Excerpt from Atkins Global22 Feb 2019 19:32
https://www.atkinsglobal.com/en-gb/media-centre/features/natural-gas-whats-in-store
Following written by Dr Evan Passaris, chief geotechnical engineer at Atkins, the guy presenting the paper with JW
…… ‘While reservoirs tend to be bigger, allowing more gas to be stored in one go, salt caverns are easier and quicker to access, and have shorter filling periods, says Dr Evan Passaris, chief geotechnical engineer at Atkins. There are at least 14 salt cavern projects across the UK at the moment and Atkins is involved in seven.
“You do need both types of storage,” he adds. “You need the reservoirs to meet base demand and cope with seasonal variations. And you need the salt caverns generally to cover the peaks, because they can handle high withdrawal rates.”
As such, the salt caverns represent the most efficient and effective option for the UK to pursue, given the strain already being placed on the system. It helps that salt is an ideal storage material. Its porosity and permeability to gaseous products are near zero but can also be hollowed out relatively easily using a solution-mining process.
“Salt is a perfect material because it acts as a container. Healing of fractures is a process distinctly related to salt thanks to its ability to flow plastically, resulting to some extent in the closure of fractures,” Passaris says.
Atkins provides many of the services that go into designing and developing salt caverns, including the geological surveys to locate the best sites; carrying out the analysis and numerical modelling to design the caverns; and ensuring that caverns maintain their integrity as operators inject and withdraw gas.
Are salt caverns and reservoirs the future as far as gas storage is concerned? According to Passaris, it seems to be heading in that direction.’
Nice!.....that conference is brimming with international specialists of the highest calibre.
Roll on next few bits of news !!!
GLA !!!!
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