Harland & Wolff (HARL) , the maritime engineering specialist, has shared the results of the Large-Scale Hydrogen Concept Study by Atkins for its Islandmagee Gas Storage Facility. The report states that hydrogen can be stored in salt caverns at the facility and withdrawn to a hydrogen grid when needed, subject to regulatory approval.
The study further developed Harland & Wolff’s strategy to utilise at least one of the seven permitted salt caverns to store hydrogen, combined with a hydrogen compression and dehydration train to meet gas quality parameters. The concept design takes into account the existing natural gas design and subsurface design, and potential for the Ballylumford Power-to-X project.
The pre-FEED stage of the Islandmagee Gas Storage Facility project has found that integrating hydrogen onto the existing site is technically feasible and would require approximately £168 million in additional capital expenditure for compression, dehydration, and cooling equipment.
The development of salt caverns for hydrogen storage would follow a similar methodology to the current gas storage facility design, and reusing planned natural gas plant facilities would be economically and operationally prudent. Although some additional costs and operating protocols would be required for hydrogen venting around existing equipment, there is minimal difference from a cavern perspective in storing different gas mediums.
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The study’s findings take Harland one step further in future-proofing the project and preparing it to transition from a natural gas to a hydrogen-led economy, tying neatly into the UK government’s objectives of reducing net carbon emissions to zero by 2050. A recent report concluded that by 2050, clean hydrogen could help abate seven gigatons of CO2 emissions annually, which is about 20 percent of human-driven emissions.
Hydrogen will be a particularly crucial source of energy in the 2020-2040 period, providing baseload back-up in the event of insufficient renewable generation. As the study concludes, hydrogen can be stored, distributed and consumed using the vast majority of existing natural gas networks, making it a huge saving in terms of investment.
Furthermore, Harland & Wolff notes that there has never been a better time for the Islandmagee Gas Storage Project to be developed, as the UK continues to struggle to maintain adequate gas supplies in the face of Russia’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine and the continued threat to energy resources.
Achieving net zero by 2050 will require an increased focus on CCS technologies, and the development of the Islandmagee Gas Storage Project is well-positioned to advance the government's objectives of reaching net zero carbon emissions.
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