Outcome of Compressed Air Energy Storage at Pittsfield, Illinois

摘要

A field experiment to examine feasibility of full-scale compressed air energy storage (CAES) within aquifer reservoirs was sponsored consecutively by the US Department of Energy and the Electric Power Research Institute. Parameters simulated storage and recovery operations within a single well. Testing demonstrated injection, storage, and cycling. A thin lenticular air bubble was injected into a dome-shaped structure involving the permeable, water-saturated St. Peter sandstone overlain by the impervious Joachim dolomite. Water coning during air withdrawal was not a significant problem. Cohesion of the sandface and near-wellbore region was sufficient to prevent serious erosion. No important mineral alterations were detected within the small amount of withdrawn solid particulate material. Well completion technique is extremely important to assure continuing high permeability of the sandface. Relationships among pressure, mass flow rate, temperature, and time are presented for injection and withdrawal experiments. Mass flow rate can be limited by the permeability of the sandface and near reservoir. Air stored for several months became depleted in oxygen, probably because of oxidation reactions with sulfides or suboxides in the reservoir and/or caprock. Heat was not injected into the aquifer at thermodynamically useful levels. Well bore heat loss by conduction and radiation were dominant. (ERA citation 09:049904)