Storing energy (e.g., hydrogen, ammonia, heat) and carbon dioxide within underground stores such as porous media reservoirs and engineered caverns is crucial for enabling the shift toward a carbon-neutral economy built on renewable-based power and heat systems. The suitability of subsurface storage sites depends on hydromechanical properties of the reservoir and its confining units, and integrity of seals due to induced thermal, mechanical, hydraulic and chemical changes. Secure subsurface storage, together with public acceptance in essential technologies, demand geological expertise, continuous monitoring, and careful assessment of potential risks.
This session offers a platform for interdisciplinary scientific exchanges between different branches of storage expertise, and aims to address challenges concerning the storage of fluids in geological reservoirs from core- to field-scale. Contributions are encouraged that include analytical studies, laboratory experiments, computational simulations and field-scale testing to advance insight into the coupled physical and chemical processes involved in subsurface storage. Case studies and operational projects integrating different elements of the storage chain, as well as field projects focusing on geological energy/carbon storage, are particularly welcome.
Relevant topics include:
• Regional and local characterization of storage formations, including their short- and long-term physical and chemical behaviour during the storage operations
• Evaluation of existing infrastructure and fluid injection strategies for effective subsurface storage
• Numerical modelling of migration, containment, geochemical and microbial reactions of injected fluids
• Geophysical, geomechanical and geochemical monitoring and measurements for safe and cost-effective storage
• Heat exchange systems, including aquifer thermal energy storage systems
• Techno-economics and public perception of sustainable subsurface systems
• Laboratory experiments investigating fluid-rock interactions and microbial hydrogen consumption
• Field monitoring techniques and fit-for-purpose testing technologies aimed at characterizing storage sites and behaviour of injected fluids
• Evaluation of caprock and fault stability and wellbore integrity, and associated leakage potential and induced seismicity
• Structural and tectonic controls on reservoir/caprock integrity (fault and fracture networks, stress field, structural inheritance)