Hydrogen Deep Ocean Link: a global sustainable interconnected energy grid

Hunt, J. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1840-7277, Nascimento, A., Zakeri, B. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9647-2878, & Barbosa, P.S.F. (2022). Hydrogen Deep Ocean Link: a global sustainable interconnected energy grid. Energy 249 e123660. 10.1016/j.energy.2022.123660.

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Abstract

The world is undergoing a substantial energy transition with an increasing share of intermittent sources of energy on the grid, which is increasing the challenges to operate the power grid reliably. An option that has been receiving much focus after the COVID pandemic is the development of a hydrogen economy. Challenges for a hydrogen economy are the high investment costs involved in compression, storage, and long-distance transportation. This paper analyses an innovative proposal for the creation of hydrogen ocean links. It intends to fill existing gaps in the creation of a hydrogen economy with the increase in flexibility and viability for hydrogen production, consumption, compression, storage, and transportation. The main concept behind the proposals presented in this paper consists of using the fact that the pressure in the deep sea is very high, which allows a thin and cheap HDPE tank to store and transport large amounts of pressurized hydrogen in the deep sea. This is performed by replacing seawater with pressurized hydrogen and maintaining the pressure in the pipes similar to the outside pressure. Hydrogen Deep Ocean Link has the potential of increasing the interconnectivity of different regional energy grids into a global sustainable interconnected energy system.

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