The 2008 Darcy Lecture
| Organised by: | Hydrogeological Group |
| Date: | 11 July 2008 |
| Event Type: | Lecture |
| Venue: | The Roberts Lecture Theatre, UCL |
The 2008 Darcy Distinguished Lecturer is Professor Michael Celia, chair of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Princeton University. Mike Celia has very broad research interests, spanning ground water hydrology, ecohydrology, numerical modelling, contaminant transport simulation, and multiphase flow physics. He applies pore-scale network modelling to study reactive transport and scaling in porous media systems; computational studies of plant responses to variations in soil moisture in water-stressed ecosystems; and as part of the Princeton Carbon Mitigation Initiative he studies large-scale injection of CO2 into deep brine formations. Mike Celia served for 10 years as editor of the journal Advances in Water Resources. He is a Fellow of the American Geophysical Union and recipient of the 2005 AGU Hydrologic Sciences Award.
2.15: Registration
3.00: Introduction, William Burgess, Hydrogeological Group, Geological Society
3.10: Professor Andy Woods, BP Institute, Cambridge
‘The impact of geological variability on the dispersal of CO2 plumes’
3.35: Geological analogues of subsurface CO2 flux (to be confirmed)
4.00: 2008 Darcy Lecture: Professor Michael Celia
‘Geological Storage as a Carbon Mitigation Option’
Injection of CO2 into deep formations leads to a multiphase flow problem that may involve important mass exchange between phases, non-isothermal effects, and complex geochemical reactions. In addition, because enormous quantities of CO2 must be injected to have any significant impact on the atmospheric carbon problem, the spatial scale of the problem becomes very large. Broad questions involving the fate of the injected CO2, including possible leakage of CO2 out of the formation, as well as the fate of displaced fluids like resident brines, lead to very challenging modelling and analysis problems. Because important leakage pathways can be very localized, and their properties can be highly uncertain, an overall analysis of the system requires resolution of multiple length scales in the context of a probabilistic approach. These requirements render standard numerical simulators ineffective due to excessive computational demands. A series of simplifying assumptions may be proposed to provide more efficient numerical calculations, even to the point of allowing for analytical or semi-analytical solutions. Such simplifications, while restrictive in their assumptions, allow for large-scale analysis of leakage in a probabilistic framework while capturing much of the essential physics of the problem. Example calculations illustrate the utility of these methods and show the current state of leakage estimation. They also lead to a proposal for specific field experiments that can reduce the uncertainty associated with potential leakage pathways.
5.00 Closing remarks
There is no registration fee, but pre-registration is required. Please send an email to william.burgess@ucl.ac.uk entitled ‘Darcy 2008 Registration’ indicating: (i) name, (ii) affiliation. There will be an opportunity to meet over drinks after the meeting at a nearby bar.
Programme
2.15: Registration
3.00: Introduction, William Burgess, Hydrogeological Group, Geological Society
3.10: Professor Andy Woods, BP Institute, Cambridge
‘The impact of geological variability on the dispersal of CO2 plumes’
3.35: Geological analogues of subsurface CO2 flux (to be confirmed)
4.00: 2008 Darcy Lecture: Professor Michael Celia
‘Geological Storage as a Carbon Mitigation Option’
Injection of CO2 into deep formations leads to a multiphase flow problem that may involve important mass exchange between phases, non-isothermal effects, and complex geochemical reactions. In addition, because enormous quantities of CO2 must be injected to have any significant impact on the atmospheric carbon problem, the spatial scale of the problem becomes very large. Broad questions involving the fate of the injected CO2, including possible leakage of CO2 out of the formation, as well as the fate of displaced fluids like resident brines, lead to very challenging modelling and analysis problems. Because important leakage pathways can be very localized, and their properties can be highly uncertain, an overall analysis of the system requires resolution of multiple length scales in the context of a probabilistic approach. These requirements render standard numerical simulators ineffective due to excessive computational demands. A series of simplifying assumptions may be proposed to provide more efficient numerical calculations, even to the point of allowing for analytical or semi-analytical solutions. Such simplifications, while restrictive in their assumptions, allow for large-scale analysis of leakage in a probabilistic framework while capturing much of the essential physics of the problem. Example calculations illustrate the utility of these methods and show the current state of leakage estimation. They also lead to a proposal for specific field experiments that can reduce the uncertainty associated with potential leakage pathways.
5.00 Closing remarks
There is no registration fee, but pre-registration is required. Please send an email to william.burgess@ucl.ac.uk entitled ‘Darcy 2008 Registration’ indicating: (i) name, (ii) affiliation. There will be an opportunity to meet over drinks after the meeting at a nearby bar.