This Environmental Assessment and Optimization (EAO) Group focuses on building tools to reduce the environmental impacts of energy systems. The current group focus is on understanding greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs) from fossil energy systems.  Our approach includes building engineering-based bottom-up life cycle assessment (LCA) models to generate rigorous estimates of environmental impacts from energy extraction and conversion technologies.  Also, we build optimization tools to improve the environmental and economic performance of energy systems.

Our methods are applied primarily to transportation fuels, in an effort to understand and reduce the environmental impacts of conventional petroleum and substitutes for conventional petroleum (e.g., oil sands, oil shale).  We are also currently developing optimization capabilities for carbon dioxide capture and storage technologies.  A third area of interest is in the mathematical modeling of petroleum resource depletion and the shifts to alternative energy resources.

SCRF was initiated in 1988 to further the development of techniques for forecasting reservoir performance and for integrating geological, geophysical and reservoir engineering data. The SCRF group performs paradigm-changing research in the field of geostatistics and numerical reservoir modeling. We are not bound by the limited extent of project-based research with its short-term deadlines and limited scope. This long-term perspective has lead to revolutionary changes in reservoir modeling, amongst which: the introduction of stochastic simulation in reservoir modeling, GSLIB as a standard geostatistical software package, the advent of multiple-point geostatistics, practical solutions for large-scale inverse problems with geological constraints, an open-source software termed S-GEMS, and techniques for modeling uncertainty. The funding mechanism of SCRF has created a long-term think-tank where a group of faculty, post-doctoral researchers, graduate students, visiting scholars and industry experts come together to tackle problems of first-order importance in quantitative modeling of space-time varying phenomena and their applications in reservoir modeling.

The primary objective of the Stanford Geothermal Program is the development of reservoir engineering techniques to allow for the production of the nation's geothermal resources in the most efficient manner possible. To this end, the investigation topics are chosen to provide greatest impact in identifying and overcoming field problems which are either current or imminent. The primary focus in the immediate future will be the investigation of reinjection into vapor-dominated reservoirs such as The Geysers. This investigation will require the study of the effects of adsorption during injection, as well as the examination of the mechanisms of boiling in vapor filled porous rock.

Reservoir simulation entails the development and implementation of efficient computational techniques for the accurate numerical solution of the equations governing multicomponent, multiphase flow in porous subsurface formations. It also includes the detailed modeling of wellbore flow, accurate representation of advanced wells, and integration of the reservoir model with production facilities. Our recent research additionally targets the development of capabilities required for modeling long-term carbon storage and in-situ upgrading of energy resources. We work in virtually all aspects of reservoir simulation, and our research program is constantly evolving to meet current challenges and student interests of.