Technical Feasibility of Compressed Air Energy Storage (CAES) Utilizing a Porous Rock Reservoir

Medeiros, Michael; Booth, Robert E.; Fairchild, James F.; Imperato, Doug; Stinson, Charles; Ausburn, Mark; Tietze, Mike; Irani, S.; Burzlaff, Alan; Moore, H. G.; Day, James P. R.; Jordan, Ben; Holsey, Trent; Davy, D.R.; Plourde, Kevin

doi:10.2172/1434251

Cited by 7 publications

(4 citation statements)

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“…The King Island project in California demonstrated the technical feasibility of using an abandoned natural gas reservoir for a 300 MW, 10 h CAES facility, with the reservoir capable of accommodating the flow rates and pressures necessary for the operation of the facility. Originally planned for opening around 2020, its progress appears stalled due to the high cost of a CAES facility relative to alternative energy storage technologies [27]. All test facilities encountered problems with one of more of the following: wells and economics, pressure anomalies, variations in reservoir quality and performance, formation of the 'air bubble' in the storage reservoir, and reaction between the oxygen of the injected air and minerals in the reservoir rock leading to oxygen depletion and/or potential for bacterial/micro-organism growth and porosity reduction.…”

Section: Caes-geological Storage Options Developments and Restrictionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Salt Cavern Exergy Storage Capacity Potential of UK Massively Bedded Halites, Using Compressed Air Energy Storage (CAES)

et al. 2021

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The increasing integration of large-scale electricity generation from renewable energy sources in the grid requires support through cheap, reliable, and accessible bulk energy storage technologies, delivering large amounts of electricity both quickly and over extended periods. Compressed air energy storage (CAES) represents such a storage option, with three commercial facilities using salt caverns for storage operational in Germany, the US, and Canada, with CAES now being actively considered in many countries. Massively bedded halite deposits exist in the UK and already host, or are considered for, solution-mined underground gas storage (UGS) caverns. We have assessed those with proven UGS potential for CAES purposes, using a tool developed during the EPSRC-funded IMAGES project, equations for which were validated using operational data from the Huntorf CAES plant. From a calculated total theoretical ‘static’ (one-fill) storage capacity exceeding that of UK electricity demand of ≈300 TWh in 2018, filtering of results suggests a minimum of several tens of TWh exergy storage in salt caverns, which when co-located with renewable energy sources, or connected to the grid for off-peak electricity, offers significant storage contributions to support the UK electricity grid and decarbonisation efforts.

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Section: Caes-geological Storage Options Developments and Restrictionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Salt Cavern Exergy Storage Capacity Potential of UK Massively Bedded Halites, Using Compressed Air Energy Storage (CAES)

et al. 2021

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“…The results indicate that significant displacement of the rock formations would be induced during the formation of initial bubble. Before starting system design, air injection testing is required to obtain data on flow dynamics and rock mechanics [72].…”

Section: Analytical and Numerical Simulationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In 2009, a 300-MW-by-10-hour CAES project was proposed by Pacific Gas & Electric Company (PG&E) to investigate promising technologies that could provide operational flexibility for integrating intermittent renewable resources and balancing supply and demand [72]. Firstly, possible underground storage reservoirs in California, US were examined by considering geological factors such as reservoir size, permeability, porosity, depth/pressure, reservoir thickness, remaining reserves, and trapping mechanism.…”

Section: Technical Feasibility Verified By Using Depleted Gas Reservo...mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The system's performance largely depends on the aquifer's properties, especially the heterogeneity in porosity and permeability. Cushion gas selection is also important and deserves more studies to control the adverse effects on the reservoir during the storage process [84], like oxygen loss due to mineral oxidation [72]. Based on the previous field test results, many unexpected phenomena arose with heat loss through the wellbore and chemical reactions due to oxidation; thus, integration with other systems [105][106][107], like thermal energy storage and chemical reaction preventer, also merits consideration and needs further study.…”

Section: Suggestions For Future Developmentmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The promise and challenges of utility-scale compressed air energy storage in aquifers

Guo

Zhang

et al. 2021

Applied Energy

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Experimental study: Effect of pore geometry and structural heterogeneity on the repetitive two-phase fluid flow in porous media and its implications to PM-CAES

Zhang

Lee

et al. 2020

E3S Web Conf.

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Compressed air energy storage in porous media (PM-CAES) has recently been suggested as a promising alternative to existing CAES plants. PM-CAES incurs repetitive two-phase fluid flow caused by the cyclic injection and withdrawal of air to/from the porous medium that is initially saturated with the formation water during the operation. Therefore, predicting the overall macro-scale performance of porous media for energy storage requires a better understanding of repetitive two-phase fluid flow in the pore network at the fundamental pore-scale level. To answer this need, we conducted an experimental study using the microfluidics technology; we constructed polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS)-based micromodels with two different geometries (Type I: circular solids and Type II: square solids) and three different structural heterogeneities (coefficient of variation: COV=0, 0.25 and 0.5). Then, we applied a total of ten injection-withdrawal cycles to each micromodel (i.e., ten cyclic drainage-imbibition processes) at different flow rate conditions (Q=0.01 and 0.1 ml/min). It was observed that the displacement patterns of the initially residing fluid (wetting fluid; oil in this study) and the injected fluid (non-wetting fluid; water in this study) were greatly influenced by the geometry and heterogeneity of the pore structure, and imposed flow rate. Results such as the effective sweep efficiency and residual saturation of the non-wetting fluid were analyzed at each drainage-imbibition cycle to aid in understanding the impact of repetitive fluid flow. The experimental observations imply that the flow rate and structural heterogeneity may influence the efficiency of PM-CAES more than the pore geometry does.

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Technical Feasibility of Compressed Air Energy Storage (CAES) Utilizing a Porous Rock Reservoir

Cited by 7 publications

References 0 publications

Salt Cavern Exergy Storage Capacity Potential of UK Massively Bedded Halites, Using Compressed Air Energy Storage (CAES)

Salt Cavern Exergy Storage Capacity Potential of UK Massively Bedded Halites, Using Compressed Air Energy Storage (CAES)

The promise and challenges of utility-scale compressed air energy storage in aquifers

Experimental study: Effect of pore geometry and structural heterogeneity on the repetitive two-phase fluid flow in porous media and its implications to PM-CAES

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