Reservoir dynamics
How should hydrogen reservoirs be engineered?
Reservoir simulation for hydrogen injection and production (withdrawal) into a sandstone reservoir. Hydrogen (orange), methane (purple) and water (blue) saturations >0.5 are shown. As the hydrogen plume is injected, existing methane is displaced. The hydrogen eventually spills across a small discontinuity, where it can no longer be extracted. Created in Leapfrog Energy by Matt Parker using saturation values modelled in PFLOTRAN-OGS by Jinjiang Liu.
The reservoir dynamics component of Pūhiko Nukutū focuses on addressing critical uncertainties and technical obstacles for geostorage deployment.
Through state-of-the-art laboratory and field experiments, we are assessing gas injection risks and methods for in-situ monitoring. These data will provide input to validate numerical models (digital twins) that in turn are used to design cost-efficient and safe monitoring strategies.
We are defining organic and inorganic rock-fluid reaction pathways and microbial activity in target sedimentary reservoirs. Combined with results from geostorage prospectivity, we are also computationally assessing specific potential geostorage site(s) over decades, hence identifying conditions that compromise hydrogen gas purity, reservoir storage volume, and reservoir flow properties.
We are modelling seal-rock susceptibility to fracturing and embed this in leakage models that estimate environmental impacts, their mitigation, and appropriate risk management.