An in situ investigation of the physical properties of rock salt with special reference to underground gas storage

Abstract

Introduction The rate of production of any consumable, whether it be raw materials or a finished product, rarely equals the rate of its consumption. Manufacturing industries cannot produce at a rate equalling the peak consumption rate without over-capitalisation of plant. The disparity between production and consumption rates necessitates the creation of a buffer which will enable the manufacturer to produoo at an economical rate and yet provide the consumer with an uninterupted supply at peak demand. The problems of varying production and consumption rates are experienced in the energy supply industries. Solid fuels, oil and gas are all stockpiled at many links in the chain from producer to consumer. The storage of fuel is necessary to accommodate the diurnal and seasonal variation in demand occasioned by the working hours of industry and commerce and the domestic habits of householders. Solid fuels and oils are normally subject to only seasonal variations in demand but gas and electricity suffer from high diurnal variations in demand from both industrial and domestic consumers. In its early drays gas was chiefly used as an illuminant and the demand was low in suer and in daylight hours. Towards the onä of the nineteenth century other uses for gas were developed, making the demands more even. A sharp return to the former annual cycle has now arisen as a result of the tremendous success of gas spaoo heating, and it can be but a few years before the seasonal ratio midwinter: midsummer reaches the proportion 5: 1 (1,2) The gas industry can meet this challenge in two possible ways; additional gas production plant for winter use only or by increasing gas storage facilities. As both of these solutions result in under-employment of capital, the gas industry has been investigating over the last twenty years various gas storage techniques which do not steriliso as much capital as the conventional low-pressure holder. High-pressure gas storage, when allied to high pressure distribution times can effect several economics in this field.