China’s First 1-Million-Cubic-Meter Salt Cavern Hydrogen Storage Project Put into Operation

Learned from the Chinese Academy of Sciences, China’s first 1-million-cubic-meter-class salt cavern hydrogen storage demonstration project was officially put into operation in Pingdingshan City, Henan Province, on April 25. The commissioning of this major project has filled the key gap in large-scale and low-cost hydrogen energy storage, marking that China’s hydrogen energy “production-storage-transportation-utilization” has officially entered the industrialization stage.

Guangming Net reports that the project is jointly implemented by the Institute of Rock and Soil Mechanics, Chinese Academy of Sciences (Wuhan) and China Pingmei Shenma Group, with Henan Pingmei Gas Storage Salt Chemical Co., Ltd. responsible for its construction. The Institute of Rock and Soil Mechanics (Wuhan) took the lead in key technological research throughout the whole process, cooperating with China Pingmei Shenma Group, China National Petroleum Corporation and China Petrochemical Corporation to complete the entire process including project site selection demonstration, engineering design, technical scheme optimization and safety monitoring system construction.

The team led by Academician Yang Chunhe from the Institute of Rock and Soil Mechanics (Wuhan) accurately determined a drilling depth of 1,418 meters through a refined site selection and layer selection method, and led the construction of a salt cavern with a water-soluble volume of more than 30,000 cubic meters, which can achieve the goal of storing 1.5 million standard cubic meters of hydrogen. Xinhua News Agency notes that this project has achieved a milestone breakthrough in China’s hydrogen energy storage and transportation technology, realizing a zero-to-one breakthrough in the field of large-scale salt cavern hydrogen storage.

The project has achieved a number of technological breakthroughs and solved a series of world-class technical problems. Firstly, it is the first time in China that a hydrogen storage library has been built using layered salt rock, clarifying the multi-scale migration law of hydrogen in ultra-low permeability rock salt, forming key technologies for refined site selection and layer selection of salt cavern hydrogen storage libraries, and verifying the long-term tightness and engineering feasibility of layered salt rock hydrogen storage.

Secondly, it has overcome bottlenecks such as hydrogen-induced material corrosion and equipment sealing, developed hydrogen embrittlement-resistant casings and high-tightness wellhead devices, with 100% localization of key core equipment, building an independent and controllable underground hydrogen energy storage technology system. Thirdly, it has pioneered the “surface-wellbore-cavern” integrated air-ground-space safety monitoring technology, realizing all-round real-time early warning of ground hydrogen concentration, wellbore vibration signals, gas-water interface depth and cavity seismic signals to ensure the safe and stable operation of the project.

As China’s first salt cavern hydrogen storage library, the commissioning of the project is of great significance. It has for the first time verified the feasibility of China’s geological hydrogen storage technology, providing a mature technical route for solving the bottleneck of large-scale hydrogen energy storage during the “15th Five-Year Plan” period. With the advantages of large scale, low cost and high safety, it has opened up key difficulties in the entire hydrogen energy industrial chain, providing core support for the trillion-level hydrogen energy industry.

In addition, it can efficiently absorb renewable energy such as wind and solar energy, stabilize the fluctuation of new energy, promote the transformation of the energy structure towards cleanliness and low carbon, and help in-depth decarbonization in industries, transportation, electric power and other fields. It also constructs an underground hydrogen energy storage system, reducing dependence on imported fossil energy and consolidating the bottom line of national energy security. Academician Yang Chunhe stated that the team will continue to explore new paths for large-scale hydrogen energy utilization and build larger-scale and higher-standard salt cavern hydrogen storage bases.