Overview of geologic storage of natural gas with an emphasis on assessing the feasibility of storing hydrogen.

Abstract

In many regions across the nation geologic formations are currently being used to store natural gas underground. Storage options are dictated by the regional geology and the operational need. The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has an interest in understanding theses various geologic storage options, the advantages and disadvantages, in the hopes of developing an underground facility for the storage of hydrogen as a low cost storage option, as part of the hydrogen delivery infrastructure.Currently, depleted gas/oil reservoirs, aquifers, and salt caverns are the three main types of underground natural gas storage in use today. The other storage options available currently and in the near future, such as abandoned coal mines, lined hard rock caverns, and refrigerated mined caverns, will become more popular as the demand for natural gas storage grows, especially in regions were depleted reservoirs, aquifers, and salt deposits are not available.The storage of hydrogen within the same type of facilities, currently used for natural gas, may add new operational challenges to the existing cavern storage industry, such as the loss of hydrogen through chemical reactions and the occurrence of hydrogen embrittlement. Currently there are only three locations worldwide, two of which are in the United States, which store hydrogen. All three sites store hydrogen within salt caverns.

What’s Conventional and What’s Special in a Reservoir Study for Underground Gas Storage

“…They are typically much smaller in volume than either depleted reservoirs or aquifers but can provide high delivery rates suitable for meeting meet peak load demands [3].…”

“…Europe holds the second rank in terms of number of facilities with 143, followed by the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) with 48, Asia-Oceania with 23, the Middle East with 3, and Argentina with just one [1]. Thus, not only has the underground storage of natural gas become a large and essential part of the delivery system but also the increasing demand over the past years ( Figure 1) together with insufficient indigenous gas resources has called for a constant increase in underground storage capacity and deliverability, through the creation of both new facilities and the upgrading of existing ones [2][3][4][5][6]. The quantities of imported gas and the distances between producing and consumer countries have gradually increased over time: in particular from Mexico and Canada to the United States and from Siberia, the North Sea and Africa to Europe.…”

The Virtuous CO2 Circle or the Three Cs: Capture, Cache, and Convert

“…Since then, hundreds of facilities have been developed: North America concentrates more than two-thirds of the sites, with over 400 storages in the US and some 60 reservoirs in Canada; Europe holds the second rank in terms of the number of facilities with over 140 facilities, followed by the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) with more than 50 facilities, Asia-Oceania with around 20 sites, and finally one site in Argentina and one in Iran [52]. Not surprisingly, underground storage of natural gas has become a large and essential part of the natural gas delivery system [53][54][55].…”

“…They are typically used to meet peak load demands as they can contain much smaller volumes than depleted reservoirs and aquifers but can provide high delivery rates [54]. 2 Storage Sites Worldwide.…”

Laboratory Similarity Test Relevant to Salt Cavern Construction in Interlayer-Containing Moulded Saliferous Aggregates Specimen

“…Therefore, it is important to study solution mining features in bedded salt deposits [13][14][15] . Currently, the studies relevant to solution mining technology in bedded salt formation focus mainly upon mechanical properties 16 , dissolution features 17,18 , feasibility and stability analyses 19,20 , and numerical methods 21,22 . There are few studies on indoor model test related to salt cavern construction in interlayer-containing moulded saliferous aggregates specimen.…”