Lhyfe, a pioneering producer and supplier of green and renewable hydrogen for mobility and industry, has announced that it has completed the delivery of 2.6 tons of renewable green hydrogen to Storengy, one of the world leaders in the underground storage of natural gas, at its Etrez-Bresse Vallons site in the Ain region (France). This hydrogen is supplying the innovative HyPSTER project – supported by the Clean Hydrogen Partnership – which aims to test and validate the role of hydrogen storage in the hydrogen value chain, with a view to replicating it on a larger scale and supporting the development of the hydrogen industry in Europe.

Green and renewable hydrogen is now recognised as one of the essential pillars of the new energy mix, because of its ability to address some of the hardest-to-decarbonise energy uses, such as industry and heavy mobility. To enable the sector’s large-scale deployment, the HyPSTER consortium is exploring the possibility of storing large quantities of green hydrogen in salt caverns, which are already used to store natural gas. Producing hydrogen from intermittent renewable electricity means that surplus energy can be stored and released when demand is high, contributing to the efficiency of the power grid and facilitating the integration of renewable energies. Salt caverns offer good stability over long periods and the salt is impermeable, which prevents hydrogen from escaping. In addition, these formations are generally located sufficiently deep to guarantee thermal insulation and constant pressure, making storage safe and reliable.

From a logistics point of view, the rapidly developing green and renewable hydrogen sector faces many challenges every day, e.g. access to the molecule, gradual deployment of the transport and storage infrastructure, implementation of regulations, etc. The specific nature of certain innovative projects also adds new constraints, making logistics even more complex. That is why Lhyfe is particularly proud to have risen to the challenge of the HyPSTER project.

Lhyfe container on the Storengy site, as part of the HyPSTER project.

To meet the specific technical and logistical challenges of the HyPSTER project, Lhyfe's supply chain team designed a bespoke system capable of :

• Match the minimum pressure of the cavern (110 bars), which required transporting more hydrogen (4 tonnes) than the final quantity injected 2.6 tonnes);

• Reduce the number of trucks needed on site, thanks to large capacity containers, including the largest on the market ;

• Deliver the entire required volume in a very short time.

Between 19 November and 11 December, Lhyfe delivered 2.6 tonnes of renewable green hydrogen to Storengy at its Etrez-Bresse Vallons site in the Ain region. To do this, it mobilised two 40-foot containers (with a storage capacity of a tonne) and three 30-foot containers (with a storage capacity of 0,75 tonnes), transporting a total volume of renewable green hydrogen of more than four tonnes. Lhyfe, which has built up a network of several regional carriers in order to cover the whole country and be as close as possible to its customers, entrusted these five delivery runs to the Brun Group.

Matthieu Guesné, Founder and CEO of Lhyfe: “At Lhyfe, we’re lucky to have been delivering to our customers since 2021, which has enabled us to experience a wide range of situations – including logistical ones – and to build up our expertise. Today, we are extremely proud to be demonstrating the excellence of our supply chain in order to support this exemplary industrial project HyPSTER, coordinated by Storengy. Through this achievement, our team has demonstrated its ability to manage the flow of renewable green hydrogen with our carriers, from our sites to our customers' facilities, taking into account their most complex constraints and providing them with its expertise. This success also demonstrates the extent to which the renewable green hydrogen sector is maturing day by day.”