David James Borns

Natural Attenuation : CERCLA, RBCAs, and the Future of Environmental Remediation

Introduction The Law Sources of Hazardous Waste Groundwater Flow Chemical Attenuation Biodegradation Case Studies Demonstrating Natural Attenuation The Present The Future Appendix I: State Treatment of Natural Attenuation Appendix II: Glossary Appendix III: Excerpts for NPL Site RODs Appendix IV: WWW Sources References Index

A LIFE CYCLE COST ANALYSIS FRAMEWORK FOR GEOLOGIC STORAGE OF HYDROGEN: A USER'S TOOL

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has an interest in large scale hydrogen geostorage, which could offer substantial buffer capacity to meet possible disruptions in supply or changing seasonal demands. The geostorage site options being considered are salt caverns, depleted oil/gas reservoirs, aquifers and hard rock caverns. The DOE has an interest in assessing the geological, geomechanical and economic viability for these types of geologic hydrogen storage options. This study has developed an economic analysis methodology and subsequent spreadsheet analysis to address costs entailed in developing and operating an underground geologic storage facility. This year the tool was updated specifically to (1) incorporate more site-specific model input assumptions for the wells and storage site modules, (2) develop a version that matches the general format of the HDSAM model developed and maintained by Argonne National Laboratory, and (3) incorporate specific demand scenarios illustrating the models capability. Four general types of underground storage were analyzed: salt caverns, depleted oil/gas reservoirs, aquifers, and hard rock caverns/other custom sites. Due to the substantial lessons learned from the geological storage of natural gas already employed, these options present a potentially sizable storage option. Understanding and including these various geologic storage types in the analysis physical and economic framework will help identify what geologic option would be best suited for the storage of hydrogen. It is important to note, however, that existing natural gas options may not translate to a hydrogen system where substantial engineering obstacles may be encountered. There are only three locations worldwide that currently store hydrogen underground and they are all in salt caverns. Two locations are in the U.S. (Texas), and are managed by ConocoPhillips and Praxair (Leighty, 2007). The third is in Teeside, U.K., managed by Sabic Petrochemicals (Crotogino et al., 2008; Panfilov et al., 2006). These existing H{sub 2} facilities are quite small by natural gas storage standards. The second stage of the analysis involved providing ANL with estimated geostorage costs of hydrogen within salt caverns for various market penetrations for four representative cities (Houston, Detroit, Pittsburgh and Los Angeles). Using these demand levels, the scale and cost of hydrogen storage necessary to meet 10%, 25% and 100% of vehicle summer demands was calculated.

The Delineation Of The Disturbed Rock Zone Surrounding Excavations In Salt

At the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) in southeastern New Mexico, the Disturbed Rock Zone (DRZ, the zone of rock in which the mechanical and hydrologic properties have changed in response to excavation) has been characterized with visual observations, geophysical methods, and gas-flow measurements. The visual observations, geophysics, and gas-flow tests have defined a DRZ at the WIPP extending laterally throughout the excavation and varying in depth from 1 to 5 m. Desaturation and microfracturing has occurred to some degree within the zone. The dilation that results from the microfracturing in the DRZ provides a component of the observed closure. 19 refs., 7 figs.

A life cycle cost analysis framework for geologic storage of hydrogen : a scenario analysis.

The U.S. Department of Energy has an interest in large scale hydrogen geostorage, which would offer substantial buffer capacity to meet possible disruptions in supply. Geostorage options being considered are salt caverns, depleted oil/gas reservoirs, aquifers and potentially hard rock cavrns. DOE has an interest in assessing the geological, geomechanical and economic viability for these types of hydrogen storage options. This study has developed an ecocomic analysis methodology to address costs entailed in developing and operating an underground geologic storage facility. This year the tool was updated specifically to (1) a version that is fully arrayed such that all four types of geologic storage options can be assessed at the same time, (2) incorporate specific scenarios illustrating the models capability, and (3) incorporate more accurate model input assumptions for the wells and storage site modules. Drawing from the knowledge gained in the underground large scale geostorage options for natural gas and petroleum in the U.S. and from the potential to store relatively large volumes of CO{sub 2} in geological formations, the hydrogen storage assessment modeling will continue to build on these strengths while maintaining modeling transparency such that other modeling efforts may draw from this project.

Letter to the Editor on A National Strategy for Vadose Zone Science and Technology

We would like to make your readers aware of the recently completed Department of Energys (DOEs) National Roadmap for Vadose Zone Science and Technology, DOE/ID10871. This Roadmap was published in August 2001 at ([U.S. Department of Energy, 2001][1]). Together with