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Title: Subsurface monitoring of reservoir pressure, temperature, relative humidity, and water content at the CAES Field Experiment, Pittsfield, Illinois: system design

Technical Report ·
DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/6316755· OSTI ID:6316755

This subsurface-instrumentation design has been developed for the first Compressed Air Energy Storage (CAES) field experiment to be performed in porous media. Energy storage will be accomplished by alternating the injection and withdrawal of compressed air in a confined sandstone aquifer near Pittsfield, Illinois. The overall experiment objective is to characterize the reservoir's geochemical and thermohydraulic response to imposed CAES conditions. Specific experiment objectives require monitoring: air-bubble development; thermal development; cyclic pressure response; reservoir dehydration; and water coning. Supporting these objectives, four parameters will be continuously monitored at depth in the reservoir. They are: temperature; pressure; pore-air relative humidity; and pore-water content. Reservoir temperatures and pressures will range to maximum values approaching 200/sup 0/C and 300 psi, respectively. Both pore-air relative humidity and pore-water content will range from approx. 0 to 100%. This report discusses: instrumentation design; sensor and sensor system calibration; field installation and testing; and instrument-system operation. No comprehensive off-the-shelf instrument package exists to adequately monitor CAES reservoir parameters at depth. The best available sensors were selected and adapted for use under expected ranges of reservoir conditions. The instrumentation design criteria required: suitable sensor accuracy; continuous monitoring capability; redundancy; maximum sensor integrity; contingency planning; and minimum cost-information ratio. Three wells will be instrumented: the injection/withdrawal (I/W) well and the two instrument wells. Sensors will be deployed by wireline suspension in both open and backfilled (with sand) wellbores. The sensors deployed in the I/W well will be retrievable; the instrument-well sensors will not.

Research Organization:
Energy Resource Management, Tucson, AZ (USA)
DOE Contract Number:
AC06-76RL01830
OSTI ID:
6316755
Report Number(s):
PNL-4687; ON: DE83010934
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English