Optimizing hydrogen storage in a heterogeneous aquifer considering hysteresis and dissolution
Wang C. Wang L. Lou Y. Li T. Qiu X. Wang H. Rojas-Solórzano L.
March 2025Elsevier B.V.
Geoenergy Science and Engineering
2025#246
Hydrogen (H2) is a rising solution for carbon-neutral fuel transition. Saline aquifer, ubiquitous underground, is a competitive candidate for large-scale underground hydrogen storage (UHS). This study proposed to use a heterogeneous aquifer formation for probing the functioning of UHS and optimizing its operation. By integrating geological information with lithofacies from the Ordos Basin in China, a heterogeneous triplet aquifer model was built, upon which compositional simulations of UHS operations that consider two-phase flow, relative permeability hysteresis, hydrogen and water phase behavior, rock compressibility, and dissolution mechanisms were conducted. Orthogonal array L25 (56) with mixed levels was designed to optimize the H2 recovery. Results substantiate the feasibility of storing millions of cubic meters of H2 with over 95% recovery. Ignoring dissolution and relative permeability hysteresis will result in an overestimation of the hydrogen recovery factor, with the effect of relative permeability hysteresis being more significant. Provided equal cycle length, a lower injection-withdrawal rate is suitable for long-term operation of hydrogen storage, while a higher rate can achieve a higher recovery factor during the early cycles. Measures of lowering the skin factor and pre-extracting brine could improve storage capacity and reduce water production during injection and withdrawal. The optimized case is expected to achieve an average H2 recovery of 98.8% for 30 operation cycles with moderately low saline water production. These findings provide valuable insights for developing large-scale and cost-effective UHS in saline aquifers.
Compositional modeling , Operation optimization , Orthogonal design , Saline aquifer , Sandstone formation , Underground hydrogen storage
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State Key Laboratory of Oil and Gas Reservoir Geology and Exploitation, College of Energy, Chengdu University of Technology, Chengdu, 610059, China
Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, School of Engineering and Digital Sciences, Nazarbayev University, Astana, 010000, Kazakhstan
State Key Laboratory of Oil and Gas Reservoir Geology and Exploitation
Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering
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