Simon Emmert successfully defended his doctral thesis

December 18, 2020 /

Congratulations to our SFB 1313 doctoral researcher Simon Emmert for successfully defending his doctoral thesis.

SFB 1313 doctoral researcher Simon Emmert successfully defended his doctoral thesis "Developing and Calibrating a Numerical Model for Microbially Enhanced Coal-Bed Methane Production" on 17 December 2020. Congratulations!

Simon Emmert is a doctoral researcher at the Department of Hydromechanics and Modelling of Hydrosystems and a member of SFB 1313. He wrote his thesis within SFB 1313's Integrated Research Training Group IRTG-IMPM. Due to the present Corona-restrictions, only the examination committee could attend the talk which was broadcasted via Webex for the general public.

Abstract

Microbially enhanced coal-bed methane (MECBM) production is an innovative idea to stimulate biogenic coal-bed methane production by providing methanogens and nutrients to the coal and, thus, enhancing the microbial conversion of coal to gas. However, little is known about the environmental conditions favourable to MECBM production, or the details of interactions of microbes and nutrients that promote methane production in the subsurface.

The relevant processes of MECBM production and their interactions are comprised in a conceptual model, including flow and transport of fluids as well as micro-biological and geo-chemical reaction processes. The reactions are calibrated with experimental batch data. The model is extended and compared to column reactors where the model revealed important insights into the mechanisms involved in flow and transport of amendments and into the importance of biofilm growth, detachment, and re-attachment of microbial cells.

The thesis has furthermore produced results on parameter sensitivities, which are valuable for designing further experimental studies in order to put the emphasis on the most sensitive parameters. Last but not least, the field of computational efficiency with an investigation of operator splitting schemes is briefly addressed. It is envisioned to apply the developed numerical model for a transfer to the field-scale and the design of a corresponding setup in the field in the future.

First Supervisor: apl. Prof. Dr.-Ing. Holger Class
Secondary Suervisor: Prof. Robin Gerlach
Secondary Suervisor: Prof. Oliver Röhrle, PhD

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