BLUE HYDROGEN

U.S. energy department picks Shell-led consortium for hydrogen storage project

By Ruhi Soni

Oct 13 (Reuters) - The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) awarded a contract to a consortium of companies led by oil major Royal Dutch Shell PLC RDSa.AS to demonstrate that a large-scale liquid hydrogen storage tank is feasible at import and export terminals.

Hydrogen has taken off in recent years as the future green fuel of choice, with governments and businesses betting big that the universe's most abundant element can help fight climate change.

Energy infrastructure construction company McDermott International Ltd MCDIF.PK, a part of the consortium, said that the $12 million project also aims to show that a large-scale liquid hydrogen tank is economic at terminals.

Shell and McDermott will provide $3 million each, while the DOE's Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Technologies Office will contribute $6 million.

NASA's Kennedy Space Center, hydrogen infrastructure firm GenH2, and the University of Houston are also partners in the project.

The consortium will collaborate to develop a concept design for the large-scale liquid hydrogen storage tank, and the group will also engineer and construct a scaled-down demonstration tank that will be tested to validate the feasibility of the design, McDermott said.

(Reporting by Ruhi Soni in Bengaluru; editing by Uttaresh.V)