Exploring Microbial Impacts on Hydrogen Storage: - A Novel System for Corrosion Testing of Gas- and Material Degradation
- Underground hydrogen storage (UHS) is a strategic step towards implementing the hydrogen economy. Achieving the required infrastructure by 2050 necessitates advancements in hydrogen-dedicated assets and the evaluation of existing infrastructure. The unique conditions in UHS require an experimental set-up to simulate UHS operating conditions, which allows to assess the readiness of current storage and transmission for hydrogen, and develop new technologies for material-resistance, operational-simulations, and risk-assessments. In addition to the physical/chemical conditions in UHS (e.g., salinity, hydrogen concentration, operating temperature/-pressure, water content), biological threats must also be considered. Therefore, we present here a high-pressure-set-up, developed for research/-industrial testing purposes.
Currently, UHS-experiments for microbiologically-influenced-corrosion (MIC) are performed in standard autoclaves with relatively high volumes/pressures; they were primarilyUnderground hydrogen storage (UHS) is a strategic step towards implementing the hydrogen economy. Achieving the required infrastructure by 2050 necessitates advancements in hydrogen-dedicated assets and the evaluation of existing infrastructure. The unique conditions in UHS require an experimental set-up to simulate UHS operating conditions, which allows to assess the readiness of current storage and transmission for hydrogen, and develop new technologies for material-resistance, operational-simulations, and risk-assessments. In addition to the physical/chemical conditions in UHS (e.g., salinity, hydrogen concentration, operating temperature/-pressure, water content), biological threats must also be considered. Therefore, we present here a high-pressure-set-up, developed for research/-industrial testing purposes.
Currently, UHS-experiments for microbiologically-influenced-corrosion (MIC) are performed in standard autoclaves with relatively high volumes/pressures; they were primarily designed for material-specific investigations. While these methods provided some useful information for biological questions, they had significant limitations.
The novel UHS-simulation-set-up presented here is designed with a controlled independently temperature and pressure. Field samples can be used to mimic geology, water chemistry, construction materials, and microbiological conditions.
Most significant advantages of the set-up are:
1. It allows for liquid addition during the test, enabling the study of biocides or the evaluation of operating setups.
2. It permits liquid/-gas sampling during the test, allowing for more efficient monitoring of testing conditions and a better understanding of the process over time.
Additionally, a low-release function is added, which is particularly important for studying MIC to avoid negative side effects, on the material (e.g. polymers/corrosion product-layer/cells itself) which might occur due to the fast pressure release…

