Optimization and reservoir Simulation.

My research is focused on reducing the risks of climate change by developing energy supplies with low carbon emissions. Students and post-doctoral fellows in my research group work on carbon dioxide storage, energy systems analysis, and pathways for transitioning to a low-carbon energy system.

Efficient nonlinear solvers for the simulation of multiphase flow in porous media

Currently, my research focuses on the enhanced oil recovery using nano-particles and multiphase flow in porous media.

* DFT calculations of trace metal uptake on mineral oxide nanoparticles emitted from coal combustion processes
* Relationship of particle size and chemistry to health effects
* Surface characterization experiments using SEM and XAS techniques

Research Field:
Synthesis & characterization of thin inorganic/polymer membranes, adsorbents, and conductive
membranes; Characterization of well-core & heavy oil; CO2 separation & sequestration process; Enhanced oil recovery method for offshore oil field; fuel cells system & hydrogen production.

I am interested in the recovery of unconventional hydrocarbon resources and mitigating carbon emissions from fossil fuels via geological sequestration of greenhouse gases. My research group and I examine the physics of flow through porous media at length scales that vary from the pore to the laboratory to the reservoir.

Metallic membranes for energy and environmental application
CO2 capture and storage (CCS)
Hydrogen (H2) production and utilization
Metal-hydrogen and metal-nitrogen interaction

Thin-metal composite fabrication
Material characterization (SEM, XRD, XPS)
In-situ X-ray Diffraction using synchrotron radiation lightsource

Plane-wave density functional theory (DFT)
Electronic structure theory

- Fusion of reservoir simulation and history matching
- Development of high-performance geostatistical algorithms

My students and I use theoretical, computational, and statistical models, to discover and understand fundamental relations between geophysical data and subsurface properties, to quantify uncertainty in our geomodels, and to address value of information for decision making under uncertainty.

My research focuses on understanding physical mechanisms that cause injection-triggered seismicity. I am designing engineering strategies to mitigate triggered seismicity by leveraging knowledge of the coupled processes of subsurface fluid flow, geomechanics, and earthquake dynamics.

I am also interested in petroleum and geothermal reservoir geomechanics, especially as applied to reservoir stimulation technologies.

I develop integrated assessment models for natural gas leakage from production, distribution and transmission and use them to inform economic and policy decisions at the national and local level.

My research interests involve developing and using microfluidic platforms to visualize pore-scale flow phenomena relevant to reservoir engineering. Secondary and tertiary recovery can cause clay particles to detach from the rock matrix and block subsequent pore space, significantly reducing reservoir permeability. Currently, I am conducting experiments to visualize the impact of brine composition and salt concentration on the release of clay particles from the rock matrix.

Thermal implementations of linear solver in ADGPRS

Modeling and measurement of trace metal speciation, i.e., mercury, arsenic, and selenium, released from coal combustion or gasification processes; sorbent design for high-temperature mercury capture; catalytic membrane design for CO2/H2 separation; CO2 sequestration; coal-to-liquid catalyst design.