bp-International Centre for Advanced Materials recently awarded funding for University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign researchers affiliated with the Prairie Research Institute for investigations into subsurface hydrogen storage to accelerate sustainable energy transformation.
The two-year project received $479,424 in support from bp-ICAM, which is a partnership between bp and four universities, including Illinois. The bp funding through ICAM supports research “to enable the effective application of advanced materials for the transition to net zero.”
The project — led by Donna Caraway Willette, an Illinois State Geological Survey research geologist and geochemist at the Prairie Research Institute, and Roman Makhnenko, a Grainger College of Engineering professor of civil and environmental engineering — will test the suitability and reservoir performance of caprock types for effective subsurface hydrogen storage. Hydrogen is a low-carbon energy source that can be used in transportation, manufacturing, chemical processing and power generation. Long-duration subsurface storage is needed to increase the economic viability of using hydrogen as a foundational fuel.
Willette explained that, in order for hydrogen to be a foundational fuel in the future, it needs to be stored in volumes that match demand in areas proximal to where it is generated. The researchers describe the integrity of the caprock as “the critical link for economic and safe underground storage of hydrogen,” as it is a highly mobile gas with properties and requirements that are different than those necessary for the storage of CO2, oil or natural gas.
The project will characterize the interaction between hydrogen and caprocks with a variety of different mineral compositions, including siliciclastic, carbonate, organic-rich shales, micritic and argillaceous carbonates, and shales with healed or induced fracture networks. This characterization work could expand options for hydrogen storage reservoirs to include sites like depleted oil and gas fields, brine aquifers, and engineered bedded-salt caverns.
“Hydrogen has been reliably stored in salt caverns along the U.S. Gulf Coast for over 20 years to support chemical and petroleum refining,” Willette noted. “Subsurface storage in depleted oil and gas reservoirs, natural gas storage fields, and brine aquifers relies on the efficacy of the interaction between reservoir and caprocks — this is crucial for effective subsurface storage.”
The project builds on previous work of the ISGS Subsurface Energy Resources Section, which has explored the use of the subsurface for safe and permanent carbon storage, carbon-neutral to carbon-negative oil production, and energy storage, including hydrogen, as well as compressed air, natural gas, and geothermal. This research provides policymakers, industry and the public with unbiased data and scientific research that reduces uncertainty in the development of subsurface energy resources. ISGS scientists have been gathering data on the geology of Illinois since the early 1850s.
ICAM, the International Centre for Advanced Materials, is a partnership between bp and selected globally leading universities to enable the effective application of advanced materials for the transition to net zero. The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign is one of five partners.
