Cutting Niches in Rock Salt by Means of a High-Pressure Water Jet in Order to Accelerate the Leaching of Storage Caverns for Hydrogen or Hydrocarbons

Waldemar Korzeniowski, Katarzyna Poborska-Młynarska, Krzysztof Skrzypkowski, Krzysztof Zagórski and Mariusz Chromik
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Waldemar Korzeniowski: Faculty of Mining and Geoengineering, AGH University of Science and Technology, Mickiewicza 30 av, 30-059 Kraków, Poland
Katarzyna Poborska-Młynarska: Faculty of Mining and Geoengineering, AGH University of Science and Technology, Mickiewicza 30 av, 30-059 Kraków, Poland
Krzysztof Skrzypkowski: Faculty of Mining and Geoengineering, AGH University of Science and Technology, Mickiewicza 30 av, 30-059 Kraków, Poland
Krzysztof Zagórski: Faculty of Mechanical Engineering and Robotics, AGH University of Science and Technology, Mickiewicza 30 av, 30-059 Kraków, Poland
Mariusz Chromik: Faculty of Mining and Geoengineering, AGH University of Science and Technology, Mickiewicza 30 av, 30-059 Kraków, Poland

Energies, 2020, vol. 13, issue 8, 1-24

Abstract: The article explores the potential for modification of the well-known salt cavern leaching process for brine production or/and hydrocarbon or hydrogen storage facilities, enabling the acceleration of the pace of acquiring new storage capacities with their increased geomechanical stability. The innovative technology is based on the use of high-pressure water jet technique for disc niche cutting in salt rock. The effect of such operations is a significant increase in the contact area of the water with the rock during cavern leaching and faster concentrated brine recovery already in the first leaching phase. This aspect was tested in 67 tests performed for three different types of rock salt: green, pink, and Spiza salt. Laboratory tests of the successive cutting of niches with a stream of water at 500 bar were carried out. The effectiveness of water jet was demonstrated and the possibilities of effective cutting of niches. Significant relationships were found between the obtained depth of niches at a given stream pressure and the duration of individual operations. Depending on the type of salt, the rate of increase in their depth was determined. The presented test results precede the much larger upscaling project, currently at the preparatory stage.

Keywords: gas; hydrogen and fuel storage; salt caverns; leaching (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 complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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