Hydrogen production, storage and recovery
AssigneeTerraH2 LLC
InventorsEva Vinegar, Harold J. Vinegar
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A method for operating a kerogen-rich unconventional gas reservoir characterized by there being multiple hydraulically-fractured wells drilled thereinto comprises: recovering a methane-containing gas from a first hydraulically-fractured well drilled into the gas reservoir, steam-methane reforming the recovered methane-containing gas to yield a hydrogen gas and an inorganic carbon-containing gas, injecting at least a portion of the hydrogen gas into a second hydraulically-fractured well drilled into the gas reservoir, and injecting at least a portion of the inorganic carbon-containing gas into a third hydraulically-fractured well drilled into the gas reservoir.
Claims11
A method of storing and recovering hydrogen gas in a kerogen-rich unconventional gas reservoir, the method comprising:
- a. injecting a fracturing fluid through a horizontal wellbore into the gas reservoir to cause fracturing within the gas reservoir;
- b. recovering a methane-containing gas through the wellbore;
- c. projecting an H2 molar fraction χ(H2)RES(TRES) of a hydrogen-containing gas recovered from the gas reservoir at each of a plurality of corresponding reservoir pressures PRESSURERES(TRES) at respective reservoir times TRES, the projecting including:
- i. sampling a hydrogen-containing gas recovered from a gas-reservoir core sample held in the core-sample holder, to determine a plurality of core-sample value-pairs for respective core-sample times TCS, each core-sample value-pair including an H2 molar fraction value χ(H2)CS(TCS) and a respective core-sample pressure value PRESSURECS(TCS), and
- ii. matching PRESSURERES(TRES) values with respective PRESSURECS(TCS) values of the plurality of core-sample value-pairs to project χ(H2)RES(TRES) values based on respective χ(H2)CS(TCS) values corresponding to the matched respective PRESSURECS(TCS) values;
- d. responsively to and contingent upon reaching a hydrogen-purity trigger criterion based upon said projecting of H2 molar fraction values χ(H2)RES(TRES), injecting hydrogen gas through the wellbore into the gas reservoir at a shut-in gas pressure at a wellhead;
- and
- e. recovering, through the wellbore, a hydrogen-containing gas having an H2 molar fraction equal to or greater than the hydrogen-purity trigger criterion.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.