Pilot facility for hydrogen rock cavern storage now operational in Sweden

LONDON (ICIS)–The rock cavern storage facility for hydrogen is now operational after having been inaugurated in June earlier this year by SSAB, LKAB, and Vattenfall’s HYBRIT,  Vattenfall said on 22 September.

The storage reservoir, located in Lulea in northern Sweden on the Gulf of Bothnia, is the “first of its kind in the world for storing fossil-fuel free hydrogen gas,” Vattenfall said.

The reservoir will now undergo a two-year test period.

The reservoir has a size of 100 cubic metres (cbm), but is set to keep 100,000-120,000cbm of pressurised hydrogen in full scale storage, equivalent to 100 GWh, Vattenfall said.

Vattenfall said that the storage facility “reached the maximum operating pressure of 250 bar” when filled with hydrogen gas earlier this year.

The reservoir will hold excess hydrogen produced by wind farms when conditions are windy, and will eventually be sent for use in the iron and steel industry.