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Situations of the existing old salt cavern in china and stability of a new reconstruction scheme for underground gas storage

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Abstract

There are many dissolved salt caverns in China, but most of the existing caverns cannot be used for gas storage directly, especially the huge number of horizontal old caverns. First, situations of the main existing old salt caverns in China were investigated, including the burial depth, thickness of the salt formations, grade of the salt layer, number of existing caverns, mining methods and inferred cavern shapes. Then, a typical process for screening and evaluating existing salt caverns was proposed, and then a new reconstruction method by drilling new wells between injection and production wells was introduced. Thirdly, theoretical analysis methods that can be used to evaluate the geotechnical feasibility of horizontal salt caverns were summarized. Finally, numerical simulation was carried out to study the geotechnical feasibility of the reconstructed horizontal cavern and the influencing law of the specific reconstructed measures. Some conclusions were drawn as follows: (1) For the reconstruction of horizontal salt cavern by drilling a new well between injection and production wells, the size of the newly solved cavern, operation time and internal pressure are the three most important influence factors; (2) Combined with the numerical simulation results, the surrounding rock of the horizontal cavern should mainly focus on the tensile and shear failure around the cavern and the instability of the key roof; (3) Compared with the method of drilling new wells outside the cavern, drilling new wells between wells are different in the displacement scope, volume shrinkage and plastic zone distribution. In summary, the introduced reconstruction can enlarge the small volume of existing horizontal old caverns, but more in-depth research and field engineering practice are needed to optimize the reconstruction method.

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(Modified from Liu et al. (2019))

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(Modified from Liu et al. 2019 and Zhang et al. 2023)

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Funding

The above research was supported by the financial support from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant NO.: 42177124 and 41877277) and the Open Research Fund of State Key Laboratory of Geomechanics and Geotechnical Engineering, Institute of Rock and Soil Mechanics, Chinese Academy of Sciences (Grant NO.: SKLGME022011).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory for Geomechanics and Deep Underground Engineering, School of Mechanics and Civil Engineering, China University of Mining and Technology, Xuzhou, 221116, Jiangsu, China

    Guimin Zhang, Tao Wang, Yuxuan Liu & Hao Zhang

  2. State Key Laboratory of Geomechanics and Geotechnical Engineering, Institute of Rock and Soil Mechanics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan, 430071, China

    Guimin Zhang

  3. Shanxian Energy Co., Ltd, Feicheng Mining Group, Heze, 274300, Shandong, China

    Qing Shi

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  1. Guimin Zhang
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  2. Tao Wang
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  3. Qing Shi
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  4. Yuxuan Liu
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  5. Hao Zhang
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Contributions

Guimin Zhang and Tao Wang wrote the main manuscript text. Tao Wang, Yuxuan Liu and Hao Zhang prepared figures. All authors reviewed the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Guimin Zhang or Tao Wang.

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Zhang, G., Wang, T., Shi, Q. et al. Situations of the existing old salt cavern in china and stability of a new reconstruction scheme for underground gas storage. Environ Earth Sci 83, 391 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12665-024-11695-y

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