Carbon Sequestration

Subsurface storage of captured anthropogenic CO2, provides a promising technology to decrease the rate of increase of CO2 in the atmosphere. Projects address fundamental aspects of understanding the fate of CO2 injected into heterogeneous brine and depleted oil reservoirs, the physical, chemical, and microbial interactions among CO2-ladden brines, minerals, and hydrocarbons, and implementation strategies of CO2 storage in the subsurface. This research motivates investigations of the risks associated with sequestration and the development of cost effective strategies for monitoring for leakage.

Faculty

Daniel O Breecker

Daniel O Breecker

The Breecker Group studies biogeochemical processes occurring at or near the land surface. We study soils and paleosols, caves and stalagmites, and other materials, such as volcanic glass, that give us insight into ancient Earth. We study timescales ranging from seasonal cycles to hundreds of millions of years. We use ...
Sergey Fomel

Sergey Fomel

Computational and exploration geophysics; seismic imaging; wave propagation; seismic data analysis; inverse problems; geophysical estimation
Jung-Fu  Lin

Jung-Fu Lin

Mineral physics, physics and chemistry of planetary materials, solid-Earth geophysics and geochemistry, high-pressure diamond anvil cell, X-ray and laser spectroscopy
Ashley M Matheny

Ashley M Matheny

Ecohydrology, Bio- and Micro-meteorology, Vegetation Hydrodynamics, Watershed Hydrology, Land-Atmosphere Interactions, Biogeochemistry, Water and Carbon Cycles, and Modeling
Mrinal K Sen

Mrinal K Sen

Seismic wave propagation including anisotropy, geophysical inverse problems, earthquakes and earth structure, applied seismology, petroleum exploration including 4D seismology
Timothy M Shanahan

Timothy M Shanahan

climate variability, climate change, paleoclimatology, geochemistry, stable isotopes, organic geochemistry, sedimentology, environmental science If you are interested in learning more, please visit research website.
Scott W Tinker

Scott W Tinker

Global energy supply and demand, Technology Administration, Multidisciplinary reservoir characterization, Carbonate sedimentology, Sequence stratigraphy, 3-D reservoir modeling, Resource assessment.
Zong-Liang  Yang

Zong-Liang Yang

Dr. Yang's primary research interest is to understand the exchanges of momentum, radiation, heat, water, carbon dioxide, and other materials between the atmosphere and the Earth surface spanning from small (short) to very large (long) scales. This includes analysis of in-situ and remotely-sensed data for the Earth's surface, and modeling ...

Lecturers

Stephen E Laubach

Stephen E Laubach

Structural diagenesis, structural geology, fracture analysis, fluid inclusion and cathodoluminescence studies, rock mechanics, mechanical and fracture stratigraphy, hydrocarbon exploration and development in deep and/or structurally complex areas, tight gas sandstone, coalbed methane, shale gas; geothermal, geologic aspects of hydraulic fracturing, application of borehole-imaging geophysical logs to stress and fracture ...
Jeffrey G Paine

Jeffrey G Paine

Near-surface geophysics in hydrogeology and environmental and Quaternary geology; coastal geology; Quaternary geology and geomorphology; computer applications in the geological sciences

Affiliated Faculty

Michael  Pyrcz

Michael Pyrcz

geological modeling, geostatistics, spatial statistics, data analytics, machine learning

Emeritus

Philip C Bennett

Philip C Bennett

Aqueous geochemistry, geomicrobiology, environmental and microbial geochemistry, hydrogeology
Robert E Dickinson

Robert E Dickinson

Climate, Global Warming, Land Surface Processes, Remote Sensing, Hydrological Cycle, Carbon Cycle, and Modeling.
Clark R Wilson

Clark R Wilson

Geophysics, including gravity, space geodesy, and applied seismology

Postdocs

Zhicheng Wang

Multiphase flow/Reservoir Simulation/CCS

Research Scientists

Eric  Attias

Eric Attias

Marine electromagnetic imaging to study dynamic Earth processes associated with marine geohazards and resources. Research Interests: (1) The interplay between mantle plumes, submarine freshwater, and marine biodiversity in volcanic systems. (2) Hot-spot mantle plume geodynamics and submarine volcanism. (3) Slab rollback-driven toroidal and poloidal mantle flows at back-arc subduction zones and their role ...

Shuvajit Bhattacharya

Petrophysics, Formation Evaluation, Quantitative Seismic Interpretation, Machine Learning, Integrated Subsurface Characterization, Carbon Sequestration
Jacob A Covault

Jacob A Covault

sedimentology, stratigraphy, marine geology
Ian J Duncan

Ian J Duncan

Expertise in geomechanic and geochemistry applied to: risks associated with CO2 sequestration; hydraulic fracturing for shale gas production; environmental impact of hydraulic fracturing; and the water-energy nexus. Current research focuses on the scientific, environmental and public policy aspects of unconventional natural gas production, the water-energy nexus, and carbon capture and ...
Peter  Eichhubl

Peter Eichhubl

Fault and fracture mechanics, reservoir geomechanics, diagenesis and low-temp. geochemistry, fluid flow and transfer processes in sedimentary basins, deformation mechanisms of the upper crust, structural control of mass and heat transfer in sedimentary basins, effects of chemical mass transfer on the mechanical and hydraulic behavior of fractures and faults, chemical ...
Seyyed Abolfazl Hosseini

Seyyed Abolfazl Hosseini

Research interests are mainly topics related to fluid transport in porous media. Current research includes: Enhanced Oil Recovery - Enhanced Gas Recovery - Upscaling and Upgridding - Above Zone Monitoring Interval - Reservoir Simulation and History Matching - Unconventional Reservoirs
Susan D Hovorka

Susan D Hovorka

Geologic carbon sequestration in deep sedimentary environments as part of carbon capture and storage. PI of the Gulf Coast Caron Center (www.gulfcoastcarbon.org) focused on research relevant to commercial development of geologic sequestration in regions where it is both needed and possible. Monitoring field projects. Petrography and sedimentology supporting ...
Toti E Larson

Toti E Larson

Geochemist - 20 years of stable isotope geochemistry laboratory development (ThermoElectron GasBench, Conflo, MAT252, DeltaXL. 15 years of Gas Chromatography method development and automation (Agilent 6890 GC-MS), sample loop injection development, high temperature and cryogenic chromatography. 8 years of X-ray Fluorescence analysis (Bruker T5 handheld and benchtop units). Expert in a wide ...
Stephen E Laubach

Stephen E Laubach

Structural diagenesis, structural geology, fracture analysis, fluid inclusion and cathodoluminescence studies, rock mechanics, mechanical and fracture stratigraphy, hydrocarbon exploration and development in deep and/or structurally complex areas, tight gas sandstone, coalbed methane, shale gas; geothermal, geologic aspects of hydraulic fracturing, application of borehole-imaging geophysical logs to stress and fracture ...
Tip Meckel

Tip Meckel

Stratigraphy, structural geology, CO2 sequestration, carbon capture and storage, CCS, high-resolution 3D seismic imaging /link http://www.beg.utexas.edu/gccc
Kitty L Milliken

Kitty L Milliken

Petrography and geochemistry of siliciclastic rocks; diagenesis; electron microbeam methods: X-ray mapping, cathodoluminescence imaging; micro-scale reservoir characterization
Jean Nicot

Jean Nicot

Subsurface hydrology, numerical modeling and optimization of groundwater resources, multiphase flow and contaminant transport in both the unsaturated and saturated zones, geochemistry modeling and subsurface reactive transport, Mathematical geology, geostatistics, inverse modeling, optimization, risk assessment and risk analysis
Katherine D Romanak

Katherine D Romanak

Geochemistry and isotope systematics of carbon cycling in the vadose zone and in freshwater aquifers; soil-gas monitoring and surface gas flux measurements at CO2 sequestration sites; microbial influences on carbon geochemistry in the shallow subsurface; fate and transport of organic contaminants.
Bridget R Scanlon

Bridget R Scanlon

Evaluation of the impact of climate variability and land use change on groundwater recharge, application of numerical models for simulating variably saturated flow and transport, controls on nitrate contamination in aquifers
Alex  Sun

Alex Sun

Subjects: Carbon sequestration, hydrological modeling, computational geoscience, fracture/fault modeling Skill sets: Geostatistical modeling, inversion and optimization algorithms, numerical modeling, web-based decision support systems Programming: Matlab, Python, Fortran, C, ArcGIS
Hongliu  Zeng

Hongliu Zeng

Seismic sedimentology; seismic geomorphology; seismic and sequence stratigraphy; Characterization of thin-bed reservoirs; seismic chrono-stratgraphy
Tongwei  Zhang

Tongwei Zhang

Gas geochemistry and isotope geochemistry; Petroleum and gas generation kinetics and basin modeling; Fluid transport processes in basins and reservoirs; Organic-inorganic interactions; Unconventional gas reservoir characterization; CO2 sequestration and H2S risk prediction.

Research Staff

Mohsen Ahmadian

Program Manager for the Advanced Energy Consortium Managing multidisciplinary nanosensor, miniaturized electronics, and smart materials research for the assessment of subsurface properties in various applications, including energy exploration, geothermal, CCUS, etc. https://www.beg.utexas.edu/aec/
Robin D Dommisse

Robin D Dommisse

3D geological interpretation and modeling - Integrated reservoir characterization - Petroleum Geology - Petroleum Engineering - Carbonate sequence stratigraphy - Conventional and unconventional reservoir exploration and development - Oil field exploration and production reservoir management - Petrophysics - Geostatistics - Reservoir simulation - Software development
Carey W King

Carey W King

Energy and renewable energy generation, usage, conservation, policy, and education; energy systems approaches; energy return on energy invested, net energy; carbon capture and sequestration; nexus of water and energy; renewable energy and electricity integration
Jay P Kipper

Jay P Kipper

Personnel management, fiscal reporting, budget management, contract negotiation, management of geological samples
Ramon Trevino

Ramon Trevino

Sequence stratigraphic interpretations (well logs, 3-D seismic), integrated reservoir characterization, subsurface correlation and mapping (using workstation and PC) and subsurface structural interpretation (using 3-D seismic), project management, CO2 sequestration