Our SFB 1313 researcher Maartje Boon will be an invited speaker at the Workshop on Digital Analysis of Flow Processes in Porous Materials for GeoEnergy Applications (Digi-GeoEnergy), that will take place from 13 to 14 March 2025 at the Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh (UK). Her talk will be on "Experimental characterization of gas/brine multiphase flow in porous rock across scales".
Speaker: Jun.-Prof. Maartje Boon, University of Stuttgart
Date: 14 March 2025
Time: 9:00 am – 9:45 am
Title: Experimental characterization of gas/brine multiphase flow in porous rock across scales
Venue: Energy Academy & Enterprise Buildings, Institute of GeoEnergy Engineering, Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh EH14 4AS
Abstract
Geological carbon sequestration and underground hydrogen storage in porous reservoirs are promising strategies for a sustainable energy future. To safely and efficiently utilize porous reservoirs for underground gas storage, it is essential to characterize multiphase flow and transport in heterogeneous porous rock at multiple scales.
In this talk, I will present results from core-flooding and microfluidic experiments where we visualized and characterized multiphase flow for gas/brine systems in heterogeneous rocks at the pore- and core-scale, as well as in 2D porous glass microfluidic chips. Alongside drainage and imbibition, the experiments included no-flow periods to investigate the redistribution of gas in the pore space during periods of gas storage.
Session Equity, Diversity and Inclusiveness
Furthermore, Maartje Boon will be talking in the session "Beyond good intentions: The role of allies in promoting diversity in the digital and geosciences communities" with other researchers. The session will take place on 14 March 2025 from 2:30 pm to 3:15 pm.
Diversity and inclusion efforts in the digital and geosciences communities require more than just good intentions—they need active and sustained allyship. Allies play a crucial role in fostering equitable environments, amplifying underrepresented voices, and challenging systemic barriers. This session aims to provide actionable strategies for allies to drive meaningful and lasting change in these traditionally male-dominated fields, where the challenges of inequity are often more pronounced.
About Maartje Boon
Maartje Boon is a Junior Professor at the Institute of Applied Mechanics at the University of Stuttgart, working on porous media science in the framework of the Collaboartive Research Center (SFB) 1313 and the Excellence Cluster SimTech. She holds an MSc in Hydrogeology from Utrecht University and earned her PhD in Petroleum Engineering from Imperial College London, focused on reactive transport with applications for geological carbon sequestration. From 2017 to 2021, she was a postdoctoral research fellow at Stanford University’s Energy Resources Engineering department, studying the impact of rock-structure heterogeneity on multiphase flow properties and its implications for geological carbon sequestration. From 2021-2023, she joined the Geoscience Engineering department at TU Delft as a postdoctoral researcher, where she worked on underground hydrogen storage in porous reservoirs, characterizing hydrogen transport from the pore- to the field-scale.
Surprisingly, despite extensive pre-equilibration, the experiments revealed that gas dissolution/exsolution in brine significantly impacts the observed flow and trapping behavior, particularly in heterogeneous systems. During periods of flow, a complex interplay of viscous, capillary, and gravitational forces—combined with gas dissolution into brine—resulted in preferential flow paths in the rock that can lead to significant gas trapping. During no-flow periods, disconnected gas ganglia were reconnected through the dissolution-driven process of Ostwald ripening. This phenomenon can reduce trapped gas saturation in the porous reservoir, which is advantageous for underground hydrogen storage but undesirable for geological carbon sequestration.