Diagnostic Tools and Risk Protocols To Accelerate Underground Hydrogen Storage

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The overall goal of the HyDRA project is the “Characterisation of hydrogen-consuming microbial activity and interaction with the storage formation to determine guiding principles that mitigate risk and enable fast-tracking of porous media underground storage as part of the European hydrogen ecosystem”. Our goal is achieved through 10 quantifiable key objectives, including: standardized field sampling protocols and bio-geochemical laboratory methods, mapping microbial taxonomic and functional diversity across Europe, deriving models that enhance and upscale laboratory bio-geochemical findings for site-specific microbial risk assessment, delivering a fast-track site selection tool with predictive microbial risk index, updating guidelines to support storage site operators (SSOs) in their site-specific risk identification and management. Targeting the full diversity of geology and subsurface conditions encountered across the different European storage sites, the interdisciplinary HyDRA research partners and associated SSOs will assess microbial risks associated with the storage of hydrogen in porous reservoirs. Across 12 work packages, the HyDRA project will generate new fundamental understanding of microbial risk and mitigation in the context of underground hydrogen storage. With an interdependent workflow across relevant disciplines (microbiology, geosciences, geophysics and -chemistry, porous media modelling, and safety/risk assessment), HyDRA research focuses on the elusive interplay between microbiology, geochemistry, and hydrogen flow during underground hydrogen storage in porous media. Addressing this knowledge gap – across the full spectrum of site- and operational conditions for active and future hydrogen storage sites, amplified by natural hydrogen seeps – will support the development and standardization of site-specific and general guidelines and regulation codes for an accelerated and widespread European underground hydrogen storage deployment.