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长期的电网规模储能技术。此外，净零碳排放目标促进了碳重工业部门向更清洁能源转型。氢气（H2）作为未来主要的低碳能源载体之一一直吸引着全球的关注，地下储氢（UHS）已被确定为解决这些国家挑战的有前途的选择。然而，一个多相流体输运涉及H2和其他流体在多孔地质储存储层的透彻理解是至关重要的UHS的成功。这个研究基础设施改善轨道-4 EPSCoR研究员项目将提供奖学金，以助理教授和内布拉斯加州林肯大学（UNL）的研究生培训。该奖学金将通过复制爱达荷州国家实验室（INL）的制氢和储氢实验研究平台以及UNL的多尺度和多物理数值研究平台，大大提高PI所在机构的研究和教育能力。此外，预期的研究结果将被纳入PI新开发的多物理场数值模拟课程。该奖学金还将使研究生能够与PI一起沿着访问INL科学家，从而帮助培训STEM劳动力。在地区一级，该奖学金将促进与内布拉斯加州的氢气生产商，公共电力公司，以及UNL和内布拉斯加州其他大学的许多教职员工。EPSCoR RII Track-4奖学金的总体目标是建立PI和内布拉斯加大学林肯分校（UNL）的研究能力这将通过孔隙尺度实验研究、孔隙尺度数值模拟和放大的孔隙尺度模拟，促进对重复注入和提取循环期间多孔材料中H2迁移的基本理解。为了实现这一目标，PI将与主办单位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H2的运输、储存、和多孔介质中的损失，以及（2）通过利用现有的气体注入/注入过程，将重复的H2注入-提取过程放大到孔隙尺度建模。INL的提取和存储研究组合。为了这些努力，PI将利用该奖学金来学习新技术、开发新合作，并通过与研究生一起访问INL来推进现有的研究合作。沿着。拟议的研究将是第一个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，在基本孔隙尺度水平的重复注入-提取周期。此外，所提出的数值研究将有助于推进我们对不同尺度下的氢垫气-盐水系统的流体动力学的理解。最后，该奖学金将使PI的研究转向与地质储能相一致的变革性新方向。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值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.