Hydrogen was injected into the Geomethane cavities this Thursday, June 13. An important small-scale test for the continuation of the major project carried out by DLVAgglo and the company which aims to accelerate the decarbonization of the Marseille-Fos-Sur-Mer industrial site.
The operation seems simple, but it is not. This Thursday, June 13, a truck transported around 350 kilos of hydrogen intended to be injected into one of the salt cavities of the Géométethane site, an expert in natural gas storage, in Manosque (Alpes-de-Haute-Provence) in order to study its behavior.
This is an essential first test, according to Jean-Michel Noé, president of Géométethane. “Today we are doing a pilot test of hydrogen injection into our natural gas system, it is a first at the regional level and certainly at the national level,” he tells BFM DICI.
After being transported to a natural gas storage well, the hydrogen will remain under observation for several weeks. Then, “we will extract the gas and watch how the hydrogen returns,” explains the president of the company.
“Gain experience”
The operation has several objectives: “we are going to look at all the connections on the surface, for example the arriving truck is at 350 bars, our lines have much lower pressures, everything must be able to connect safely and then see how it will behave at the well level, but also how the hydrogen in the cavity will mix and how we will recover the hydrogen.
“The teams who work here know natural gas, it’s their job, but hydrogen is new so we also need to learn from it and gain experience,” he adds.
Around thirty people work permanently on the Manosquin site which stores large quantities of natural gas, equivalent to two thirds of the consumption of the city of Marseille.
A step towards the final goal
But the test which began this Thursday is only a step towards the final objective, as Jean-Michel Noé explains: “We are going to do a whole series of things. Firstly we were selected at the European level to create a large-scale underground hydrogen storage demonstrator (around a hundred tonnes). The aim is for it to serve as a reference for spreading across Europe so that other projects can emerge. “
In the Manosquin region, everyone remembers the HyGreen project launched a few years ago. Although the latter has evolved somewhat, it remains of capital importance locally.
“The HyGreen project will represent thousands of tonnes, the project has three components, namely the production of hydrogen and it must be on the territory and it will be ensured by Engie”, specifies the president of Géométethane.
Commissioning of the GéoH2 project in 2030
“The hydrogen will be stored on Géomethane, this is what we call the GeoH2 project, and then there will be a transport pipeline between Manosque and the Marseille Fos basin. The objective is to be commissioned in 2030. The project will allow an acceleration of the decarbonization of industry and it will also accelerate the transition to hydrogen for heavy mobility” he continues.
If this project is ambitious, it has a lot of support. “The big advantage of this project, which is perceived at the European level as well as at the national level, is the flexibility that we bring to the electrical system. It is increasingly in demand, renewable energy is not predictable. regarding nuclear power, we cannot permanently modulate power plant production, so the way to give flexibility to the electricity system is the production of hydrogen,” believes Jean-Michel Noé.
After the first stage completed this Thursday, the next ones should follow one another quickly.
