The US Department of Energy has chosen the Shell-led consortium to showcase the feasibility of a large-scale tank for the storage of liquid hydrogen at the export and import terminals. The Shell consortium will be investigating the storage capability and the cost competitiveness of the 20,000-100,000 cubic metres storage tanks at the international trading terminals. The project will receive a total of USD 12 million in funding, with the US Department of Energy investing USD 6 million and Shell and McDermott each contributing USD 3 million.

USA-based Royal Dutch Shell, which is going to lead the project, is the world’s leading multinational oil and gas conglomerate that is actively investing in world-class green technologies and transforming its business to achieve sustainable production processes. The other consortium members include McDermott International, the University of Houston, NASA’s Kennedy Space Centre and the Florida-based GenH2. Each member of the consortium will be playing a pivotal role in the project: Shell will be monitoring the hydrogen supply chain and safety; McDermott’s CB&I will be giving its expertise in engineering and construction of the storage tank; The University of Houston will propose comprehensive models for the insulation system; GenH2 will be taking care of the design of thermal testing device; NASA will be assisting GenH2 in testing and validating the development.

Hydrogen is viewed to lead the fast-growing green energy technologies owing to its ability to release zero percent carbon emissions on combustion, hence being applied for powering vehicles. Hydrogen is also used in refinery processes, fertilizer production, metal treatment etc. Liquid hydrogen is widely used to fuel space vehicles. Despite various advantages of hydrogen, its storage poses a huge challenge owing to its extremely low volumetric energy density. Therefore, hydrogen is preferably stored and transported in the liquid form.

As per ChemAnalyst, the demand for hydrogen in the global market is expected to gain heights at a CAGR of over 6%. The investment of the USA government in the hydrogen storage project reflects its resoluteness towards promoting sustainable energy. This also reveals the government’s strategy to emerge as a global leader in the clean and sustainable energy market.