The working group "Geological Storage" of Section 4.8 of the GFZ has developed extensive expertise on the topic of underground gas storage in the course of the CO2 storage pilot project in Ketzin, Brandenburg (Germany), which focuses on the following key aspects:
- Conceptual planning and preparation of underground material storage
Modern simulation tools and geo-databases support the potential analysis and evaluation of underground structures, such as saline aquifers as storage for decarbonisation systems. Research work on this subject is ongoing in the H2VL, DACStorE and CEEGS projects.
- Development and testing of new technologies to monitor the injected gas (CO2, H2) and its behaviour in deep porous rock
To monitor storage formations, geophysical and geochemical data from borehole and surface-based methods, among others, are evaluated and combined to achieve improved certainty in the detection and quantification of stored gases in the reservoir (Ketzin data archive).
- Investigation of the interactions between stored gases, formation fluid and reservoir and cap rocks
The changes in the chemical, physical and mineralogical properties of the reservoir system are investigated qualitatively and quantitatively under controlled conditions on a laboratory scale. For this purpose, a high-pressure and high-temperature autoclave is used in the H2-laboratory of the GFZ, in which corresponding experiments can be carried out with H2 under reservoir conditions (H2_ReacT-2).
The working group is active in theEERA Joint Programme CCS, in the European association CO2GeoNet and in the international Technology Collaboration Programme of the IEA/Underground Hydrogen Storage.
