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According to Bank of America (BofA) the “Hydrogen Economy” is poised for exponential growth as falling production costs, technological improvements, and a global push toward sustainability converge. In a recent report BofA forecasts this convergence will generate up to $11 trillion by 2050.

The role of hydrogen in a future energy system increasingly reliant on renewable energy such as wind and solar, will be crucial in order to balance fluctuations in electricity generation and intermittent demand.

Large scale underground caverns in salt basins are being increasingly used to store hydrogen in an effort to maximize the technology’s full potential. Salt caverns are seen as the most promising storage medium for hydrogen due to their large-scale capacity, operational safety, and low investment cost. The inert nature of salt structures also prevents contamination of the stored hydrogen.

Conveniently, natural gas storage in underground salt basin cavities has been practiced for decades. The knowledge gained from this proven practice is being transferred to hydrogen storage due to the similarities in cavern design, construction and operation. Using these techniques coupled with our experience in siting large power generation and battery energy storage systems, P2X Developments is able to precisely site salt caverns for hydrogen storage, in order to ensure sustainable and reliable, transmission scale energy infrastructure systems. On the geotechnical side, our engineering team considers several factors, including:

• • • Pressure gradients as a function of depth;
    • Thickness of salt layers in the hanging wall and foot wall;
    • Height-to-diameter ratio of the caverns; and
    • Sealing capacity (permeability) of the rock salt.