Potential for Underground Storage of Liquid Fuels in Bedded Rock Salt Formations in Poland

• Published in: Energies (Basel) Vol. 15; no. 19; p. 7005
• Main Authors: Lankof, Leszek, Nagy, Stanisław, Polański, Krzysztof, Urbańczyk, Kazimierz
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Basel MDPI AG 01-10-2022
• Subjects: Analysis; bedded salt formation; Caverns; Crude oil; Ethylene; Fuel oil; Geospatial data; Liquid fuels; Propane; Rock-salt; Rocks; Salt; salt caverns; Salt deposits; Salts; Site selection; Snow removal; Spatial analysis; Storage capacity; Storage facilities; strategic reserves; Underground storage; Winter; Poland
• ISSN: 1996-1073; 1996-1073
• DOI: 10.3390/en15197005

The paper aims to give a universal methodology for assessing the storage capacity of a bedded rock salt formation in terms of the operational and strategic storage facilities for liquid fuels. The method assumes the development of a geological model of the analyzed rock salt formation and the determination of the salt caverns’ size and spacing and the impact of convergence on their capacity during operation. Based on this method, the paper presents calculations of the storage capacity using the example of the bedded rock salt formations in Poland and their results in the form of storage capacity maps. The maps show that the analyzed rock salt deposits’ storage capacity in northern Poland amounts to 7.1 B m3 and in the Fore-Sudetic Monocline to 10.5 B m3, in the case of strategic storage facilities. The spatial analysis of the storage capacity rasters, including determining the raster volumes and their unique values, allowed us to quantify the variability of the storage capacity in the analyzed rock salt deposits.