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Creating one barrel of storage in a salt cavern requires 1,113 to 1,590 gallons of water

The process of creating a salt cavern involves dissolving underground salt deposits with fresh water. Storage in salt in salt caverns is often measured in barrels, with one barrel being equal to 42 US gallons or about 159 liters. The amount of freshwater needed to create one barrel of storage in a salt cavern is dependent on factors such as the purity of the salt in the cavern, the shape of the cavern, the initial saturation level of the cavern, and the quality of equipment used, among other factors. On average, it requires around 7-10 barrels (1,113 to 1,590 liters) of freshwater to create one barrel of space within a salt cavern. However, salt caverns require very little water once they are created. 1

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Footnotes​

  1. Derouin, S. (2023, September 13). What Makes a Salt Cavern Useful for Hydrogen Storage? American Society of Civil Engineers. https://www.asce.org/publications-and-news/civil-engineering-source/civil-engineering-magazine/article/2023/09/what-makes-a-salt-cavern-useful-for-hydrogen-storage. ↩