A professor at Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh has been given €3million funding to develop "smart rocks" using 3D printing, which will enable greater insight into fluid and gas movement through reservoirs.
Professor Mercedes Maroto-Valer was awarded the funding from the European Research Council.
The "smart rocks," built using 3D printing and installed with micro sensors, will aid understanding around how liquids and gases travel through porous rocks in the subsurface, particularly relating to oil and gas extraction and the potential for storing captured carbon dioxide underground.
Such regimes are complex and influenced by the type of rock and variations in temperature and pressure which occur deep underground, where direct dynamic observation at pore level is impossible.
The problem, says team leader Professor Maroto-Valer is that normal rocks cannot "talk to us." Her answer is simple: make you own that which can.
Professor Maroto-Valer’s team plan to 3D print their own porous rocks with incorporated micro sensors, meaning they can replicate in laboratory conditions what actually happens deep underground and provide information at a microscopic level which was simply not available before.
Professor Maroto-Valer said, “While extensive work over the years has given us some idea about how liquids and gases move through porous rocks at a large scale, we haven’t been able to understand how the process works at the very small pore scale, and how that process can differ between different types of porous rocks.
“We are very excited about this award and the opportunity to bring interdisciplinary innovation building upon Heriot-Watt world leading expertise in process and petroleum engineering and manufacturing. This will allow us to unlock engineering research challenges in reactive transport in porous networks, transforming technological and environmental engineering applications.”
“By 3D printing our own core samples we can decide exactly what sort of rock we wish to study, and implanted micro-sensors will be able to tell us directly, in real-time, what is going on as gasses and liquids pass through them. This fundamental knowledge at such a tiny scale will feed hugely into our understanding of such processes at the large scale and enable us to maximize the success of industries from oil extraction to water safety and the storage of captured CO2.”
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