Research Pillar

Underground energy storage

Overview

From Depleted Reservoirs to Clean Energy

Some of the greatest opportunities for storing renewable energy lie beneath our feet. Through SEASTAR, our competence centre for underground energy storage, we study the safe conversion of depleted oil & gas reservoirs and saline aquifers into large-scale geological storage sites for hydrogen and CO2 — assessing reservoir integrity, biochemical risk and long-term safety to unlock gigawatt-hour to terawatt-hour scale, seasonal energy storage for Europe.

GWh–TWh

Scale of underground hydrogen storage achievable in depleted fields, orders of magnitude beyond surface tanks.

what we do

Areas of underground storage research

Underground H₂ Storage

Assessing depleted reservoirs and cap-rock integrity for large-scale, seasonal hydrogen storage.

Underground CO₂ Storage

Geological storage of captured CO₂ in depleted gas fields and saline aquifers.

Reservoir & Cap-Rock Characterization

Characterization of rocks, fluids and their interactions under reservoir pressure & temperature conditions.

Microbial Risk Assessment

Metagenomic and functional studies of reservoir microbiology to assess compatibility with H₂ and CO₂ storage.

Underground Biomethanation

In-reservoir microbial conversion of injected CO₂ and H₂ into renewable, pipeline-ready methane.

Platform & Reservoir Conversion

Converting offshore oil & gas platforms and reservoirs into renewable-energy storage assets.

underground storage in numbers

Reservoir science, repurposed

1 types

of geological storage formations (saline aquifers, depleted gas & oil reservoirs) that can be qualified

70 bar

200°C max pressure and temperature of our rock & fluid equipment

2023-20

MASE project timeframe converting reservoirs into storage assets

1 steps

qualification chain, from system characterization to strategy definition and risk assessment

energy transition hub PILLARS

H2 HYDROGEN TECHNOLOGIES

CO2 CARBON MANAGEMENT

ENERGY STORAGE

ENERGY RESILIENCE & SAFETY