Exhibition on the research project CLEAN

The information centre was initiated by the GFZ (“Deutsches GeoForschungsZentrum”) in order to provide the public with transparent and citizen-oriented information on the CLEAN research project. The project is a scientific accompanying programme to an EGR measure (Enhanced Gas Recovery) in a subfield of Europe’s second largest onshore natural gas deposit: the Altmark gas field.

Natural gas production and climate protection

CLEAN investigates the possibilities of mobilising natural gas quantities that cannot be exploited conventionally and thus increasing the gas extraction by means of a production fluid into the almost depleted natural gas reservoir Altmark.

For this project we developed an exhibition with exhibits which explain the functionality of the Enhanced Gas Recovery Technology and make the safety aspects of the process comprehensible for the population.

The cutaway model illustrates how Enhanced Gas Recovery (EGR) works in principle. The visitor presses a button and sees the various drill holes animatedly illuminated in a backlit cutaway model. In the "Co2" borehole, the LEDs flash downwards and replace the gas LEDs in the sandstone layer. Similar to the "entry" of the CO2, the gas LEDs are displaced and directed upwards in the "gas" bore.

In this exhibit it becomes clear that rocks are differently permeable for gases. The exhibit shows real layers of stone through which the visitor can press air with a pump. Above the stone layers there are liquid containers into which small tubes from the stones flow. The arriving air bubbles tell the visitor whether air is passing through the stone or not. In the nearby screen the visitor sees a macroscopic picture of the events in the respective layer.