September 20 (SeeNews) - Bulgarian gas grid operator Bulgartransgaz said it has agreed with local civil engineering group Glavbolgarstroy, US companies Solar Turbines and Honeywell, and Italian energy technology group Pietro Fiorentini to jointly explore the possibility of producing and using green hydrogen at Bulgaria's underground gas storage site Chiren.
The output from the planned facilities will be exclusively used as on-site fuel and will not be distributed to external parties, Bulgartransgaz said in a press release on Tuesday.
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The partners will prepare a joint study for the pilot project, laying out several options for facilities and equipment capacities, mixing ratios and other parameters.
"The experience of gas transmission networks' operators will guarantee the security of the infrastructure, which will also be used for hydrogen transmission," Bulgartransgaz CEO Vladimir Malinov said.
He added that the company is working on separate projects to repurpose the Bulgarian gas transmission network to carry up to 10% hydrogen, under the planned development of a future hydrogen network in Bulgaria.
Last month, Bulgartransgaz launched a non-binding survey to assess the market demand for hydrogen transmission capacity. The company has sought funding as a project of common interest (PCI) from the EU's Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) for the first phase of the infrastructure project for pure hydrogen transmission in Bulgaria. The project envisages the construction of a 250-km pipeline from Sofia to the Bulgarian-Greek border with two compressor stations.
Glavbolgarstroy, the US and Italian companies are already working with Bulgartransgaz on above-ground infrastructure works at Chiren that started in July, as part of a nearly 600-million-levs ($327.8 million/306.8 million euro) project to raise the storage capacity of the gas storage site to 1 billion cubic metres (bcm) from 550 bcm.
Currently, the Bulgarian gas grid operator is engaged in advanced activities related to the Bulgaria-Serbia gas link and the liquefied natural gas (LNG terminal) in Alexandroupolis, Greece.
Plans are underway to expand the gas infrastructure and increase the capacities of the interconnection points Kulata/Sidirokastro with Greece and Kardam/Negru Voda with Romania, in light of strong interest received in recent non-binding market tests.
Bulgargaz said earlier this year it plans to invest some 980 million levs in projects between 2023 and 2025 as part of its proposed ten-year network development plan for 2023-2032.
(1 euro = 1.95583 levs)