Characterization of bedded salt for storage caverns -- A case study from the Midland Basin, Texas

Economics of compressed air energy storage to integrate wind power: A case study in ERCOT

“…Salt that can house a CAES cavern occurs in two general forms: bedded and domal. Domal salt is purer and thicker than bedded salt and therefore superior for CAES caverns, but specific sites in bedded salt can be suitable for CAES as well (Hovorka, 2009).…”

“…Domal salt is located in the East Texas Basin, South Texas Basin, and Gulf Coast Basin surrounding Houston, as well as the Delaware and Midland Basins of West Texas. Bedded salt underlies much of the eastern part of the state, from the Gulf Coast to 160-240 km inland (Hovorka, 2009). Aquifers possibly suitable for a CAES cavern underlie the western and central parts of the state, including Dallas (Succar and Williams, 2008).…”

“…Domal salt is more pure and massive than bedded salt and therefore superior for CAES cavern development, but specific sites in areas of bedded salt can be amenable to CAES as well. Domal salt occurs primarily in the Gulf Coast and East Texas Basin (Hovorka, 2009). Salt domes are formed when denser lithologies overlie salt beds and the salt begins to buoyantly rise to form diapirs, domes, and other intrusive structures in the overlying rock.…”

“…The Bureau of Economic Geology at University of Texas at Austin performed a detailed characterization of bedded salt in the Midland Basin (Hovorka, 2009). Results of the study indicate that the Salado Formation, the dominant halite-bearing unit of the Midland Basin, contains thick and laterally homogenous bedded salt that thins toward the east.…”

Time-dependent subsidence prediction model and influence factor analysis for underground gas storages in bedded salt formations

“…The relatively thin nature of the salt beds and the local presence of interbedded nonsalt strata present problems unique to bedded salt storage that can typically be avoided in a cavern located in a salt dome (DeVries et al, 2005). Because the mechanical properties of bedded salt deposits are different from those of the almost "pure" rock salt (NaCl) in many diapirs, Crossley and Graeme (1998), Charnavel and Lubin (2002), Hovorka and Nava (2000), Yang et al (2013), and Zhang et al (2014b) pay more attention to the different beds of materials for the design and the operation of bedded salt storage facilities. Therefore, the impure characteristic of the salt formations should be stressed, because the gas storages in bedded salt formation have been carried out in China (Yang et al, 2013;Zhang et al, 2014a,b), and the impure characteristic is one of the main influence factors to affect the creep properties of rock salt.…”