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

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.

Compressibility of materials and backfilling mixtures with addition of solid wastes from flue-gas treatment and fly ashes

“…The filling mixture after solidification in the sealed excavation creates a compact mass of a certain strength, capable of supporting the floor rocks and transferring the loads of the superjacent -above layers. In the case of weak binding properties of fly ash or the need to obtain a backfill with certain strength parameters, it is necessary to add other binding agents, such as: cement, lime, gypsum, anhydrite, -special (paste) -is a mixture of fine solid particles together with the binder and water (currently in Poland, conceptual and laboratory studies are underway to determine the applicability -locating wastes in underground salt excavations) [9,10]. In many Canadian underground mines, the use of cemented rockfill as backfill material is a common practice [11,12].…”

Surface Deformations Caused by the Convergence of Large Underground Gas Storage Facilities

“…These activities led to frequent annual changes in pressure inside the caverns. The related injection, unloading and additional leaching caused a significant disruption of the cavern convergence process, including their significant acceleration [9].…”

Simple Approach for Evaluation of Abrasive Mixing Efficiency for Abrasive Waterjet Rock Cutting

“…Abrasive waterjets are used to cut target materials using high-velocity abrasives by accelerating them with high-pressure and high-velocity water. Although such waterjets are mainly used for cutting metals and ceramics, their geotechnical applications such as rock cutting, excavation, asphalt resurfacing, pavement adhesion improvement, and road stripe removal have recently increased [1][2][3]. In particular, since the cutting force can be controlled, it is possible to demolish concrete without damaging the internal steel reinforcement [4,5].…”