RII Track-4: NSF: Fundamental study on hydrogen flow in porous media during repetitive drainage-imbibition processes and upscaling for underground energy storage

美国和世界其他地区迫切需要电网规模的长期储能技术。此外，净零碳排放目标促进了使用更清洁能源的碳重工业部门的转型。氢气(H2)作为未来低碳能源的主要载体之一，已经引起了全球的关注，地下储氢(UHS)已被确定为应对这些国家挑战的一种有前途的选择。然而，透彻地了解多孔地质储集层中涉及H2和其他流体的多相流体运移对于UHS的成功是至关重要的。研究基础设施改善轨道4 EPSCoR研究员项目将为内布拉斯加州大学林肯分校(UNL)的一名助理教授提供奖学金，并为一名研究生提供培训。该奖学金将通过复制爱达荷州国家实验室(INL)的S氢气生产和储存实验研究平台和UNL的多尺度和多物理数值研究平台，极大地增强PI所在机构的研究和教育能力。此外，预期的研究成果将被纳入PI新开发的多物理数值模拟课程。该奖学金还将使研究生能够与PI一起访问INL的科学家，从而帮助培训STEM劳动力。在地区层面，该奖学金将促进与内布拉斯加州氢气生产商、公共电力公司、UNL和内布拉斯加州其他大学的许多教职员工的合作研究。EPSCoR RII Track-4奖学金的总体目标是建立PI和内布拉斯加-林肯大学(UNL)的研究能力，通过孔洞规模的实验研究、孔洞规模的数值模拟和更高规模的油藏规模模拟，促进对重复注入和提取循环期间多孔材料中氢迁移的基本理解。为了实现这一目标，PI将与东道主爱达荷州国家实验室(INL)的科学家合作，以实现两个研究目标：(1)阐明在基本孔隙尺度的重复排水-吸吸过程中多孔介质中的H2传输、存储和损失，以及(2)利用INL现有的天然气注入/提取和存储研究组合，将重复的H2注入-提取过程升级到储层规模的建模。对于这些努力，PI将利用奖学金来学习新技术，发展新的合作，并通过与一名研究生一起访问INL来推进现有的研究合作。这项拟议的研究将是第一批在基本孔隙尺度的重复注入-提取循环中深入研究气体和液体的饱和度、相对渗透率及其关系以及氢的扩散和溶解的研究之一。此外，提出的数值研究将有助于我们在不同尺度上加深对H2气垫气-盐水系统流体动力学的理解。最后，这项奖学金将把PI的研究转向与地质能量储存相一致的变革性新方向。这一奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Long-term grid-scale energy storage technologies are urgently needed for the United States and the rest of the world. In addition, the net-zero carbon emission objective has promoted transforming carbon-heavy industry sectors with cleaner energy resources. Hydrogen (H2) has been attracting global attention as one of the primary future low-carbon energy carriers, and underground hydrogen storage (UHS) has been identified as a promising option to address these national challenges. However, a thorough understanding of multiphase fluid transport involving H2 and other fluids in a porous geologic storage reservoir is critically needed for the success of UHS. This Research Infrastructure Improvement Track-4 EPSCoR Research Fellows project will provide a fellowship to an Assistant Professor and training for a graduate student at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL). The fellowship will greatly enhance the research and education capacity of the PI’s home institution by replicating Idaho National Laboratory (INL)’s experimental study platform on hydrogen production and storage and the multi-scale and multi-physics numerical study platform at UNL. Further, the expected research findings will be incorporated into PI’s newly developed courses on Multiphysics numerical modeling. The fellowship will also enable a graduate student to visit the INL scientists along with the PI, thus helping train a STEM workforce. At the regional level, the fellowship will boost collaborative research with Nebraska-based hydrogen producers, public power companies, and many faculty members at UNL and other universities in Nebraska.The overall goal of this EPSCoR RII Track-4 fellowship is to build the research capacity of the PI and of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL) that will enable the advancement of the fundamental understanding of H2 migration in porous materials during repeated injection-and-extraction cycles via pore-scale experimental studies, pore-scale numerical modeling, and upscaled reservoir-scale simulations. To accomplish this goal, the PI will collaborate with scientists at the host site, Idaho National Laboratory (INL), to achieve two research objectives: (1) elucidate the H2 transport, storage, and loss in porous media during repetitive drainage-imbibition processes at the fundamental pore scale and (2) upscale the repetitive H2 injection-extraction processes to reservoir-scale modeling by leveraging the existing gas injection/extraction and storage research portfolio at INL. For these efforts, the PI will leverage the fellowship to learn new techniques, develop new collaborations, and advance existing research collaborations by visiting INL, along with a graduate student. The proposed research will be among the first to examine in-depth the saturation of gases and liquids, relative permeability, and their relations, as well as diffusion and dissolution of hydrogen, during repeated injection-extraction cycles at the fundamental pore-scale level. In addition, the proposed numerical study will help to advance our understanding on fluid dynamics for H2-cushion gas-brine systems at different scales. Lastly, this fellowship will shift the PI’s research toward transformative new directions aligned with geologic energy storage.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.