News

• [March 22, 2012] Prof. Jesus Carrera from the Spanish National Research Council (IDAEA-CSIC) visits group and gives EFM / Hydrology seminar: Thu, March 22nd @4:00pm, Bldg 48-316. (Read the abstract)
  
  
  

• [March 9, 2012] Prof. Marco Thiele from Streamsim Technologies / Stanford University visits group and gives SPE distinguished lecture: Friday, March 9 @12:00pm, Bldg 48-316.

• [March 1, 2012] Prof. Al Valocchi from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign visits group and gives EFM / Hydrology seminar: Thu, March 1st @4:00pm, Bldg 48-316. (Read the abstract)

• [Jan 15, 2012] Jane Chui and Robin Zhao passed their Qualifying Exams. Congrats!

• [January 1, 2012] Birendra Jha's image on fluid mixing from viscous fingering was selected as the Back Scatter image for the January 2012 issue of Physics Today, and as a Kaleidoscope image for Physical Review E. (See ''Back Scatter'' image; See ''Kaleidoscope'' image)

• [December 16, 2011] Birendra Jha and Luis Cueto's paper on quantifying mixing in viscously unstable porous media flows was published in Physical Review E. (Read the paper)

• [Dec 15, 2011] Chris MacMinn successfully defended his PhD dissertation, titled Migration and Trapping of CO₂ in Saline Aquifers. Congratulations, Dr. MacMinn!! (pictures)

• [Dec 5-9, 2011] Juanes Research Group attends AGU Fall Meeting. (Read presentation titles)

• [Dec 1-2, 2011] Prof. Knut Jorgen Maloy from the University of Oslo visits group and gives EFM / Hydrology seminar: Thu, Dec 1st @4:00pm, Bldg 48-316. (Read the abstract)

• [November 23, 2011] Chris MacMinn and Mike Szulczewski's paper on CO2 sequestration by combined capillary and solubility trapping was published in Journal of Fluid Mechanics. (Read the paper)

• [October 24-31, 2011] Prof. Marco Dentz from the Spanish National Research Council (IDAEA-CSIC) visits group and gives a special EFM / Hydrology seminar: Fri Oct 28st @12:00pm, Bldg 48-316.

• [October 27, 2011] Peter Kang's paper in collaboration with Marco Dentz and Tanguy Le Borgne, on a spatial Markov model of anomalous transport through random lattice networks, was published in Physical Review Letters. (Read the paper)

• [October 21, 2011] Chris MacMinn and Robin Zhao present poster titled Fluid mechanics of geological carbon dioxide storage at the 2011 MIT Energy Night: Fri Oct 21st, 5:30-8pm, MIT Museum. (Read abstract)

• [October 21, 2011] Scott Backhaus from Los Alamos National Lab visits group and gives a special EFM / Hydrology seminar: Fri Oct 21st @12:00pm, Bldg 48-316.

• [October 20, 2011] Prof. Dani Or visits group and speaks at the Environmental Fluid Mechanics / Hydrology seminar: Thu Oct 20th @4:00pm, Bldg 48-316. (Read abstract)

• [October 13, 2011] Ruben Juanes speaks at the Computational Sustainability Seminar Series: Nonequilibrium physics and computation of water infiltration in dry soil: Implications for the ecohydrology of arid regions - Thursday, Oct. 13th, 3-4pm, MIT Room 32-D463 (Read abstract).

• [September 12, 2011] Prof. Insa Neuweiler visits group and speaks at the Environmental Fluid Mechanics / Hydrology seminar: Thu Sep 15th @4:00pm, Bldg 48-316. (Read abstract)

• [September 8, 2011] A paper in collaboration with the DOE National Energy Technology Laboratory, on the X-ray imaging of the mode of gas migration in water-saturated sediments, appeared in Geophysical Research Letters. Controlled experiments elucidate the preferential mode of gas migration in sediments, and show that capillary invasion dominates in coarse sediments; conduit opening in fine sediments. (Read the paper)

• [July 21, 2011] Ran Holtzman's paper on overpressure caused by hydrate dissociation appeared in Geophysical Research Letters. In this paper we show, by means of a fully-coupled pore-scale model, that dissociation kinetics and fluid displacement at the pore scale control the overpressure from hydrate dissociation. (Read the paper; auxiliary material; auxiliary videos)

• [July 18-20, 2011] Ruben Juanes, Howard Herzog and John Parsons offer the third edition of the Summer short course on Carbon Capture and Storage: Science, Technology and Policy, through the MIT Professional Education Short Programs.

• [May 12, 2011] Birendra Jha and Luis Cueto's paper on fluid mixing from viscous fingering appeared in Physical Review Letters. In this paper we explain how mixing efficiency can be enhanced by exploiting the unstable displacement of fluids with different viscosities. (Read the paper; Suppl. videos; MIT Homepage Spotlight; MIT News; CEE News; On Balance Newsletter; New Scientist)

• Ruben Juanes and Luis Cueto are co-organizing a session at the AGU Fall Meeting 2011.
  NG10: Pattern Formation in Earth System Sciences
  Deadline for abstract submission: August 4, 2011.

• [May 10, 2011] Peter Kang's team wins MIT Global Challenge competition with Project AQUA.

• [May 5, 2011] Ran Holtzman's paper on overpressure caused by hydrate dissociation was accepted for publication in Geophysical Research Letters.

• [May 4, 2011] Prof. Herbert Huppert visits group and speaks at the Environmental Fluid Mechanics seminar (Wed May 4th @2:30pm, Bldg 48-316).

• [April 14, 2011] Birendra Jha and Luis Cueto's paper on fluid mixing from viscous fingering was accepted for publication in Physical Review Letters.

• [April 12, 2011] Birendra Jha, Peter Kang and Chris MacMinn each received Outstanding Student Paper Awards for the work they presented at the 2010 AGU Fall Meeting. Birendra's paper is titled "Fluid mixing from viscous fingering." Peter's is titled "Effective transport in lattice fracture networks with uncorrelated and correlated velocity field." Chris's paper is titled "Spreading and dissolution of CO2 in horizontal aquifers: theory and experiments." Congratulations!

• [April 6, 2011] Christos Nicolaides received a George and Marie Vergottis Fellowship.

• [April 5, 2011] Ben Scandella was selected as a Martin Fellow for Sustainability.

• [Mar 4, 2011] Peter Kang's paper on particle transport through a lattice network just appeared as a Rapid Communication in ''Physical Review E''. In this paper we introduce a two-particle process to address the predictability of transport through a lattice with random properties. (Read the paper)

• [Feb 24, 2011] Ben Scandella's paper on methane venting from lake sediments was accepted for publication in Geophysical Research Letters. In this paper we present a simple, mechanistic model to predict the episodic bubbling of methane, shown here as a multicolored plume from sonar data and superposed on a blue seismic profile of a lake bottom. (Read the paper)

• [Jan 28, 2011] Birendra Jha and Christos Nicolaides passed their Qualifying Exam. Congratulations!

• [Oct 22, 2010] Juan Hidalgo, Jane Chui and Robin Zhao join the group. Welcome!

• [Aug 11, 2010] Peter Kang receives Science Graduate Fellowship by the Department of Energy’s Office of Science. Congratulations! (MIT news)

• [May 20, 2010] Birendra Jha and Mike Szulczewski each received Outstanding Student Paper Awards for the work they presented at the AGU Fall Meeting 2009. Birendra's paper is titled "Numerical Simulation of Mixing in Viscous-Fingering Displacements." Mike's is titled "Suppression of Mixing in Miscible Viscous Fingering in a Hele-Shaw Cell." Congratulations!

• [Jan 28, 2010] Peter Kang and Ben Scandella passed their Qualifying Exam. Congratulations!

• [Jan 14, 2010] Juanes receives DOE Early Career Award (DOE Announcement, MIT news)

• [Jan 11, 2010] Figuring out where to put the carbon. New tools from MIT could help evaluate where to do it — and how to keep it contained (MIT News Story)
  
  

• [Oct 5 - 7, 2009] Work on nonequilibrium physics of multiphase flow, and origin of gravity fingering during infiltration, presented at the Intl. Conference on Nonlinearities and Upscaling in Porous Media

• [Sep 2, 2009] Paper in Journal of Geophysical Research elucidates model for escape of underground methane (MIT News; On Balance Newsletter; EurekAlert!; Science Daily; PhysOrg; Green Car Congress; Save The Planet News)

• [Aug 3 - 7, 2009] Work on CO2 plume migration and storage capacity presented at the Intl. Workshop on Modeling and Risk Assessment of Geological Storage of CO2
  
  

• [Mar 29 - Apr 3, 2009] Work on gravity fingers presented at the Intl. Conference on Unstable and Preferential Flow in Porous Media
  
  

• [Mar 6, 2009] Poster on CO2 storage presented at the MIT Energy Conference and Showcase (pdf)
  
  

• [Feb 24, 2009] MISTI selects project on carbon sequestration for the Hayashi Seed Fund (MIT News; MISTI Seed Funds)

• [Jan 15, 2009] Postdoctoral associate Ran Holtzman joins the group

• [Dec 12, 2008] Paper in Physical Review Letters explains the origin of gravity fingers (MIT News; TechTalk; CEE News; On Balance Newsletter; EurekAlert!; Science Daily; Scientific Blogging)

• [Nov 17, 2008] Three papers from the research group presented at the GHGT-9 conference, including a model for the assessment of CO2 storage capacity at the basin scale(MIT News; TechTalk; CleanTech; BusinessGreen; Science Daily)

• [Mar 31, 2008] Ruben Juanes featured in Boston Magazine ... as #2 among the 61 Best New Things in Boston ?? (Somewhere in an MIT Lab, a Researcher Is This Close to Saving the Planet)

• [Feb 7, 2007] Paper in Water Resources Research elucidates the role of capillary trapping in CO2 storage (MIT News; TechTalk; On Balance Newsletter; EurekAlert!; Science Daily; New Scientist; Reuters; Lab News; Live Science; The Why Files; Green Car Congress; Environmental Research Web)