Salt caverns can then be used in gas turbines when demand for electricity is high.
Currently, the UK has more than 30 large salt caverns in use to store natural gas for the power and heating market.
The project will recognise and examine representative salt caverns in Cheshire, Teesside and East Yorkshire that could store hydrogen to be used in power generation.
The ETI will invest £170,000 in the six month project, which is initiated after a report last year showed that hydrogen storage could play a key role in a clean, responsive power system.
The report examined hydrogen generation from fossil fuels, biomass or waste gasification or steam reforming of methane, all with carbon capture and storage.
ETI CCS Strategy Manager Den Gammer said: “We believe that storing and using hydrogen could be a low cost way of providing clean power for peak and load following demand.
“A single cavern could potentially provide enough storage capacity to satisfy the peak demands of a UK city.
“This project will provide more detail on the suitability of individual caverns and the costs associated with using them, increasing the evidence base needed if they are to be developed further.”
The use of a store and responsive gas turbine is expected to enable hydrogen generator and carbon capture and storage (CCS) plant to operate at peak efficiency.
The report revealed the potential of a single H2 cavern in catering to the peak energy demands and fluctuations of a whole city.
For the new ETI project, Atkins will work with the UK’s leading cavern storage operators, including Storengy, SSE Gas Storage and SABIC.
The storage operators will offer critical data and technical expertise to help Atkins in the development of hydrogen storage models for each region.
