Impact of gas type on microfluidic drainage experiments relevant for underground hydrogen storage

Underground hydrogen storage (UHS) in geological reservoirs is proposed as a technically feasible solution to balance mismatch between supply and demand in emerging markets. However, unique hydrogen properties and coupled flow mechanisms require new investigations to fully understand transport and storage of hydrogen in porous media across scales. Here we use microfluidics to investigate the effect of gas type and injection rate on flow patterns, saturation and connectivity of the gas phase. We visually observe that gas flow is characterized by capillary fingering, further confirmed by fractal dimension analysis. At lower injection rates, the gas saturation after drainage appears to increase with gas viscosity, with lower hydrogen saturation compared to methane and nitrogen. The maximum gas saturations (39–46 %) were achieved at higher injection rates, showing no clear correlation to gas type. However, the high-rate injections lead to undesired outcomes in terms of formation of disconnected gas ganglia, mostly pronounced for nitrogen. We identify an optimal injection rate to achieve maximum gas saturation with the least amount of disconnected gas.