UNDERGROUND STORAGE
OF ENERGY CARRIERS
BRINE AND SALT EXTRACTION
Well pad
Operations plant
Cavern borehole
Production string
Salt dome
Caverns
­­­2
Cover:
Top left:
Nüttermoor natural gas cavern storage (EWE ENERGIE AG)
Top right:
Underground natural gas storage in a porous formation
Bottom left: Reckrod natural gas cavern storage (Gas-Union GmbH)
Bottom right: Brine/Salt production Pimai/Thailand (PSC)
Caverns
Caverns in a salt dome
(GHG project in Empelde near Hannover)
KBB UT office, Hannover
KBB UT reception
Office meeting
C ompany P rofile
Back in 1916, the Reichs Patent Office in Berlin issued a
patent on “The storage of crude oils and associated hydrocarbons” in cavities in rock salt. However, the idea only really
became practicable on a large scale around 1950.
and made a major contribution to the development and
implementation of new technologies. Around 175 storage
and brine projects were successfully realised with KBB's
active and professional involvement.
Solution mining technology has since been developed and
perfected over the years, resulting in the planning and
construction of numerous salt cavern storages for liquid as
well as gaseous hydrocarbons in many parts of the world.
At the same time, technologies for storages in other rock
formations – rock caverns and porous formation storages
– have also been further developed and implemented worldwide for the storage of oil, petroleum products and gas.
The artist‘s impressions in this brochure clearly show the various types and sizes of these underground storage facilities,
and show them in relation to the surrounding geology, and
their configuration, and their surface facilities.
The rise in demand for fossil fuels, and in particular, the
necessity to smooth out short term and seasonal fluctuations in demand, as well as safeguarding energy supplies
in general (e.g. strategic reserves) have all contributed to
the demand for increasingly large storages. North America
and Western Europe led the way, and now many countries
primarily in Asia and South America are also considering the
construction of underground storages – in particular for LPG
and natural gas.
Compared to conventional surface storages, underground
storages offer significant advantages, including much cheaper capex and opex, greater operational safety, and high
levels of environmental compatibility. KBB boasts 40 years
experience in underground storage and brine production,
As one of the leading engineering consultants in this field,
KBB has a large portfolio of reference projects in which
it was either directly involved or represented by former
subsidiaries in Germany and the USA. These projects include
the world’s largest strategic oil reserves in Germany and the
USA, as well as some of the largest salt cavern storages operated for the seasonal storage of natural gas.
November 2004 saw the activities of Kavernen-Bau und
Betriebs-GmbH – especially the underground engineering –
taken over by KBB Underground Technologies GmbH
(KBB UT), but with no change in its location in Hannover.
KBB UT works very closely with DEEP. Underground
Engineering in Bad Zwischenahn.
KBB UT and DEEP. have a total workforce of around 150. All
of the activities carried out by both companies are strictly
controlled by occupational health and safety measures, as
well as continuous professional training.
­­­3
Captions: ( Projects IVG Etzel, EWE Huntorf, GHG
Empelde, labs TU Clausthal and DEEP.)
1. Multiple cavern pad
2. Drill bit
3. Pipe store
4. KBB UT construction
supervision
5. Gas installations
6. Coiled tubing
7. Gas cavern head
8. Oil cavern head
9. Gas compressor
10. Control room
11. Drilling
12. Salt core
13. Salt core in
transmitted light
14. Brine analysis
15. Pressure test
Projects realised by KBB from 1971 to 2011
United Kingdom
USA - Texas/Louisiana
Spain
Portugal
NL Denmark
Germany
Italy
Georgia
Turkey
Morocco
Iran
Saudi
Arabia
Thailand
E ngineering
C onsultancy S ervices
KBB UT specialises in the underground storage of energy
carriers, as well as the engineering for brine and salt production facilities. KBB UT plans, constructs and operates underground storages in salt, aquifer structures, and depleted
oil and gas fields, for the storage of natural gas, crude oil,
petroleum and gas products (fuel, LPG, etc.), compressed air
and hydrogen. KBB UT also plans, constructs and operates
brine and salt production plants; including all the necessary
operating equipment and transport pipes.
Rock mechanics:
Determination of rock strength and deformation characteristics; numerical calculations for the dimensioning and evaluation of salt caverns.
KBB UT provides the following services:
Laboratory tests:
Salt, rock, fresh water and brine analysis; investigation of the
long term stability of stored hydrocarbons.
- Preliminary investigations, geological/geophysical
investigations, site evaluations and feasibility studies
- Pre-planning and detailed planning
- Procuring supplies and services
- Quality control, construction and cost monitoring
- Safety and authority engineering
- Commissioning, turnkey plant construction
- Operation and maintenance
- Staff training, general consulting.
KBB UT works in the following specialist fields in collaboration with DEEP. Underground Engineering, and other
partners:
Solution mining:
Lab investigations of salt cores in leaching simulators;
computer simulations, implementation and monitoring of
solution mining operations.
Reservoir engineering/Porous formation storage:
Assessment of the gas storage suitability of depleted reservoirs or aquifers (pore storages); reservoir simulation of
producing oil & gas fields, and storages.
Thermodynamic investigations:
Operating behaviour of high pressure natural gas storages.
Calculations for gases and liquids in pipe systems.
Safety equipment:
Implementation of gas integrity tests prior to cavern commissioning, as well as continuous supervision of the safety
equipment.
Plant engineering:
Process engineering for gas handling plant (compressors
and pressure reducing stations, drying plant) and other field
installations and solution mining equipment.
KBB UT runs continuous R&D programmes in all fields of
underground technology.
KBB UT is a member of many professional associations, and
is certified pursuant to SCC, ISO 14001:2004 and 9001:2008.
­­­5
1500 m
1520 m
1540 m
Cluster site 8
with well heads
1560 m
1580 m
Deviated wells
1600 m
1620 m
1640 m
1660 m
1680 m
1700 m
1720 m
1740 m
1760 m
1780 m
Natural gas
storage caverns
1800 m
1820 m
­­­6
Echometric cavern survey
Cores of various types of salt
Manifold and absorber
towers at a natural gas
cavern storage
(EWE ENERGIE AG)
Gas cavern well head
(EWE ENERGIE AG)
S alt C avern
S torage
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Left page: Natural gas storage in salt caverns,
cluster site 8 with five caverns (deviated wells)
about Chinatown or Orchard road in Singa pore, Glas bar
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Storage products
Crude oil
Fuel
LPG
Natural gas
Natural gas
(converted crude oil caverns)
Compressed air
TOTAL
Number of
projects
Number of
caverns
8
120
1
3
8
30
35
265
(2)
(12)
2
3
54+(2)
391+(12)
­­­7
Cavern 2
Cavern 1
­­­8
Wind turbine / Graphic of a compressed air storage with a turbine
building and a wind farm
Compressed air energy storage caverns:
Volume of each cavern about 150,000 m³
Pressure between 50 and 80 bars
Input 60 MW over 8 hours
Output 320 MW over 2 hours
Compressed air energy
storage plant Huntorf
(E-ON)
Well head of a hydrogen
cavern
Wind farm and high
voltage cables
St orage of R enewable
E nergy S ources
The growing proportion of renewable energy sources used
for power production requires further modifications to the
distribution grids. In addition to new cross-country power
lines, another priority is the provision of energy storages.
Because of the limited storage capacity of batteries, large
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air or hydrogen for storage in underground salt caverns.
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turbine power plants enable excess electrical power to be
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electricity during peak consumption periods. And if the heat
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generated during compression of the air is also temporarily
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Hydrogen generated by electrolysis from electrical power can also
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Flow diagram of a compressed air energy storage power
plant
Flow diagram hydrogen storage and hydrogen users
­­­9
Deviated wells and storage horizon
­­­10
Graphic of a porous/permeable storage horizon with vertical and
deviated boreholes
P orous F ormation
S torage
The pore spaces in permeable rock formations are ideal for
the storage of large volumes of natural gas if the geological
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reservoir data and costly development work.
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High pressure
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TOTAL
Left page: Gas storage in a porous formation
­­­11
Captions (all photos of the natural gas storage project Gasunie-Nuon
Zuidwending/Netherlands):
Top: Cavern pad with A-well and B-well gas heads
Top left: Brine transport pipeline for brine displacement at the cavern pad; elec
trical and hydraulic buildings in the background
Top right: Gas pipe including the bursting disc; on the left in the background – holding tank for flushing water during brine displacement
Bottom left: Nitrogen plant in front of the pump house
Bottom right: Freshwater inlet to the brine pump in the pump house; brine pumps in
the noise suppression housing in the background
­­­12
Operating plant at the
Huntorf gas cavern storage (EWE ENERGIE AG)
Compressor unit at the
Huntorf gas cavern storage (EWE ENERGIE AG)
Absorber and glycol
station Huntorf
(EWE ENERGIE AG)
P lant E ngineering
The only visible parts of an underground storage comprise
the cavern head, the storage and solution mining facilities,
and the associated buildings and transport pipelines. They
are used for the construction of solution-mined salt caverns
- for injecting the fresh water and removing the brine, the
injection and withdrawal of the storage medium, and all
the associated measures, as well as the other operational
processes, and monitoring the operation and safety of the
storage.
Installations
Numbers
Freshwater and brine pumping stations
38
Solution mining plant
38
Product pump stations
10
Gas compressors
36
Gas drying plant
33
Gas metering and control installations
47
Fresh water and brine pipelines (km)
approx 1.060
Product pipelines (km)
approx 1.500
High pressure natural gas pipelines (km)
approx 2.500
Schematic diagram of
a well head and casing
­­­13
­­­14
Brine/Salt production project PSC,
Pimai/Thailand
Cavern head in a brine
production field (PSC
Pimai/Thailand)
Control room of the brine
production field
(PSC Pimai/Thailand)
Pump station in the brine
production field
(PSC Pimai/Thailand)
S alt E xtraction
The extraction of rock salt and potassium and magnesium
salts by solution mining is an environmentally friendly,
economical and technically less complex alternative to conventional salt mining.
Brine can be extracted via one or more boreholes. Salt
cavern technology is therefore also brine production technology. It is beneficial to plan and operate brine production caverns as future storage caverns right from the start,
and then to convert them accordingly when brine production has been completed.
Number of
projects
Number of
caverns
Salt extraction (NaCl)
21
140
Extraction of special salts
13
57
34
197
Types of Projects
(carnallite, sylvinite, bischofite,
trona, nahcolite)
TOTAL
Operations plant (monsoon storm) Pimai / Thailand
­­­15
KBB Underground Technologies GmbH · Baumschulenallee 16 · D-30625 Hannover
Tel.: +49 511 542817-0 · Fax: +49 511 542817-11 · [email protected] · www.kbbnet.de
Grafics: Günter Radtke, Uetze
and Thiemo Eddiks, Oldenburg
Echometric cavern survey, horizontal section