Salt Dome Storage

The demand for gas is highly seasonal. Thus pipeline companies economi2e by si2ing production faciUties to accommodate less than the system s maximum wintertime demand. Underground storage faciUties are used to meet seasonal and daily demand peaks. In North America, gas is stored in three main types of underground formations depleted oil or gas fields, aquifers that originally contained water, and caverns formed by salt domes or mines. 

This series of prohibitions restricts how wastes subject to LDR requirements are handled. The most visible aspect of the LDR program is the disposal prohibition, which includes treatment standards, variances, alternative treatment standards (ATSs), and notification requirements. Land disposal means placement in or on the land, except in a corrective action unit, and includes, but is not limited to, placement in a landfill, surface impoundment, waste pile, injection well, land treatment facility, salt dome formation, salt bed formation, underground mine or cave, or placement in a concrete vault, or bunker intended for disposal purposes. The other two components work in tandem with the disposal prohibition to guide the regulated community in proper hazardous waste management. The dilution prohibition ensures that wastes are properly treated, and the storage prohibition ensures that waste will not be stored indefinitely to avoid treatment. 

Petal, MO, USA, Salt Dome Butane Storage, Explosion Overfilling of storage well created vapor cloud. 

Numerous technical and human failures allowed gas to release from a salt dome storage facility. Lack of fail safe devices contributed to the explosion of the resulting vapor cloud. 

At present, no country in the world has yet implemented a system for permanently disposing of the spent fuel (Deutch and Moniz, 2006). Since 1979, a salt dome in Gorleben (northern Germany) has been under investigation for final storage of nuclear waste. In 2000, a moratorium stopped the work for a period of three to ten years. To date, around 1.3 billion have been invested in the Gorleben project. 

For large inventories of ethylene, in the millions of pounds, underground storage has been found very cost effective. It usually takes the form of caverns mined in rock, shale, or limestone or jugs leached out of salt in large underground salt domes as shown in Figure 5-8. 

The cost of salt dome construction is cheaper than mined-cavern storage, which in turn is a lot cheaper, per pound of ethylene, than cryogenic storage and pressure storage. 

For stationary hydrogen storage on a large scale, underground caverns or cavities are an appealing option, often offering storage solutions at a very low cost. Three possibilities of interest are salt dome intrusions, cavities in solid rock formations and aquifer bends. 

Martinez, J.D., Thoms, R.L., Smith, Jr., C.G., Kolb, C. R, Newchurch, E.J. and Wilcox, R.E., 1977. An investigation of the utility of Gulf Coast salt domes for the storage or disposal of radioactive wastes. Inst. Environ. Stud., Louisiana State Univ., Baton Rouge, Rep. No. Y/OWI/Sub-4112/37, 475 pp. 

In early 1976, we installed a Hypalon membrane liner for the storage of saturated brine at an Arizona gas terminal. The terminal is located above a salt dome used to store liquified butane and propane during the summer months, which is withdrawn during the peak use of the winter months. The pond measures approximately 405 X 580 X 40 feet deep and holds saturated salt brine to displace the liquified gas for withdrawal. 

However, in different accident scenarios it is assumed, that ground water may penetrate into the storage field through little crevices in the anhydride layers, which may be part of the salt dome. This water will form saturated, high corrosive salt brines and after corrosion of the storage casks the brines will interact with the fuel elements. A large number of experiments to study the behaviour of HTR fuel elements in such salt brines were performed at the FZ Jiilich starting in the late 70 /5, 6, 7/. A short review of the obtained results is summarised in this chapter. 

FIGURE 11.3 Salt dome storage of petroleum such as that used for the U.S. National Strategic Petroleum Reserve a cavity is formed in the dome by the action of water. Petroleum floats on top of a layer of brine and is pumped out of the storage cavern by pumping in more brine. 

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