The H₂ pilot cavern (HPC) Krummhörn demonstration plant opened by Olaf Lies, Lower Saxony’s Minister for Economic Affairs, Transport, Construction and Digitalization, Michal Lewis, CEO of Uniper, Holger Kreetz, COO of Uniper and Doug Waters, Managing Director of Uniper Energy Storage, in the presence of numerous guests from politics and administration. During a tour of the plant, the guests were able to gain comprehensive insight into the project and Uniper’s strategy with regard to greener gases.

Residents living near the Krummhörn plant were invited already to the event on Sunday to find out more about the project and Uniper’s other activities. The event was met with great interest–about 300 people took up the offer to attend the lecture program, explored the operating site or exchanged views directly with experts on topics related to the energy industry.

The H₂ storage projects HPC Krummhörn in Lower Saxony and HyStorage in Bavaria, where a gas mixture of natural gas and H₂ is stored in a pore storage facility, are part of the implementation of Uniper’s strategy and serve to prepare commercial storage projects for H₂.

The creation of the pilot cavern in Krummhörn with a geometric volume of approx. 3,000 cubic meters was completed by using solution mining at an existing borehole at the Krummhörn site. With a total storage volume of almost 500,000 m³ of green H₂, the storage facility will be one of the first of its kind. Surface equipment for injection is set up. The gas tightness test on September 24, 2024, marks the start of the trial operation.

Next step, once approved, will be the initial gas filling and the operation of the demonstration plant with various injection and withdrawal cycles in the coming year. During the entire project period, equipment and materials are to be tested for H₂ compatibility in a real environment and experience is to be gained about the quality of the stored H₂, thermodynamics and rock mechanics. Further technical components will therefore be installed on the operating site of the Krummhörn storage facility. This includes a H₂ test facility that allows to determine the gas quality in various realistic injection and withdrawal scenarios and to test process technologies for processing the H₂. H₂ will be analysed to identify changes that might have occurred during the storage phase in the cavern. Furthermore, the moisture and possible other residues are removed from the H₂ to make it available for the customers.

Uniper will invest a low double-digit million-euro amount in the green future project. Within the framework of the H₂ directive, the Lower Saxony Ministry for the Environment, Energy and Climate Protection is funding the project as a pilot and demonstration project of the H₂ economy with €2.375 MM.

The Krummhörn site is ideally suited because, among other things, it complements the nearby Uniper site in Wilhelmshaven with the “Green Wilhelmshaven” project, offering the best conditions as an energy site and thus strengthening the importance of the region and Lower Saxony as an energy hub in Central Europe. The geographical location advantageously combines proximity to the windy North Sea with energy-technical connection to the gas and electricity grid that has existed for decades and, in the future, to the new H₂ core network.