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The engineering behind the US Strategic Petroleum Reserve

281 points · 115 comments · johnjwang

  1. anigbrowl · · focus · HN ↗
    Salt contains the oil and helps seal small fractures. The rock salt surrounding the SPR’s caverns has extremely low permeability, meaning fluids have very little ability to pass through it. It also doesn’t react with petroleum. Under enormous pressures underground, salt also slowly deforms, which helps close small fractures. The salt itself can therefore contain the oil without a steel-and-concrete tank lining the cavern.

    Oil floats on water, which means pumping water into the bottom of the cavern pushes the oil out. As fresh water is pumped into the bottom of the cavern, the oil gets displaced upwards into a delivery system.

    The more water you pump in, the lower the quality of the oil that's pumped out; we are basically loaning the oil refiners money to buy SPR oil they don't really want. Also, the more water we pump in, the more salt leeches into the water and the more the bottom of the chamber deforms, creating shear forces in the upp walls that lower its overall structural integrity.

    I&#x27;ve posted this before; it&#x27;s a recent report on the status and maintenance of SPR facilities, which is very clearly written and well worth your time if you want to understand the topic better: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.gao.gov&#x2F;products&#x2F;gao-26-106918" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.gao.gov&#x2F;products&#x2F;gao-26-106918

    1. nxobject · · focus · HN ↗
      I also think I&#x27;ve also replied this to you before, but +1 for the GAO report! I use the full report as my personal model yardstick on how I document technical decisions&#x2F;issues for non-technical people. The PDF is attached here:

      <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.gao.gov&#x2F;assets&#x2F;gao-26-106918.pdf" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.gao.gov&#x2F;assets&#x2F;gao-26-106918.pdf

      1. pjc50 · · focus · HN ↗
        People like to be dismissive about civil servants without looking at how much extremely high quality work is actually produced on complex subjects. Personally having interacted with them a couple of times I&#x27;m also a fan of the UK Parliamentary briefings: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;commonslibrary.parliament.uk&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;commonslibrary.parliament.uk&#x2F;

        (unfortunately they can&#x27;t make people read the briefings ..)

        1. [deleted] · · focus · HN ↗

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