The six-month project will attract £170,000 of investment from ETI and will build on the findings of a 2015 report from the institute which highlighted the role hydrogen could play in a low carbon economy.
Atkins will lead the new study which will focus on identifying salt caverns which might be suitable for storing hydrogen and hydrogen gas mixtures, and for coupling these with gas turbines which could be used to produce electricity when demand for power is high.
Atkins will focus its activities on representative salt caverns in Cheshire, Teesside and East Yorkshire that could store hydrogen to be used in power generation. The firm will work closely with the UK’s leading cavern storage operators, including Storengy, SSE Gas Storage and SABIC, who will provide critical data and technical expertise to assist in the development of hydrogen storage models for each region.
There are already over 30 large salt caverns in use in the UK today. These store natural gas for the power and heating market.
