Research Experience in Carbon Sequestration (RECS)

The Atlantic Council and the Global CCS Institute convened a roundtable discussion in Washington, DC, on September 9, 2013, to explore the energy, environmental, and technology policy dimensions of the Kemper County Energy Facility -- a state-of-the-art coal gasification power plant with CCS for enhanced hydrocarbon recovery.  The facility is currently being built by RECS partner, Southern Company, along with Mississippi Power, and KBR in Kemper County, Mississippi. It is one of eight large-scale integrated CCS demonstration projects supported by the U.S. Department of Energy. 

RECS Videographer, Bat-Sheva Guez and Emily Branham captured the event in a short video. A summary of the discussion is available here.

In 2010, President Obama's Interagency Task Force on CCS issued a report that highlighted major concerns for near- and long-term CCUS deployment, including the need to integrate public information, education and outreach throughout the lifecycle of CCUS projects. The Task Force further detailed specific CCUS training and workforce capacity challenges:

"widespread cost-effective deployment of CCUS will require hiring, training, and retaining a large workforce of highly skilled professionals in the private sector to design, build, and operate facilities. Similar work and the need for a highly skilled workforce to design, build, and operate facilities."

The National Academy of Sciences further elaborated on the CCUS workforce challenges in the 2013 report, Emerging Workforce Trends in the U.S. Energy Industry: A Call to Action. The Academy identified RECS as one of the current “concrete actions” that are addressing the workforce challenges faced by the CCUS community. The report:

“recommends that DOE, industry, institutions of higher education, and other involved organizations consider continuing support for DOE-initiated training programs for CCUS.”

Dr. Sally M Benson (RECS Faculty), served on the committee that authored the report. She is also the Director of the Global Climate Change and Energy Project at Stanford University, and a Professor of Research in the Department of Energy Resources Engineering in the School of Earth Sciences. 

RECS is sponsored by the DOE, Office of Fossil Energy, and the National Energy Technology Laboratory. It addresses CCUS workforce development needs through an intensive 10-day program which explores all aspects of CCUS, from science, technology, and policy to public engagement and communications, economics, and financing. The program uniquely combines classroom instruction with group exercises, and CCUS site visits, and provides participants with a unique opportunity for hands-on experience at operational CCUS field sites. Furthermore, the RECS program fosters a network of the nation's leading scientist and engineers in CCUS that is an important aspect of career development.

Pamela Tomski, RECS Founder & Director, will serve with Craig Hart as a tutor for the Global CCS Institute's new Junior Professional Legal and Regulatory Tutorial Group. The focus will be on developing CCS legal and regulatory knowledge among junior professionals, recent graduates and students via four web-based tutorial discussions delivered once per week in July 2013. Each session will be structure like a university lecture and run for 1.5 – 2.0 hours. A different lecturer will present each week on a topic related to CCS legal and regulatory systems in the European Union, Australia and North America. Topics may include CCS and the Clean Development Mechanism, various jurisdictional approaches to implementing CCS legislation, as well as key legal issues for CCS and enhanced oil recovery. Lectures will be immediately followed with a tutorial discussion facilitated by Pamela Tomski and Craig Hart.

Sinead Treanor (2012), Richard Esposito (Faculty), Viviane Romeiro (2012), Jan Eide (2012)

The RECS community was out in force at the 11th Greenhouse Gas Control Technologies Conference (GHGT-11), the premier international conference on carbon capture, utilization and storage (CCUS). Held in Kyoto, Japan on 18-22 November 2012, GHGT-11 was attended by over 1,200 participants. A number of RECS alumni and faculty attended, many of whom presented talks or posters (listed below).

Jan Eide (2012), Viviane Romeiro (2012), Travis McLing (Faculty)

Keynote - CCS Projects are Becoming Reality: the US Demonstration Program — Jay Braitsch (RECS Faculty), Sr Advisor for Strategic Planning, US Department of Energy 

CCUS via Stacked Storage: Case Studies from CO2-EOR Basins of the US — Susan Hovorka, David Carr, Stuart Coleman, Khandaker Zahid (RECS 2012), Gordon Smith, Rebecca Smyth, Leslie Wood, Bureau of Economic Geology, The University of Texas at Austin

Post-Combustion Solvent Pilots: Pilot Plant Results with Piperazine — Eric Chen, Tarun Madan, Paul Nielsen, Darschan Sachde, Lynn Li, and Gary T. Rochelle (RECS Faculty), Department of Chemical Engineering, The University of Texas at Austin

Cost and Risk: Potential Cost of Leakage from Geologic Sequestration in the Michigan Basin — Melisa Pollak, Jeffrey Bielicki (RECS 2005), Elizabeth Wilson (RECS Faculty), University of Minnesota; Catherine Peters, Princeton University; Jeffery Fitts, Brookhaven National Lab

Pre-injection Baseline Data Collection to Establish Existing Wellbore Leakage Properties — 
Andrew Duguid, Robert Busch, Schlumberger Carbon Services; William Carey (RECS Faculty), Los Alamos National Lab, Michael A. Celia (RECS Faculty), James Wang, Princeton University, Nikita Chugunov, T.S. Ramakrishnan, Schlumberger-Doll Research, Viki Stamp, True Oil LLC, Sarah Gasda (RECS 2004), Integrated Petroleum Research, Uni Research, Bergen, Norway

Geomechanical Behavior of Wells in Geologic Sequestration — 
William Carey (RECS Faculty); George Zyvoloski, Kayla Lewis, Sharad Kelkar, Los Alamos National Lab
 

Development of Reacted Channel During fFow of CO2-rich Water Along a Cement Fracture — Nicolas Huerta, The University of Texas at Austin, Jackson School of Geosciences and US Department of Energy, National Energy Technology Lab; Quinn Wenning, Marc Hesse (RECS 2004), The University of Texas at Austin, Jackson School of Geosciences; Christina Lopano, The University of Texas at Austin, Petroleum and Geosystems Engineering Department; Brian Strazisar (RECS Faculty), US Department of Energy, National Energy Technology Lab

Theoretical and Experimental Investigations of N2-selective Membranes — Jennifer Wilcox (RECS Faculty), Ekin Ozdogan, Panithita Rochana, Stanford University

Early Operational Experience at a One-million Tonne CCS Demonstration Project, Decatur, Illinois, USA — Robert Finlay (RECS Faculty), Scott Frailey, Hannes Leetaru, Illinois State Geological Survey; Scott Marsteller, Schlumberger Carbon Services

Evaluating the Suitability for CO2 Storage at the FutureGen 2.0 Site, Morgan County, Illinois, USA — Alain Bonneville, Tyler Gilmore, Vince Verneul, Delphine Appriou (RECS 2012), Bruce Bjornstad, Jake Horner (RECS 2011), Frank Spane, Battelle Pacific Northwest Lab; Mark Kelley, Jackie Gerst, Neeraj Gupta, Kaitlin McNeil, Mark Moody, FutureGen Industrial Alliance Inc.

Model Comparison and Uncertainty Quantification for Geologic Carbon Storage: The Sim-SEQ Initiative — Sumit Mukhopadhyay, Christine Doughty, Jens Birkholzer, Lawrence Berkeley National Lab; Jean-Philippe Nicot, Seyyed Hoseini, Bureau of Economic Geology, University of Texas Austin; Diana Bacon, Luke Gosink, Guang Lin, Ramya Ramanathan, Pacific Nortwest National Lab; Sarah Gasda (RECS 2004), Uni Research Norway

Oxidative Degradation of Amines with High-temperature Cycling — Alexander Voice, University of Texas and The Netherlands Organization for Applied Scientific Research; Fred Closmann, Gary Rochelle (RECS Faculty), University of Texas

Deploying Combined EOR and CCS Projects — Kurt House (RECS 2005), Ernst van Neirop (RECS Faculty), Antonio Baclig (RECS 2011), Shipeng Fu, Mark Henly, Charles Brankman, Kelly Bergman, Robert Selover, C12 Energy

Assessment of Factors Influencing CO2 Storage Capacity and Injectivity in Eastern U.S. Gas Shales —
 Michael Godec, George Koperna (RECS Faculty), Robin Petrusak, Anne Oudinot, Advanced Resources International, Inc.

Leakage Fingerprints During Storage: Modeling Above-zone Measurements of Pressure and Temperature —
 Qing Tao, Steven Bryant, Timothy Meckel (RECS Faculty), The University of Texas at Austin


Maximizing the Value of Pressure Monitoring Data from CO2 Sequestration Projects — Srikanta Mishra, Mark Kelley, Evan Zeller, Nick Slee, Neeraj Gupta (RECS Faculty), Battelle Memorial Institute; Indra Bhattacharya (RECS 2009), Mike Hammond, American Electric Power


Identifying diagnostics for reservoir structure and CO2 plume migration from multilevel pressure measurements —
 Christin Strandli (RECS 2010), Sally Benson (RECS Faculty), Stanford University

Energy Performance of Advanced Stripper Configurations — Peter Frailie, Tarun Madan, Brent Sherman, Gary Rochelle (RECS Faculty), The University of Texas at Austin

Nitrosamine Management in Aqueous Piperazine for CO2 Capture — 
Nathan Fine, Gary Rochelle (RECS Faculty), Mandana Ashouripashaki, Alexander Voice, Steven Fulk, Lynn Li, Omar Namjoshi, University of Texas, Austin

Drainage and Imbibition CO2/Brine Relative Permeability Curves at In-situ Conditions for Sandstone Formations in Western Canada —
 Stefan Bachu (RECS Faculty), Alberta Innovates - Technology Futures


Multiphase Flow Properties of the CO2/Brine System for Carbon Sequestration — Sam Krevor (RECS 2005), Imperial College London; Ronny Pini, Sally Benson (RECS Faculty), Stanford University

Evaluation of CO2 Storage Potential in the Skagerrak/Kattegat Area — Per Eirik Strand Bergmo, Szczepan Polak (RECS 2004), SINTEF Petroleum Research, Per Aagaard, University of Oslo, Department of Geosciences, Peter Frykman, Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland, Hans Hasken Haugen, Dag Bjørnsen, Tel-Tek, Porsgrunn, Norway

Assessment of Solid Sorbents as a Competitive Post-combustion CO2 Capture Technology — Justin Glier (RECS 2012), Edward Rubin, Carnegie Mellon University

Justin Glier (RECS 2012)

Project Status and Research Plans of 500 TPD CO2 Capture and Sequestration Demonstration at Alabama Power’s Plant Barry — Michael Ivie (RECS Faculty), Nick Irvin, Chethan Acharya, Southern Company, Yasuo Kubota, Hiromitsu Nagayasu, Takuya Hirata, Paul Wood, Takahito Yonekawa, Tatsuya Tsujiuchi, MHI

Carbon Capture and Storage and the London Protocol: Recent Efforts to Enable Transboundary CO2 Transfer: Justine Garrett, Sean McCoy (RECS Faculty), International Energy Agency

Volatile Contaminant Control in Amine-based CO2 Capture Systems — Steven Fulk, Gary Rochelle (RECS Faculty), The University of Texas at Austin

Integration and Operation of Post-combustion Capture System of Coal-fired Power Generation: Load Following and Solvent Storage - Robert Brasington (RECS 2010), Howard Herzog (RECS Faculty), Massachusetts Institute of Technology

The Value of CCS in Power Systems with High Levels of Renewables Penetration — Sean McCoy (RECS Faculty), Dennis Volk, International Energy Agency; Joachim Bertsch, Stefan Nagl, Christian Growitsch, Institute of Energy Economics, University of Cologne; Mathias Finkenrath, Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Applied Sciences Kempten; John Davison, IEAGHG

Quantification of Risk Profiles and Impacts of Uncertainties as Part of US DOE's National Risk Assessment Partnership (NRAP) — Rajesh Pawar (RECS Faculty), Philip Staufer, Los Alamos National Lab; Grant Bromhal (RECS Faculty), Robert Dilmore, National Energy Technology Lab; Curt Oldenberg, Lawrence Berkeley National Lab; Bill Foxall, Edwin Jones, Lawrence Livermore National Lab; Stephen Unwin, Pacific Northwest National Lab

Electrochemically-Mediated Gas Separation Processes for Carbon Abatement — Fritz Simeon, Mike Stern, Krisitn Vicari, Howard Herzog (RECS Faculty), T. Alan Hatton, Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Thomas Hammer, Harald Landed, Siemens Corporate Technology

Four-site Case Study of Water Extraction from Carbon Dioxide Storage Reservoirs — Guoxiang Liu (RECS 2008), Charles Gorecki, Jordan Bremer, Ryan Klapperich, Robert Cowan, Yevhen Holubnyak, Damion Knudsen, Dayanand Saini, Energy & Environmental Research Center, University of North Dakota, Kyung Won Chang, Department of Geological Sciences, The University of Texas at Austin and Bureau of Economic Geology, The University of Texas at Austin; Marc Hesse (RECS 2005), Department of Geological Sciences, The University of Texas at Austin; Jean-Philippe Nicot, Bureau of Economic Geology, The University of Texas

Next-scale Chemical Looping Combustion: Process Integration and Part Load Investigation for a 10MW Demonstration Unit — David Riestenberg (RECS Faculty), Shawna Cyphers, Karine Schepers (RECS Faculty), George Koperna (RECS Faculty), BERTSCHenergy, Josef Bertsch Gesellschaft m.b.H. & Co. KG

Rethinking CCS – Developing Quantitative Tools for Designing Robust Policy in Face of Uncertainty — Jan Eide (RECS 2012), Howard Herzog (RECS Faculty), Mort Webster, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

9D Public Perception: Communication Activities and Experiences Visual Message Mapping for CCS Outreach — Daniel Daly, Energy & Environmental Research Center; Lydia Cumming, Pacific Northwest Lab; Gary Garrett, Southern States Energy Board; Marian Stone, Bevilacqua-Knight, Inc.; Mather Cather, New Mexico Tech; Lindsey Tollefson, Big Sky Carbon Sequestration Partnership; Sarah Wade (RECS Faculty), WADE, LLC

Characterization of Novel Packings for Post Combustion Capture —  Chao Wang, Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Texas at Austin and Separation Research Program, University of Texas at Austin; Micah Perry, Frank Seibert, Separation Research Program, University of Texas at Austin; Gary Rochelle (RECS Faculty), Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Texas at Austin

Enhanced Oil Recovery Method Using Carbonated Water Flooding — Lin Zuo, Sally Benson (RECS Faculty), Stanford University; Changyon Zhang, Environmental Molecular Sciences Lab

Coal-C02-Slurry Feed for Pressurised Gasifiers: Slurry Preparation System Characterisation and Economics —  Cristina Botero, Howard Herzog (RECS Faculty), Ahmned Ghoniem, Massachusettes Institute of Technology

Capillary Heterogeneity in Sandstones Rocks During CO2/Water Core-Flooding Experiments — Ronny Pini, Mike Krause, Sally Benson (RECS Faculty), Stanford University; Sam Krevor (RECS 2005), Imperial College London

Integrated Geothermal-CO2 Reservoir Systems: Reducing Carbon Intensity Through Sustainable Energy Production and Secure CO2 Storage — Thomas A. Buscheck, Mingjie Chen, Yunwei Sun, Yue Hao, Chuanhe Lu, Thomas J. Wolery, Roger D. Aines, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory; Michael A. Celia (RECS Faculty), Princeton University

A number of RECS alumni and faculty are scheduled this week to give presentations on different aspects of CCUS at the 2012 International Pittsburgh Coal Conference - the premier annual event devoted to all aspects of coal, energy, and the environment - to be held at the David L. Lawrence Convention Center in Pittsburgh, PA.

Tuesday, October 16th 

Session 17 – Carbon Management: CO2 Capture (2)

Hari Chandan (RECS 2011), Carnegie Mellon University

16:05 - Performance and Cost Analysis of Post- Combustion CO2 Capture Using Calcium Looping Process for Coal-Fired Power Plants, Hari Chandan Mantripragada, Edward Rubin, Carnegie Mellon University

Thursday, October 18th

Session 41 – Carbon Management: CO2 Storage Coal (1)

Ellen Gilliland (RECS 2012), Virginia Tech

11:40 - An Examination of MVA Techniques Applicable for CCUS in Thin, Stacked Coals of the Central Appalachian Basin, Ellen Gilliland, Nino Ripepi, Michael Karmis, Virginia Tech; Matthew Conrad, Cardno-MM&A

Session 47 – Carbon Management: CO2 Storage Coal (2) 

George Koperna (RECS Faculty), Advanced Resources International

14:10 - CoalSeq III Consortium: Advancing the Science of CO2 Sequestration in Coal Seam and Gas Shale Reservoirs, George Koperna, Anne Oudinot, Advanced Resources International; Satya Harpalani, Southern Illinois University; Khaled Gasem, Oklahoma State University; Ian Palmer, Higgs-Palmer Technologies

Session 53 - Carbon Management: CO2 Storage -3

Tim Grant (RECS 2007), U.S. DOE, NETL

15:45 - NETL CO2 Injection and Storage Cost Model, Tim Grant, Dave Morgan, DOE/NETL; Jason Valenstein, Andrea Poe, Marta Milan, Booz Allen Hamilton, Inc.; Richard Lawrence, Advanced Resources International

Dwight Peters (RECS Faculty), Schlumberger Carbon Services

16:05 - Monitoring and Verification for CCUS, Dwight Peters, Schlumberger Carbon Services

Indrajit Bhattacharya (RECS 2009), American Electric Power

16:45 - CO2 Sequestration at AEP’s Mountaineer Plant – Storage, Post Injection Monitoring and Verification, Indrajit Bhattacharya, Daniel M. Duellman, Gary O. Spitznogle, American Electric Power, USA

Richard Esposito (RECS Faculty) Southern Company

David Riestenberg (RECS Faculty), Advanced Resources International, Inc.

Dr. Alexandra Hakala, RECS Faculty Member and NETL Geoscience Researcher, will receive a Great Minds in STEM™ Hispanic Engineer National Achievement Awards Corporation (HENAAC) award for Outstanding Technical Achievement. The award recognizes Dr. Hakala as a role model and rising star in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) fields. In addition to serving as the technical coordinator for NETL's shale gas research, Dr. Hakala works on a number of geologic storage projects. 

Yesterday at the 12th annual U.S.-China Oil & Gas Industry Forum in San Antonio, Texas, Summit Power Group (Summit) signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Sinopec Engineering Group and The Export-Import Bank of China (Chexim) to help with financing and construction of the planned Texas Clean Energy Project (TCEP).  

Laura Miller, Summit's Director of Texas Projects, and former Mayor of Dallas served on the RECS 2012 faculty, and gave an engaging overview of the project this past June. The TCEP is a large-scale commercial coal gasification / poly-gen project under development near Odessa, Texas that will capture 90% of its  CO2 emissions for use in enhanced oil recovery (EOR). (Summit has entered into an offtake agreement with Whiting Petroleum Corp. for the  CO2.) TCEP will also produce more than 700,000 tons per year of urea as fertilizer for U.S. farmers and provide a 200 megawatt supply of ultra-clean, low-carbon electric power to CPS Energy, the municipal electric and gas utility of San Antonio.

Chexim will be the sole financial lender to TCEP, subject to completion of the engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract and Chexim’s due diligence. The total cost will be more than $2.5 billion, of which $450 million will be provided by a cost-sharing award from the U.S. Department of Energy. The Chexim loan will satisfy all of TCEP’s needs for project debt. Under a previously signed EPC contract, Siemens will supply a high-hydrogen combustion turbine, and Selas Fluid Processing Corp., a U.S. affiliate of Linde, will provide key equipment and support Sinopec in the chemical block EPC contract. Summit also announced that CHS Inc., a company owned by U.S. farmer, ranchers and co-ops across the U.S., will purchase all of TCEP’s urea output and make a small equity investment in the project. 

It was another productive year for many in the RECS community and the following highlights some of the many accomplishments. (Please contact me to add your updates!).  

Brendan Beck (2008) – Accepted a position as Manager of the new South African Center for CCS. 

Jeff Bielicki, PhD (2005) – Became a Visiting Research Scientist and Graduate Faculty Member at the University of Minnesota’s Humphrey School of Public Affairs where he researches energy and environmental systems and policy including CCUS.

Indrajit Bhattacharya (2009) –Completed his work as a Geophysicist on American Electric Power’s Mountaineer CCS Project.

Julie Bloxson (2010) - Completed her Master's from Kent State University with a thesis on carbon sequestration in the Clinton Formation and is now a Graduate Assistant and PhD student at Case Western Reserve where she is working on carbon sequestration projects along the Ohio River Valley.

Braydon Boulanger (2011) - Took a new position with TransAlta as a Commercial Analyst, Emissions.

Robert Bruant (2005) - Became the Gulf of Mexico Production Lead at BP.

Beau Braunberger (2011) – Received a promotion at the Western Research Institute to Lead Engineer where he works on coal gasification and CO2 capture.

Veronica Brieno Rankin (2009) - Became a Commissioned Officer in the NOAA Corps.

Benjamin Court, PhD (2007) – Received his PhD from Princeton University with the dissertation, Safety and Water Challenges in CCS: Modeling Studies to Quantify CO2 and Brine Leakage Risk and Evaluate Promising Synergies for Active and Integrated Water Management. He is a Senior Associate at The Boston Consulting Group in Paris, France.

Terra Dalton (2010) – Received her Masters in Geological Sciences from The Ohio State University with the thesis, Heterogeneity of Ohio’s Saline Reservoirs: Feldspar Abundance and its Effects on Carbon Sequestration. She is currently working ARCADIS-US in Phoenix on environmental and groundwater remediation. 

Hang Deng (2011) - Was selected to attended the IEA CCS Summer School.

Andrea Feldpausch-Parker (2007) – Completed her PhD from Texas A&M University with the dissertation, Communicating Carbon Capture and Storage Technologies: Opportunities and Constraints Across Media. She is Co-coordinator of education and outreach for the Southwest Regional Partnership on Carbon Sequestration and Assistant Professor at SUNY-ESF, Department of Environmental Studies.

Lauren Fleishman, PhD (2008) – Completed her PhD from Carnegie Mellon University with the dissertation, Public Risk Perception and Communication of Low-Carbon Electricity Technologies (including CCS). She is an Associate Policy Researcher with RAND Corporation in Pittsburgh.

Nima Ghazi (2011) - Moved on from his position in the CCS Team at Alberta Energy to advance his expertise in pipeline infrastructure. He is currently working on the engineering and design of pipeline systems at Cimarron Engineering Ltd. in Calgary, Canada.  

Julie Gouin (2010) – Completed her Masters from Kent State University with the thesis, Carbon Sequestration in the Clinton Formation. She is a Graduate Assistant and PhD student at Case Western Reserve University where she is working on carbon sequestration in the Ohio River Valley, focusing on characterizing formations for potential injection.

Burcu Gurkan, PhD (2011) – Completed her PhD from University of Notre Dame with the dissertation, Synthesis and Characterization of Novel Ionic Liquids for CO2 Capture Applications. She is a Post-Doctoral Researcher at MIT where she is developing functionalized magnetic nanoparticles for environmental and bio-separations.

Mary Kang (2010) – Was selected to attended the IEA CCS Summer School.

XinXin Li, PhD (2009) -- Received her PhD from Columbia University with the dissertation, Optimization of Technology Pathways for Zero Emission Power Plants.

Shu Luo (2010) – Was selected as a Visiting Researcher at Geosciences Australia where he worked in Canberra on numerical models of fluid flow in the subsurface.

Sarah Mardon (2005) -- Accepted a position as Program Coordinator at the University of Kentucky’s Center for Applied Energy Research where some of her projects include CCS.

Sean McCoy, PhD (Faculty) – Accepted a position as an Energy Analyst, Legal and Regulatory Issues with the IEA CCS Unit in Paris.

Vanessa Nunez-Lopez (2005) – After five years on Chevron’s CCS Team, Vanessa accepted a position as Research Scientist Associate at the Bureau of Economic Geology, The University of Texas at Austin where she is working on a variety of CCS projects.

Miriam Okun (2010) – Accepted a Graduate Research position at Columbia University’s Lenfest Center working on air capture.

Carrie Petrik-Huff (2011) – Was selected to participate in the IEA CCS Summer School and received the Outstanding Participant Award.

Sean Porse (2010) - Left his position with the EPA working on regulations for geologic carbon storage and is now a Graduate Researcher and PhD student at the University of Texas at Austin.

Saikiran Rapaka, PhD (2009) - Completed his Postdoctoral Research position with Los Alamos National Laboratory in geomechanical modeling for CCS and is currently a Research Scientist at Siemens Corporate Research.

Tim Rappold, PhD (2009) – Received his PhD from Columbia University and is a Scientist and Engineer at Kilimanjaro Energy, Inc. working on air capture. 

Ben Roth (2011) - After completing his CCS work with the Virginia Center for Coal and Energy Research at Virginia Tech, Ben will take a position in November 2012 as an Associate Geologist at CONSOL Energy working on the development of the Marcellus natural gas plays in Pennsylvania.  

Karma Sawyer, PhD (2010) – Received a promotion at ARPA-E to Program Manager in charge of the CO2 capture technology portfolio. 

Hui Su, PhD (2010) – Received her PhD from West Virginia University with the dissertation, Economics of Geological Sequestration and Carbon Management: A Case Study of Shenhua’s Direct Coal Liquefaction Plant in China.

Pamela Tomski (Founder & Director) – Was appointed Non-resident Senior Fellow at the Atlantic Council of the United States, Program on Energy and Environment.

Artur Usanov, PhD (2007) - Completed his Post-Doctoral Fellowship at RAND and is currently a Strategic Analyst at The Hague Center for Strategic Studies in the Netherlands.

Elizabeth Wilson (Faculty) – Received a Fellowship to conduct research on CCS regulatory frameworks in China and worked with Tsinghua University and World Resources Institute.

Gabrielle Wong-Parodi, PhD (2008) – Received her PhD from University of California, Berkey with the dissertation, Crafting Regulations for CCS to Foster Long-term Stewardship of Storage Sites. She is a Post Doctoral Researcher at Carnegie Mellon University working on risk communication and CCS.

Chongwei Xiao, PhD (2010) - Was granted U.S. permanent residency as an outstanding researcher in the CCS field. She is currently a Research Scientist at the Petroleum Recovery Research Center at New Mexico Tech where she works on the Southwest Partnership on Carbon Sequestration.

Ya-Mei (Cheryl) Yang, PhD (2008) – Received her PhD from Carnegie Mellon University with the dissertation, Statistical Methods for Integrating Multiple CO2 Leak Detection Techniques at Geologic Sequestration Sites. She is a Post Doctoral Associate at Yale University’s Center for Industrial Ecology.

Lois Yoksoulian, PhD (2010) - Took a position as a Post Doctoral Research Associate at the Illinois State Geological Survey where she is working as a geochemist with the Midwest Geological Sequestration Consortium.

Mehdi Zeidouni, PhD (2009) - Received his PhD from the University of Calgary with the dissertation, Analytical and Inverse Models for Leakage Characterization of CO2 Storage, and is now a Research Associate / Reservoir Engineer at the Bureau of Economic Geology, The University of Texas at Austin.

On November 4th, the Inter-Student Initiative in Carbon Sequestration (ISICS) held its fall meeting at Princeton University for 30 participants, including RECS alumni: Mary Kang, Princeton (2010); Natalia Zakharova, Columbia (2010); Hang Deng, Princeton (2011); Mikey Hannon, UAB (2011); Amelia Paukert, Columbia (2009), and Juan Nogues, Princeton (2007). Princeton’s Dr. Robert Williams gave the keynote address, which was followed by student presentations and group discussions. Co-founded by Mary Kang and Natalia Zakharova, ISICS was established to create a forum for graduate students across different departments and universities to exchange research ideas, network, collaborate and promote CCS.

Shu Luo (RECS 2010), a Ph.D. candidate in Thermal Engineering at Tsinghua University in Beijing and his advisor Dr. Ruina Xu (RECS 2008) gave Pamela Tomski, RECS Founder and Director a lab tour and hosted lunch. Dr. Xu is a leading CCUS researcher in China and is heading an investigation into “Fundamental Study of Migration of Supercritical Carbon Dioxide in Porous Media Under Conditions of Saline Aquifers.” The project includes experimental, computational and theoretical studies to improve fundamental understanding of CO2/brine two-phase flow in porous media. At Tsinghua University’s supercritical CO2 test facility, Shu Luo is conducting experiments on trapping mechanisms for CO2 storage using custom-built MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) with high pressure and temperature. Supercritical CO2 and water are injected into the sintered glass porous media structure by different mixture ratios, which is designed with a fissure defect. Visualization and analysis results simultaneously demonstrate that supercritical CO2 saturation and distribution vary with different ratios. Part of this project is a collaboration with Geoscience Australia, where Shu Luo was recently a Visiting Researcher working on the integration of numerical simulations of CO2 plumes in saline aquifers.