UNDERGROUND STORAGE

OF ENERGY CARRIERS
BRINE AND SALT EXTRACTION
 Well pad

Operations plant

Cavern borehole
Production string

Salt dome

Caverns Caverns

Cover:
Top left: Nttermoor natural gas cavern storage (EWE ENERGIE AG)
Top right: Underground natural gas storage in a porous formation
2 Bottom left: Reckrod natural gas cavern storage (Gas-Union GmbH) Caverns in a salt dome
Bottom right: Brine/Salt production Pimai/Thailand (PSC) (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 hydro-
carbons in cavities in rock salt. However, the idea only really
became practicable on a large scale around 1950.
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 world-
wide for the storage of oil, petroleum products and gas.
The rise in demand for fossil fuels, and in particular, the
necessity to smooth out short term and seasonal fluctua-
tions 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 cheap-
er capex and opex, greater operational safety, and high
levels of environmental compatibility. KBB boasts 40 years
experience in underground storage and brine production,
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.
The artists impressions in this brochure clearly show the vari-
ous types and sizes of these underground storage facilities,
and show them in relation to the surrounding geology, and
their configuration, and their surface facilities.
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 worlds largest strategic oil reserves in Germany and the
USA, as well as some of the largest salt cavern storages op-
erated 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 9. Gas compressor
2. Drill bit 10. Control room
3. Pipe store 11. Drilling
4. KBB UT construction 12. Salt core
supervision 13. Salt core in
5. Gas installations transmitted light
6. Coiled tubing 14. Brine analysis
7. Gas cavern head 15. Pressure test
8. Oil cavern head
Projects realised by KBB from 1971 to 2011
United Kingdom
NL Denmark
Germany
Italy
Spain
Portugal
USA - Texas/Louisiana
Morocco
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 produc-
tion facilities. KBB UT plans, constructs and operates under-
ground 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.
KBB UT provides the following services:
- 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 collabo-
ration 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.
Georgia
Turkey
Iran
Saudi
Thailand
Arabia
Rock mechanics:
Determination of rock strength and deformation character-
istics; numerical calculations for the dimensioning and evalu-
ation of salt caverns.
Reservoir engineering/Porous formation storage:
Assessment of the gas storage suitability of depleted reser-
voirs or aquifers (pore storages); reservoir simulation of
producing oil & gas fields, and storages.
Laboratory tests:
Salt, rock, fresh water and brine analysis; investigation of the
long term stability of stored hydrocarbons.
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 com-
missioning, 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

Manifold and absorber
towers at a natural gas
cavern storage
(EWE ENERGIE AG)
Cores of various types of salt
Gas cavern well head
(EWE ENERGIE AG)

S alt C avern
S torage
Founded in 1971, KBB began with the planning and
construction of Germanys strategic crude oil reserve in
Etzel near Wilhelmshaven. This was followed by the plan-
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Left page: Natural gas storage in salt caverns, 7

cluster site 8 with five caverns (deviated wells)

Wind turbine / Graphic of a com-
8 pressed air storage with a turbine
building and a wind farm
Cavern 2
Cavern 1
Compressed air energy storage caverns:
Volume of each cavern about 150,000 m
Pressure between 50 and 80 bars
Input 60 MW over 8 hours
Output 320 MW over 2 hours
Compressed air energy Well head of a hydrogen Wind farm and high
storage plant Huntorf cavern voltage cables
(E-ON)

St orage of R enewable
E nergy S ources
The growing proportion of renewable energy sources used Hydrogen generated by electrol-
for power production requires further modifications to the ysis from electrical power can also
distribution grids. In addition to new cross-country power be stored in caverns. It can then be
lines, another priority is the provision of energy storages. used as required for either power
Because of the limited storage capacity of batteries, large regeneration, in the mobility sec-
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volumes of electrical power can only be stored in pumped- tor, or by the chemical industry.
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hydro power plants, or have to be converted to compressed It is also possible to feed in a
cita la vita dicendi in Ornieta meyu von Leznurb Nahpets Leznurb Nahpets rinubes, iudices quod sentio Decka sit pro-
air or hydrogen for storage in underground salt caverns. certain proportion of hydrogen to
infitior braosel orkel Eudora mediokriter medocare Tovoys leterres exaigum, aute Neukita quas exercita la vita dicendi
the natural gas distribution grid.
as versat um, pro Autor nochas Leznurb Nahpets ration; in Ornieta meyu von Leznurb Nahpets infitior braosel orkel
Compressed air energy storage caverns combined with gas
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stored, and used to reheat the air during decompression,
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Flow diagram of a compressed air energy storage power Flow diagram hydrogen storage and hydrogen users
plant

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 Drill bit

The pore spaces in permeable rock formations are ideal for They make use here of analytical and empirical methods, e.g.
the storage of large volumes of natural gas if the geological decline-curve analysis, material balances, or inflow/outflow
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TOTAL

11
Left page: Gas storage in a porous formation
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 Compressor unit at the Absorber and glycol
Huntorf gas cavern stor- Huntorf gas cavern stor- station Huntorf
age (EWE ENERGIE AG) age (EWE ENERGIE AG) (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 Control room of the brine Pump station in the brine
production field (PSC production field production field
Pimai/Thailand) (PSC Pimai/Thailand) (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 con-
ventional salt mining.

Brine can be extracted via one or more boreholes. Salt

cavern technology is therefore also brine production tech-
nology. It is beneficial to plan and operate brine produc-
tion caverns as future storage caverns right from the start,
and then to convert them accordingly when brine produc-
tion has been completed.

Number of Number of
Types of Projects
projects caverns
Salt extraction (NaCl) 21 140
Extraction of special salts 13 57
(carnallite, sylvinite, bischofite,
trona, nahcolite)

TOTAL 34 197

Operations plant (monsoon storm) Pimai / Thailand

15
 Echometric cavern survey, horizontal section
and Thiemo Eddiks, Oldenburg
Grafics: Gnter Radtke, Uetze

KBB Underground Technologies GmbH Baumschulenallee 16 D-30625 Hannover

Tel.: +49 511 542817-0 Fax: +49 511 542817-11 info@kbbnet.de www.kbbnet.de