Can Hydrogen Replace Natural Gas as an Energy Source in Europe?

(Article was originally published in Norwegian by Jin Sigve Mæland)

Natural gas is today one of the main energy sources in the European Union (EU). It is estimated that over 20% of the EU’s energy consumption comes from natural gas. Compared to Norway’s annual electricity consumption of 130-140 TWh per year, the EU uses approximately 25 times more just in natural gas annually. To meet the climate goals of the Paris Agreement and to follow up on the EU’s goal of being climate neutral by 2050, fossil energy sources such as natural gas must be replaced with renewable alternatives. One of these alternatives is hydrogen.

EU funding

Hydrogen, if produced correctly, is a renewable energy source that carries more than twice as much energy as natural gas. The challenge is: can today’s natural gas storage facilities store hydrogen in the future? This question has earned Professor Martin Fernø at the Department of Physics and Technology (IFT) 3 million euros in funding from the EU’s Clean Hydrogen Partnership (external link) to investigate in the project “HyDRA - diagnostic tools and risk protocols to accelerate underground hydrogen storage.” (external link) Together with nine research partners and several storage operators in industry, HyDRA will explore the possibilities for storing hydrogen in geological reservoirs underground.

“Today, there are about 150 gas storage facilities underground in Europe that store natural gas. On paper, these should be able to store hydrogen in the future. To bring this up to an industrial scale, we need more information and guidelines on how to do this,” says Fernø.

The goal of the project is to gather a scientific information base which will form the foundation for a regulatory framework, new technology, and industry standards for hydrogen storage.

“Together with our industry partners, we will retrieve fluid and rock samples from relevant hydrogen storage sites and perform analyses of microbial activity, geochemical reactions, and flow in porous media. We will compile this data into a database that forms the knowledge base for reducing microbial risks and enabling faster implementation of underground hydrogen storage as part of the European hydrogen system. Simply put, we will use the data to develop a traffic light model related to risk where green = okay, yellow = probably okay but requires more investigation, and red = no, it is not feasible,” says Fernø.

How much hydrogen do bacteria consume?

Although hydrogen and natural gas have a similar form, they have different properties and behave differently during storage. Geological formations, temperature, depth, pressure, etc., are just some of the parameters that must be mapped. In addition, there are a number of biochemical processes that need to be studied. One of these is: How much hydrogen is consumed by bacteria during storage?

“Bacteria underground can use hydrogen as energy to grow and survive. The extent of hydrogen consumption depends on the types of bacteria present underground and will vary from storage site to storage site. This is something we will map and investigate further,” says Fernø.

To understand all the different processes involved in hydrogen storage, the project is broadly composed with an interdisciplinary team.

“Hydrogen storage is complex and requires expertise from different fields. In the project, microbiologists, chemists, geologists, and physicists work together to look at both the whole picture and each part. Precisely the fact that we do not just look at each part individually, but put the puzzle pieces together and look at the interaction, is new and important,” says Fernø.

Current master’s thesis

Alida van Wijngaarden is one of four master’s students at IFT who will write their thesis related to the HyDRA project this year. Wijngaarden will write about biogeochemical reactions and looks forward to working on a project with great societal relevance.

“I find this exciting both because I am interested in geosciences and generally how natural processes on Earth work. It is also extra exciting to learn more about things that happen far underground in environments that you don’t see in daily life,” says Wijngaarden.

Wijngaarden also has a strong climate commitment which she can work concretely on in her thesis.

“It is rewarding to work on something that is a bit new and still under development! Then I feel like I contribute to new innovation, future solutions, and not least, contribute to more sustainable energy solutions—which is something I am passionate about with regard to mitigating climate change,” Wijngaarden concludes.