Numerous governments around the world – including the Italian one – have recently worked to release energy strategies dedicated to accelerating the development of the hydrogen supply chain, which finally seems to be catching on. Similarly, many companies are trying to tap into available business opportunities.
The deployment of hydrogen could help improve the security of energy supply if combined with the development of cost-effective, large-scale, long-term storage solutions – including underground storage options.
Against this backdrop, the need arises to promote research activities, such as the one documented in this report, aimed at evaluating the feasibility of the hydrogen geological storage process in potentially suitable sites, supported by adequate modeling analyses.
The general objective for the three-year period 2019-2021 was to make a contribution in terms of research through an activity divided into two main lines: the mapping of sites on a national scale and the modeling of the geological storage process.
This report describes the results achieved at the end of the three-year period for both lines. In particular, with regards to mapping, a project was created in the QGIS environment containing the geological information useful for the territorial analysis of the data and the location of some sites potentially suitable for the storage of hydrogen (or the hydrogen-methane mixture). As for the modeling activity, the results of the fluid dynamic simulations are presented dealing with the storage process and relating to realistic cases which represent 3 potentially suitable types of reservoir: depleted reservoir, saline aquifer, salt dome. The results of both activities do not claim to have exhausted all possible problems or cases and could be further integrated in the future.
In any case, some general insights are also provided on the feasibility and technological maturity of the process in the different types of suitable reservoirs, whilst being aware that each geological situation is site-specific.
Furthermore, the entire activity considers the developments of research and ongoing projects on the national, European, and global scene, as a necessary perimeter for alignment within an innovative line of research that has never been explored by System Research until now.