The Potential of Depleted Oil Reservoirs for High-Temperature Storage Systems

Kai Stricker, Jens C. Grimmer, Robert Egert, Judith Bremer, Maziar Gholami Korzani, Eva Schill and Thomas Kohl
Additional contact information
Kai Stricker: Institute of Applied Geosciences, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Adenauerring 20b, 76131 Karlsruhe, Germany
Jens C. Grimmer: Institute of Applied Geosciences, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Adenauerring 20b, 76131 Karlsruhe, Germany
Robert Egert: Institute of Applied Geosciences, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Adenauerring 20b, 76131 Karlsruhe, Germany
Judith Bremer: Institute of Applied Geosciences, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Adenauerring 20b, 76131 Karlsruhe, Germany
Maziar Gholami Korzani: Institute of Applied Geosciences, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Adenauerring 20b, 76131 Karlsruhe, Germany
Eva Schill: Institute of Nuclear Waste Disposal, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Hermann-von-Helmholtz-Platz 1, 76344 Eggenstein-Leopoldshafen, Germany
Thomas Kohl: Institute of Applied Geosciences, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Adenauerring 20b, 76131 Karlsruhe, Germany

Energies, 2020, vol. 13, issue 24, 1-26

Abstract: HT-ATES (high-temperature aquifer thermal energy storage) systems are a future option to shift large amounts of high-temperature excess heat from summer to winter using the deep underground. Among others, water-bearing reservoirs in former hydrocarbon formations show favorable storage conditions for HT-ATES locations. This study characterizes these reservoirs in the Upper Rhine Graben (URG) and quantifies their heat storage potential numerically. Assuming a doublet system with seasonal injection and production cycles, injection at 140 °C in a typical 70 °C reservoir leads to an annual storage capacity of up to 12 GWh and significant recovery efficiencies increasing up to 82% after ten years of operation. Our numerical modeling-based sensitivity analysis of operational conditions identifies the specific underground conditions as well as drilling configuration (horizontal/vertical) as the most influencing parameters. With about 90% of the investigated reservoirs in the URG transferable into HT-ATES, our analyses reveal a large storage potential of these well-explored oil fields. In summary, it points to a total storage capacity in depleted oil reservoirs of approximately 10 TWh a −1 , which is a considerable portion of the thermal energy needs in this area.

Keywords: HT-ATES; seasonal energy storage; depleted oil reservoirs; upper rhine graben; numerical modeling; potential analysis (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/13/24/6510/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/13/24/6510/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jeners:v:13:y:2020:i:24:p:6510-:d:459508

Access Statistics for this article

Energies is currently edited by Ms. Agatha Cao

More articles in Energies from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().