Speaker
Description
To address long-term imbalances between the supply and demand of sustainable energy, excess energy can be converted into hydrogen and stored in subterranean porous formations. Alberta, Canada’s largest energy-producing province, aims to make a large-scale transition to clean hydrogen deployment e.g. by combining steam methane reforming with carbon capture, utilization, and storage. Supporting this transition requires identifying the geological formations within the province that are most suitable for underground hydrogen storage (UHS). This study applies a two-step screening algorithm to reduce Alberta’s large inventory of natural gas reservoirs to a shortlist of those with the highest UHS potential. Following guidelines established in the literature, the first step filters out reservoirs with low porosity, high pressure, or insufficient storage capacity. Reservoirs that pass this initial screening are then evaluated using a secondary scoring process. This second step includes five criteria—storage capacity, propensity for geochemical reactions, lithology, degree of depletion, and presence of existing natural gas storage infrastructure. Using a weighted scoring system in which capacity carries the greatest weight, each site was assigned a score from 0 to 5, with sites scoring above 3 considered suitable for UHS. Thus, we identify 40 target reservoirs, representing an overall hydrogen storage potential of approximately 624 PJ. To further assess storage security, the top-scoring reservoirs were evaluated based on salinity, pH, and formation depth to identify sites with minimal risk of biotic reactions and gas migration. Applying these additional constraints results in a list of 12 candidate formations that will undergo reservoir engineering evaluations to identify the top reservoir for pilot-scale design and study. The findings of this study highlight Alberta’s strong potential for becoming a hydrogen storage hub.
| Country | Canada |
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