Hydrogen storage
Evaluating where large volumes of hydrogen can be stored underground — engineered caverns in salt and trona, plus depleted reservoirs and aquifers — and how to choose between them.
Sheida Sheikheh is a PhD candidate in the Department of Energy and Petroleum Engineering at the University of Wyoming. Her research asks a deceptively simple question: where, and how, can we safely store hydrogen underground at the scale a clean-energy economy will demand?
Working at the intersection of reservoir engineering, geomechanics, and numerical simulation, she studies engineered caverns in evaporite formations — the bedded salt and trona of Wyoming's Green River Basin — alongside depleted reservoirs and aquifers. Recent work compares salt and trona caverns for hydrogen storage, screens candidate sites across Wyoming, and reviews the broader potential of evaporite beds for storage caverns.
She is also drawn to the bigger picture: how subsurface storage fits into a mid-century net-zero pathway for Wyoming and the wider region, and what it takes — technically and economically — to turn deep geology into reliable, large-scale energy storage.
Focus
Research themes
Reservoir geomechanics
Understanding the stresses, deformation, and time-dependent creep that govern whether a cavern or reservoir stays stable and tight over decades of cyclic operation.
Engineering & simulation
Combining reservoir engineering with numerical simulation to predict capacity, deliverability, and the safe operating envelope of subsurface storage.
Research
Selected publications
- 2025A review of evaporite beds potential for storage caverns: uncovering new opportunities
Survey of bedded salt and trona as host rock for engineered storage caverns.
- 2024Underground Hydrogen Storage Site Selection in Wyoming
Screening framework for candidate storage sites across the state.
- 2024A Mid-Century Net-Zero Scenario for the State of Wyoming and its Economic Impacts
Pathway analysis for deep decarbonization and its regional economics.