with colleagues at the University of Aberdeen, I investigated if the Forth Approaches Basin offshore northeast Scotland would be a suitable candidate for salt cavern mining and the subsurface storage of hydrogen. This work has been published in the new Geoenergy Journal by the Geological Society, and I recently presented the research at the inaugural Energy Geoscience Conference (EGC1). Below is the conference presentation for you to enjoy!
The associated research paper is available Open Access via the Geoenergy Journal website at: https://www.lyellcollection.org/doi/10.1144/geoenergy2023-008. It was so great that the publication of this work corresponded to #NetZeroWeek. Hydrogen will form one of the solutions to meeting net zero and help successfully transition to a reliance on clean and renewable energies in the future. Happy reading!