Salting away our spare gas

A gas hob showing a blue and orange flame

Sodium chloride for chemical and food uses is obtained by solution mining. Huge caverns left behind in the rock salt make convenient out-of-sight gas holders

In Short

  • Gas can be stored in empty salt caverns and used to meet fluctuations in demand 
  • Rock salt caverns make ideal storage facilities as they are gas-tight 

Redundant rock salt caverns around the world have been used for over 50 years to store various hydrocarbon gases. The first such UK facility for natural gas, at Hornsea (Yorkshire), has operated since 1979. By 2006, salt cavern storage was also operating at two Cheshire brinefields and on Teesside. Currently, similar schemes are underway, or planned, at several other locations around the UK (fig 1). 

Figure 1 - Underground natural gas storage locations

Source: Reproduced by permission of David Evans/British Geological Survey

Figure 1 - Underground natural gas storage locations

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