Underground Storage Solutions
Partnering on the hydrogen infrastructure build
To ensure safe and reliable Hydrogen storage, large-scale solutions must be developed. Salt caverns are one such geological formation that might provide ample storage possibilities for hydrogen. Currently used for natural gas, salt caverns offer excellent sealability of the salt structure, together with efficiency, low operating costs, and significant economies of scale.
Sour service expertise and Oil Country Tubular Goods (OCTG) applications to help customers optimize tubing sealability to explore further salt cavern development for hydrogen. We are already supplying tubings for several pilot wells.
- A wide range of steel grades suitable for severe sour service environments, which offer good resistance to hydrogen embrittlement.
- A wide range of VAM® connections that provide tight sealability and thus safe hydrogen storage.
- Weldable grades for optimized weldability performance that are also qualified for sour service.
- Intelligent Pipe solution featuring pipe integrity management sensors that monitor pipe temperature and pressure of the entire wellbore in real time and thus ensures safety by detecting leakage. By combining Intelligent Pipe with both our internal pipe database and Smartengo Running Expert digital solution, Vallourec offers a truly complete digital pipe traceability solution that enhances operations and safety.
Our Role in Hydrogen
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Case Study
Hydrogen is set to play a key role in the energy transition acting as a low-emission energy carrier for various applications. However, hydrogen is known to affect mechanical properties of some materials, a phenomenon named hydrogen embrittlement. To ensure safe transport and storage of compressed gaseous hydrogen, steels must be proven resistant to such environments.
Vallourec has successfully qualified the fracture toughness resistance of a selection of steel grades for OCTG pipes, line pipes and pressure vessels in the presence of pure H2 gas. Thanks to its material expertise, Vallourec succeeded in testing higher strength steels that, for certain applications, enable thinner walls, lighter solutions, and reduced resource consumption to its customers.
Vallourec has successfully qualified the fracture toughness resistance of a selection of steel grades for OCTG pipes, line pipes and pressure vessels in the presence of pure H2 gas. Thanks to its material expertise, Vallourec succeeded in testing higher strength steels that, for certain applications, enable thinner walls, lighter solutions, and reduced resource consumption to its customers.
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