Potential Risks Associated with Short-Term Hydrogen Storage in Methane Reservoirs

Conference · Mon Aug 11 04:00:00 EDT 2025

DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/2575398· OSTI ID:2575398

Tinker, Kara ^[1]; Ross, Daniel ^[1]; Gulliver, Djuna ^[2]

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1. NETL Site Support Contractor, National Energy Technology Laboratory
2. NETL

Hydrogen (H2) has been identified as a flexible energy carrier with zero emissions. It is possible to utilize H2 by storing Hyblend, or H2 blended with CH4, in existing natural gas infrastructure. However, the compatibility of adapting the current CH4 storage strategies to include H2 injection has not been fully demonstrated. It is essential that we understand the impact of H2 gas on the naturally occurring microbial community of subsurface storage reservoirs before deploying large-scale H2-CH4 storage. We designed a series of experiments that allowed us to identify potential challenges of HyBlend Storage in existing methane reservoirs (Figure 1). First, we characterized two field fluid samples from a methane reservoir located in Western United States. Next, we used these samples to complete a series of short-term reactor experiments at reservoir conditions for a natural gas (100% CH4) and HyBlend (80% CH4/20% H2) storage environment.

• Research Organization: National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL), Pittsburgh, PA, Morgantown, WV, and Albany, OR (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE Office of Fossil Energy and Carbon Management (FECM); USDOE Office of Fossil Energy and Carbon Management (FECM), Office of Resource Sustainability (FE-30)
• OSTI ID: 2575398
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

geomicrobiology
hydrogen storage
subsurface microbiology