Modeling of bacterium influence on methane concentration in underground storage of hydrogen

Abstract

The problem of underground hydrogen gas mixture storage is that unlike natural gas, hydrogen gas mixture undergoes chemical changes in underground storage and thus the concentration of hydrogen and carbon dioxide is reduced, and the concentration of methane increases. It has been found that these changes occur because of the activity of methanogenic bacteria populations inhabiting in a reservoir. This chemical activity, which caused by the bacterial activity, as well as gas and water flow in the reservoir causes the phenomenon of self-organization such as the occurrence of autowave spatial structures, the dynamics of which is characterized by a multiplicity of different scenarios, including the occurrence of chaos and the jump from one scenario to another. In this paper we developed a qualitative theory of self-organization scenarios in the underground hydrogen storage depending on the external and internal parameters. Development of the theory and computer models of transport in underground hydrogen storage will be based on the relating of models of multiphase composite flows in porous media with model of dynamics of bacterial populations which will be based on mechanism of chemotaxis (internal chemical mechanism by which bacteria are able to detect the presence of nutrients in the distance and move in that direction).