News 2022

December 12th – 16th, 2022: We are excited to announce that Dr. Sahar Bakhshian, accompanied by two of the Gulf Coast Carbon Center’s Master’s Students, Ms. Edna Rodriguez Calzado and Mr. Richard Colt Larson attended the American Geophysical Union Fall Meeting held in Chicago, IL.

This dynamic group presented the following posters and oral presentations while at the conference:

December 12th, 2022: Bakhshian, S., Bump, A., and Hovorka, S., 2022, CO₂ Migration and Retention in Composite Confining Systems: A Parametric Assessment, Abstract GC12E-0478 [poster] presented at 2022 AGU Fall Meeting, 12-16th Dec.
December 13th, 2022: Rodriguez Calzado, E., Hovorka, S.D., and Bump, A., 2022, Mapping CO₂ Injectivity Potential Within Available CO₂ Underground Storage Window in Sedimentary Rocks Across the United States Abstract B25F-1610 [poster] presented at 2022 AGU Fall Meeting, 12-16th Dec.
December 14th, 2022: Bakhshian, S., Zarepakzad, N., Nevermann, H., Hohenegger, C., Or, D., and Shokri, N., 2022, Prediction of Regional Soil Moisture Dynamics Using Deep Learning Techniques, Abstract U35C-0530 [poster] presented at 2022 AGU Fall Meeting, 12-16th Dec.
December 16th, 2022: Larson, R., Bakhshian, S., 2022, Impacts of Microstructural Heterogeneity on CO₂ Capillary Trapping in Geologic Carbon Sequestration Abstract H52G-07 [oral presentation] presented at 2022 AGU Fall Meeting, 12-16th Dec.

Dr. Bakhshian also co-chaired a poster session entitled: U35C - Machine Learning Applications in Earth, Energy, and Environmental Studies III Poster with Dr. Michael Friedel from the University of Colorado Denver, CO; Dr. Gege Wen from Stanford University, Energy Resources Engineering, Stanford, CA; and Dr. Erin Wallin, from HIGP/SOEST/University of Hawaii, Honolulu, HI.

December 6 – 8, 2022: The GCCC’s Senior Research Scientist, Dr. Seyyed A. Hosseini, will attend the Face-to-Face Kickoff Meeting for Science-Informed Machine Learning for Accelerating Real-Time Decisions in Subsurface Applications (SMART) and National Risk Assessment Partnership (NRAP). The group of leaders attending will meet in Phoenix, Arizona to discuss progress, promote collaboration, establish expectations, and establish early wins. Dr. Hosseini will be on hand to present the SMART Work Package 2A Status Update, which will follow with a question-and-answer session.

December 6–7th, 2022: Dr. Alex Bump will be giving a presentation on “Risked-Based Offshore Monitoring” on December 7th at the National Carbon Capture Center, which is hosting BOEM and BSEE.

December 5th, 2022: The GCCC is delighted to announce Dr. Alex Bump and Dr. Susan Hovorka’s new publication entitled, “Fetch-trap Pairs: Exploring definition of carbon storage prospects to increase capacity and flexibility in areas with competing uses,” which was accepted for publication from the International Journal of Greenhouse Gas Control on November 29th and is temporarily available online starting today: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1750583622002353?dgcid=author

December 1st, 2022: Dr. Carlos A. Uroza participated in a CCUS panel organized by the Division of Energy and Innovation at the University of Houston as part of their Energy Symposium Series. This panel addressed engaging and important questions related to CCUS as a key technology to reach “Netzero Texas by 2050.” At this event, Dr. Uroza provided a presentation summarizing opportunities for CO₂ storage along the Gulf Coast of Texas. He described how the Gulf Coast Carbon Center (GCCC), at the Bureau of Economic Geology, is working to accurately estimate the potential to store CO₂ in Texas and Louisiana. The GCCC continues to engage with industry, academia, and the general public to advance the carbon capture and storage industry. The moderator for the panel was Dr. Christine Ehlig-Economides, a Professor at the University of Houston. Other panelists included Jane Stricker who is a Sr. Vice President as well as the Energy Transition and Executive Director of HETI and Dianne Ralston who is the Chief Legal Officer of Schlumberger.

November 28, 2022: Dr. Katherine Romanak provided three lectures on shallow onshore and offshore monitoring, deep monitoring, and environmental impacts of carbon capture and storage at the IEAGHG Summer School held in Bandung, Indonesia this year. There were 44 students from 27 countries attending a week-long program hosted by The Institut Teknologi Bandung. If interested, IEAGHG will accept applications to join the next summer school session in early 2023. For more information or to subscribe to the summer school’s email list, check out: https://ieaghg.org/summer-school

November 21, 2022: Dr. Alex Bump’s graduate research assistant, Charlie (Yu-Chen) Zheng, provided representatives from the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company Limited whose headquarters is located in Hsinchu, Taiwan and National Taiwan University (NTU) located in Taipei, Taiwan with introductory information about the GCCC. Hook’em, Charlie!

November 15, 2022: Due to Dr. Katherine Romanak’s “commitment to advancing carbon capture and storage (CCS/CCUS) as a critical means of reducing emissions and fighting climate change,” she was invited to the Canadian CCUS Leadership Dinner while at COP27 to meet with key leaders from Western Canadian governments and organizations that support the development of large-scale CCS projects.

Dr. Romanak, along with representatives from several other countries, discussed how they could build alliances and expand hands-on expertise within the global carbon capture and storage (CCS) ecosystem. At the meeting, the International CCS Knowledge Center shared the latest information from Western Canada about:

how Canada’s oil sands companies are developing one of the world’s largest CCS projects to eliminate more than 10 Megatonnes/year of CO₂ by 2030;
the world’s first commercial CCS project at Saskatchewan’s Boundary Dam Power Station that has captured nearly five million tonnes of CO₂ since 2014; and
the world’s largest CO₂ pipeline which is transporting emissions captured from hydrogen production at an oil refinery and a fertilizer plant for use and permanent storage in conventional oil reservoirs in central Alberta.

The GCCC is excited to share information about developing CCS projects in Canada. Thanks to the CCS Knowledge Center and Western Canada for supporting CCS, building alliances in this format, and spreading the word about CCS as a solution.

November 15, 2022: At the GCCC, we strive to work with developing country partners to implement CCS in their countries. Experts from Trinidad and Tobago, and Guyana share their progress on developing carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology in their countries, and what can be learned from their experiences at COP27. Dr. Katherine Romanak and Tim Dixon (IEAGHG), joined here with other experts in the CCS industry, work diligently to provide scientific information to the United Nation’s global climate forum based on decades of research in carbon dioxide storage while at COP27.

Special thanks to Mrs. Sandra Fraser, the Acting Permanent Secretary from the Ministry of Energy and Energy Industries, Republic of Trinidad and Tobago for welcoming remarks for the COP 27 Side Event held on this day titled, “Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) in the Caribbean Region.”

Thanks to Professor Andrew Jupiter (UWI), Dr Donnie Boodlal (UTT) and Dr David Alexander (UTT) for their presentation about the “Development of a National Carbon Storage Atlas for Trinidad and Tobago.”
Thank you to Ms. Denise Simmons, from The University of Guyana, for the pre-recorded discussion of CCS in Guyana.
We appreciate Mr. Donneil Cain from the Caribbean Community Climate Change Centre (CCCCC) for discussing “The CCS initiative in the Caribbean and possible funding opportunities”
And thank you to Dr. Katherine Romanak for her closing remarks at this incredibly informative session.
Both Mr. Tim Dixon from IEAGHG and Mr. Eadbhard Pernot from the Clean Air Task Force worked as moderators.

Photo credit: Ruth Gebremedhin from the Global CCS Institute.

November 10, 2022: Dr. Romanak and Tim Dixon from IEAGHG organized an Official UNFCCC COP 27 Side Event entitled, “Carbon Capture and Storage – Where is it in Africa and what can be learned for other emerging economies?” This event was archived and can be watched here. To take a look at topics that the panelists covered, please see agenda: UNFCCC Africa Side-event on CCS at COP27.

Panel members — Panelists from the Official UNFCC Side Event. Not included in this photo is Brad Crabtree, the Assistant Secretary at the US Department of Energy, who gave introductory remarks about the need for CCS.

November 10, 2022: The GCCC’s Dr. Tip Meckel, Ramon Gil-Egui, and graduate student Yushan Li attended the Department of Energy’s Carbon Interactive Workshop held in Corpus Christi from 12:30 to 5:30 pm. GCCC representatives had meaningful discussions about carbon projects with a cross-section of community members including those from "labor, environmental, Tribal and Indigenous, land use development and local government stakeholders" who were invited to the event. The DOE's goal was to understand how members of the community would like to be engaged with carbon projects moving forward.

November 7th – 12th, 2022: The GCCC’s Dr. Katherine Romanak, IEAGHG’s Tim Dixon, Carbon Capture and Storage Association’s Ruth Herbert, and the International CCS Knowledge Centre’s Beth Hardy-Valiaho hosted a collaborative informational exhibit about CCS at COP 27. This opportunity allows representatives from governments such as parties to the convention and observer states, as well as members of the press, and representatives of observer organizations attending the conference to ask these CCS experts questions. They plan to share valuable information and resources that will provide practical information on carbon capture and geologic storage. Dr. Romanak provided information on useful “pathways for emerging economies to assess their potential for carbon capture and storage (CCS).” The exhibit was incredibly well attended and our CCS representatives stayed busy for the entire display.

November 5, 2022: The GCCC’s Research Scientist, Dr. Katherine Romanak, left for the COP 27 – U.N. Climate Change Conference that will be held in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt. Dr. Romanak will join representatives from the IEAGHG, Carbon Capture and Storage Association, and International CCS Knowledge Centre to help inform policy makers on low carbon technologies. Dr. Romanak will provide scientific information from decades of research in CO₂ storage to explain how critical Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) is to meet global emission reduction commitments.

November 5th, 2022: Please join our new Gulf Coast Carbon Center LinkedIn page to follow updates about the GCCC.

October 31, 2022: Our researchers are back in the office this week after participating in a well-attended, successful GHGT-16 conference held in Lyon, France.

Drs. Alex Bump, Seyyed Hosseini, Sue Hovorka, Tip Meckel, Hailun Ni, and Katherine Romanak who attended GHGT-16, presented a total of 12 papers and chaired 5 sessions. The following GHGT-16 papers can be downloaded here:

Bump, A.P., Bakhshian, S., Ni, H., Hovorka, S., Dunlap, D., Olariu, M., Hosseini, S., Meckel, T., 2022, Composite confining systems: Characterizing, de-risking and permitting unconventional seals for CO₂ Storage, 16th Greenhouse Gas Control Technologies Conference Lyon, 23–27 October, 2022 (GHGT-16), 11 p. http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4286411
Bump, A.P., Bakhshian, S., Ni, H., Hovorka, S., Dunlap, D., Olariu, M., Hosseini, S., Meckel, T., 2022, Composite confining systems: Characterizing, de-risking and permitting unconventional seals for CO₂ Storage (paper), 16th Greenhouse Gas Control Technologies Conference Lyon, 23–27 October, 2022 (GHGT-16), 11 p. http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4286411
Ni, H., Braganca, R., Tisato, N., Meckel, T.A., 2022, Monitoring CO₂ plume migration with lab-scale ultrasonic experimental setup (poster), 16th Greenhouse Gas Control Technologies Conference Lyon, 23–27 October, 2022 (GHGT-16).
Ni, H., Meckel, T.A., 2022, Effects of flow pulsation on CO₂ buoyant migration and capillary trapping (paper), 16th Greenhouse Gas Control Technologies Conference Lyon, 23–27 October 2022 (GHGT-16), 9 p.. http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4273191
Romanak, K.D., Atkinson, L., and Dankel, D., 2022, The effect of monitoring complexity on stakeholder acceptance of CO₂ geological storage projects (presentation), 16th Greenhouse Gas Control Technologies Conference Lyon, 23–27 October, 2022 (GHGT-16),
Trupp, M., Ringrose, P., Hovorka, S., and Whittaker, S., 2022, Risk-sharing is vital for up-scaling CCS, to combat climate change (paper): 16th Greenhouse Gas Control Technologies Conference Lyon, 23–27 October, 2022 (GHGT-16), 10 p. http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4284770

A special highlight to the conference, was watching GCCC alumnus Izaak Ruiz contribute to discussions in a Youth Panel that was held on the last day. In Abdul’Aziz Aliyu’s IEAGHG blog about the final session, he writes “For the first time at a GHGT conference, and to provide a complimentary perspective, a Youth Panel was constituted. The panel which was moderated by Nicolas Castel (IFPEN/Universite PSL) consists of young professionals across the academia and industry namely, Saja Albaidarat (University of Sheffield), Sibylle – Duval-Dachary (IFP Énergies Nouvelles), Athreya Suresh (The University of Texas at Austin), Miguel Abreu (The University of Texas at Austin) and Izaak Ruiz [UT Austin GCCC alumnus now with Repsol] delivered an informed, intellectually stimulating, and thought-provoking discuss to the global audience. CCUS was reaffirmed by the panel as a critical tool to curb global emissions and the CCUS community needs to make CCUS a bit cooler to attract the young and teeming workforce needed to deliver a decarbonised economy via CCS.” Hook’em!

October 23–27, 2022: The GCCC will be actively participating at the Greenhouse Gas Control Technologies (GHGT)-16 conference that will be held in Lyon, France. Click here for a day-to-day summary of presentations, sessions chaired, lead panelist discussions that representatives of the GCCC will be actively involved in this year. This document also includes the abstracts for each presentation by the GCCC. We look forward to seeing you at the conference.

October 26, 2022: The GCCC's Senior Research Scientist, Dr. Seyyed Hosseini, presenting a poster titled, Application of pressure transient analysis in characterization of fluid leakage from faults at the 16^th Greenhouse Gas Control Technologies Conference (GHGT-16) in Lyon, France.

October 23, 2022: Bonjour! Many of our GCCC researchers have arrived in Lyon, France for the 16^th Greenhouse Gas Control Technologies Conference (GHGT-16), which is well attended this year. From left to right, Dr. Katherine Romanak, Dr. Tim Dixon (IEAGHG), Dr. Susan Hovorka, and Dr. Charles Jenkins (CSIRO Australia) enjoy the GHGT-16 welcoming festivities at Palau's de la Bourse in Lyon.

October 21st, 2022: The GCCC participated in the Bureau of Economic Geology’s Austin Earth Science Week Career Day by hosting groups of middle school and high school students from the Austin area. The GCCC's graduate students, including Ismail Halim Faruqi, Chinemerem Okezie, and Charlie Zheng, performed thought provoking and interactive science demonstrations about carbon dioxide (CO₂) thanks to training and coaching by Dr. Susan Hovorka, Ramon Gil, and Linda McCall. There were many smiles, giggles, and great questions from the audience. We look forward to seeing a new generation of scientists from the participants. Hook'em.

October 19th, 2022: Our GCCC Research Scientist, Dr. Katherine Romanak, was on a panel as a virtual speaker in the Closing Plenary of the Carbon Capture Association (CCSA) 2022 Time to Deliver conference held in London to discuss how we can “achieve climate neutrality through strong cooperation”. The CCSA is the trade association that promotes the commercial deployment of carbon capture, utilization and storage (CCUS), an essential solution to deliver net zero emissions across industry, heat, power and transport. More information about the conference can be found here: https://ccus.events/.

October 17th, 2022: The GCCC is proud to announce that the IEAGHG Technical Review Report was published today. This report summarizes the 5th International Workshop on Offshore Geologic CO₂ Storage hosted in New Orleans, U.S.A., by the Gulf Coast Carbon Center (GCCC), Bureau of Economic Geology (BEG) at UT Austin. This report was prepared by the GCCC’s Dr. Carlos Uroza with input from the speakers, and was edited by Samantha Neades, Tim Dixon and Katherine Romanak. Thanks to logistical support from Southern States Energy Board. Congratulations, Team! The IEAGHG Report can be viewed and downloaded here.

October 14, 2022: Did you know that the Bureau of Economic Geology has a weekly Seminar Series that is open to the public? In case you missed it, Dr. Tip Meckel from the GCCC, provided an intriguing presentation about “A model for CCS development in Texas through 2050” for the Bureau of Economic Geology’s Seminar Series. You may watch Tip’s presentation that was recorded here.

Tip writes: “As you may know, carbon capture and geologic storage is entering a rapid phase of commercial development both on- and offshore. One of the primary challenges of project development is acquiring the land lease area sized for project needs. This presentation starts with a demonstration of typical project scale, with a focus on pressure evolution in the subsurface. I discuss some legal aspects, highlight some recent land use announcements, and consider the revenue and royalty stream that CCS may afford State land administrators such as University Lands and the General Land Office. My presentation concludes with a high-level model for CCS development in Texas through 2050.”

October 13 through 20th, 2022: Dr. Alex Bump traveled and represented the GCCC around England. Alex met with several researchers at the University of Oxford, University of Cambridge, and Imperial College London. Senior Banker and Associate Director, Ana Berenguel, hosted Alex at the European Bank for Development and Reconstruction where Alex presented a talk on carbon capture and sequestration. In his free time, Alex ran the Oxford half marathon and a 5k park run with IEAGHG’s Director, and General Manager, Tim Dixon. Alex will be headed to the GHGT-16 conference held in Lyon, France next, once he has completely exhausted the British coffee supply. Sleep will be November’s project.

View from European Bank — Alex’s view from the European Bank in Canary Wharf.

Alex Bump and Ana Berenguel — Alex and Ana Berenguel at the European Bank.

People at marathon — Alex with an old friend at the Oxford half marathon.

October 13, 2022: Professor and Distinguished Oil and Gas Scholar, Owen Anderson, from the University of Texas School of Law in the Kay Bailey Hutchison Center for Energy Law & Business joined the GCCC at their weekly group meeting typically held on Thursdays to discuss CCUS: Can it save the planet? Legal Challenges. Prof. Anderson and members of the GCCC had great informal conversations about the evolution of laws, permitting, and challenges in regard to CCUS.

October 6th, 2022: The Energy and Earth Resources (EER) Graduate Program voted in favor of making Dr. Seyyed Hosseini an official member of the Graduate Studies Committee. Dr. Hosseini has served on several graduate student committees, but he will be able to officially supervise graduate students as the main advisor. Congratulations, Dr. Hosseini!

October 6, 2022: Dr. Tip Meckel presented CCS topics at the annual statewide members meeting of the Texas Land & Mineral Owners Association.

October 5, 2022: Dr. Tip Meckel spoke to members of the National Ocean Industries Association about offshore CCS and the opportunities presented for the Gulf of Mexico in Colorado Springs, CO.

October 4, 2022: Dr. Alex Bump, our very own GCCC Research Scientist Associate, provided a talk titled Composite Confining Systems: Rethinking Seal Requirements for Carbon Sequestration for the University of Texas Institute of Geophysics (UTIG) community via their weekly seminar series known as their “Discussion Hour.”

October 3, 2022: The GCCCs Postdoctoral Fellow, Dr. Hailun Ni, presented the Jackson School of Geoscience’s sedimentology community with an update about her laboratory research. Dr. Ni provided what is known as the “JSG’s Soft Rock Seminar” where she gave a riveting talk titled, Investigating the effect of heterogeneity on CO₂ plume migration and trapping using beadpack experiments.

September 30, 2022: The GCCC had several presentations at the 8^th Annual Bureau Research Symposium held at the Bureau’s main lobby.
GCCC poster presentations included:

Monitoring gas injection with lab-scale ultrasonic experimental setup by Dr. Hailun Ni
Machine Learning-Guided Sand Volume Mapping for CO₂ Storage Site Selection: A Gulf of Mexico (GOM) Example by Dr. Hongliu Zeng, Dr. Mariana Olariu, and Ramón Treviño
Carbon Capture and Storage Societal Considerations by Ramon Gil-Egui, Dr. Sue Hovorka, Dr. Dolores van der Kolk, Yushan Li
Pore-scale Simulations of Multiphase Flow for CO₂ Migration Through Saline Aquifers in the Capillary-Dominated Regime by Richard Larson and Dr. Sahar Bakhshian

Ramon Gil-Egui also gave a “nano” talk on Carbon Capture and Storage Societal Considerations. Special thanks to Linda McCall for putting on such an outstanding event to provide Bureau Researchers an opportunity to discuss their recent science endeavors with the Bureau community. Throughout the afternoon, the event was well attended.

September 29, 2022: The GCCC welcomed Dr. Jianqiao (Tim) Leng as a Postdoctoral Fellow who will be working under the direction of Dr. Seyyed Hosseini. Dr. Leng received a Ph.D. in Petroleum Engineering from Missouri University of Science and Technology, a M.S. degree in Petroleum Engineering from University of Southern California, and a B.S. degree in Marine Science from Beijing’s China University. His research interests include reservoir simulations, enhanced oil recovery, carbon sequestration and machine learning.

September 27–28, 2022: Ramon Gil-Egui attended the 2022 Midwest Regional Carbon Initiative Partners and Stakeholders Meeting in Columbus, Ohio. Ramon specifically attended an Environmental Justice (EJ) Workshop, hosted by the Battelle Memorial Institute, that is scheduled to explore how EJ fits with carbon capture and storage (CCS).

Romanak and Jenkins — Dr. Katherine Romanak with the GCCC has been delighted to host Dr. Charles Jenkins, a long-time colleague, mentor, and friend from CSIRO in Australia as a UT Austin Visiting Scholar.

September 27, 2022: The GCCC has been hosting Dr. Charles Jenkins between July 10–September 27, 2022 as a UT Austin Visiting Scholar. Dr. Charles Jenkins is a Senior Principal Research Scientist from Commonwealth Scientific Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) in Australia. Charles is part of the Cooperative Research Centre for Greenhouse Gas Technologies (CO2CRC) research consortium and is the Science Lead for Australia’s most advanced CO₂ storage project, known as the Otway Project. The Otway Project, located in the onshore Otway Basin in south-eastern Australia, is known as the world’s largest research and geological sequestration demonstration project. Charles was instrumental in the Otway Project’s design, risk assessment, regulatory compliance, monitoring and public relations programs. The first of several phases with the Otway Project successfully injected, and closely monitored, 65,000 tonnes of CO₂-rich gas (80% carbon dioxide; 20% methane) into a depleted natural gas reservoir. To read more about the Otway Project, click here.

September 23, 2022: The GCCC’s Visiting Scholar, Dr. Charles Jenkins, presented “Showing the way: Two decades of geological carbon storage at the CO2CRC Otway test site in Victoria, Australia” in this year’s Bureau of Economic Geology Seminar Series, which was recorded and can be watched here. To read a more recent summary about Stage 3 of Otway Way Project, take a look here.

Charles writes: “Since 2004, a test site for geological storage of CO₂ has been developed and used in the Otway region of Australia, a small hydrocarbon basin. Three larger injections of CO₂ have been made and several smaller ones., initially into a depleted gas field and latterly into a shallower saline aquifer. Initially the focus was on questions of safety, regulation, and extensive environmental monitoring. More recently the emphasis has shifted to developing more sensitive and less intrusive deep monitoring, particularly exploiting Distributed Acoustic Sensors. I will describe the trajectory of research at the site, showing how confidence in the design and monitoring of CO₂ storage has grown through the experimental findings.”

September 21, 2022: Our Principal Investigator of the GCCC, Dr. Susan Hovorka, met with Texas legislature staff and participated in a question-and-answer session on carbon capture and sequestration. This event was hosted by Houston Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) Alliance. The CCS Alliance unites Houston’s respected industrial community with diverse organizations, community leaders, and residents in Houston and southeast Texas to share a vision to advance CCS technology and secure a lower emissions future.

September 13th, 2022: Dr. Katherine Romanak will be teaching a carbon capture and storage (CCS) course to Reliance Exploration and Production in India Standard Time. See promotional flyer.

September 11–20, 2022: Our M.S. Student, Shadya Taleb Restrepo, attended the 2022 Research Experience in Carbon Sequestration (RECS) program held in Colorado and Wyoming. She was happy to visit the National Renewable Energy Lab (NREL), various carbon capture facilities, and a few wells drilled for the CarbonSAFE project. She enjoyed hearing about the CarbonSAFE project, from drilling the wells for reservoir characterization to their transition to Class VI permitting. A highlight was learning about on-going research in regard to critical minerals and rare earth elements in coal mines. Congratulations, Shadya, for being selected as a participant of the 2022 RECS program.

September 7, 2022: Dr. Tip Meckel was an invited panelist for the UK Carbon Capture and Storage Research Centre (UKCCSRC) Autumn Conference 2022. Dr. Meckel presented a current summary of carbon capture and storage (CCS) in the United States, which focused on the modifications for Section 45Q tax credits within the Investment Reduction Act. Dr. Meckel highlighted the recent progress of CCS along the Gulf Coast, where many recent project announcements have led to growing momentum for CCS development in the region. See promotional flyer.

September 7, 2022: We welcome UT Austin M.S. Student, Jose Eduardo Ubillus, who starts with the GCCC this fall. Jose Eduardo Ubillus is currently advised by Dr. Tip Meckel, Dr. Sahar Bakhsian, Dr. Hailun Ni, and Dr. David DiCarlo from the Hildebrand Department of Petroleum and Geosystems Engineering (PGE). Dr. Hailun Ni originally proposed the graduate student M.S. project that Jose will be working on, entitled “Laboratory experiments and modeling to accurately evaluate critical CO₂ saturation for geologic carbon storage.” Dr. Ni's idea was recently awarded a Seed Grant by the UT Austin Energy Institute. Jose is from a little town, named Manta, along the coast of Ecuador that has “incredibly nice beaches and great food”. He graduated in February of 2022 as a Petroleum Engineer from Escuela Politecnica Nacional located in Quito, Ecuador. Welcome, Jose.

September 1, 2022: We are excited to announce that Dr. Tip Meckel was featured in the September 2022 issue of WIRED Magazine in an article entitled, "The Big Business of Burying Carbon." Dr. Meckel was featured in the first part of the article, explaining how one of the first offshore CO₂ storage leases was developed in the Texas offshore. A link to the article is here. Congratulations Dr. Meckel.

Photo: Dr. Tip Meckel holding a sandstone sample from core at the Bureau of Economic Geology’s Austin Core Research Center.

September 1, 2022: The GCCC welcomes Dr. Hongsheng Wang as a Postdoctoral Fellow under the direction of Dr. Seyyed Hosseini. Hongsheng received B.S. and M.S. degrees in Petroleum Engineering from The China University of Petroleum (CUPB), located in East China. He earned an additional M.S. in Petroleum Engineering from the University of North Dakota, and a Ph.D. in Mining and Mineral Engineering from Virginia Tech. His research interests include the application of machine learning and deep learning to carbon capture, utilization, and storage (CCUS), reservoir simulations, history matching, and digital rocks. Welcome, Hongsheng.

The GCCC also welcomes Dr. Dolores van der Kolk as our new Communications Coordinator. Dolores graduated with a B.S. in Geology from California State University, Fullerton, a M.S. in Geology from University of Alaska Fairbanks, and a Ph.D. in Geology from the University of Texas at Austin. Dolores is a field geologist who has worked sedimentologic and stratigraphic problems in Arctic Alaska. For the last 6 years, Dolores taught geology at Texas State University in San Marcos and is excited to be back at the Bureau to help support the GCCC team.

August 31 and September 1, 2022: Dr. Katherine Romanak attended the National Association of State Energy Officials (NASEO) Workshop: Exploring State Carbon Management Policy, Programming, and Technological Opportunities that took place in Wilsonville, Alabama at the National Carbon Capture Center. Dr. Romanak delivered a presentation on carbon storage and reported on carbon capture activities in Texas during a state roundup panel.

August 26, 2022: The GCCC and Hildebrand Department of Petroleum and Geosystems Engineering (PGE) received The University of Texas at Austin Energy Institute Energy Seed Grant thanks to Postdoctoral Fellow, Dr. Hailun Ni. Dr. Ni proposed the project entitled, “Laboratory experiments and modeling to accurately evaluate critical CO₂ saturation for geologic carbon storage”. This “proposal was selected out of many strong applications” that had been submitted.

Dr. Ni is excited about the award, since the grant will help fund and support a graduate student to conduct core- and tank-scale experiments as well as reservoir simulations. Under Dr. Tip Meckel’s mentorship, and in collaboration with Dr. David DiCarlo and Dr. Sahar Bakhshian, Dr. Ni will supervise a UT Austin M.S. student who will perform future cutting-edge laboratory experiments and research. Congratulations, Dr. Ni, the GCCC is very proud of your accomplishments!

August 23, 2022: The GCCC’s Dr. Sahar Bakhshian, in collaboration with Prof. Charles J. Werth and Prof. Maria Juenger from UT’s Civil Engineering Department, received the UT Austin Energy Seed Grant in support of a project entitled, Self-sealing capacity of wellbore cement under geologic CO₂ storage. Funds from this grant will support the GCCC M.S. student, Richard Larson, who will conduct microfluidic experiments.

August 22, 2022: We welcome incoming M.S. students, Ismail Halim Faruqi, and Chinemerem Clement Okezie. They will both be advised by Dr. Alex Bump and will work with him on exploration for and de-risking of storage resources. Ismail Halim Faruqi is originally from Jakarta, Indonesia. Ismail received a 2017 Bachelors of Engineering degree in Geological Engineering from the Universitas Padjadjaran in Bandung, Indonesia. Chinemerem Clement Okezie is originally from Umuchu, Nigeria. Chinemerem received a 2019 Bachelor’s degree in Petroleum Engineering from the Federal University of Technology in Owerri, Nigeria.

August 19, 2022: The GCCC’s Dr. Sahar Bakhshian and Dr. Susan Hovorka in collaboration with Prof. James Dyer, from UT’s McCombs School of Business, received the UT Austin Energy Seed Grant in support of a project entitled: Combining quantitative leakage risk assessment with financial liability for CO₂ geologic storage: Providing information to the insurance sector. This funding will support an incoming graduate student assistant.

August 15 – 17th: Several members of the GCCC attended the 2022 Carbon Management Project Review Meeting organized by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL) in Pittsburgh, PA. The GCCC had multiple presentations at this meeting including:

Storage to Support Large Volume CO₂ Hubs: Tools for Assessing the Maximum Density of Injection Wells in an Area - by Dr. Susan Hovorka
How Should We Monitor to Detect Leakage Offshore – by Dr. Katherine Romanak
Field Validation of Monitoring, Verification, and Accounting (MVA) Technology for Offshore Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS): Novel Ultra-High-Resolution 3D Marine Seismic Technology (P-Cable) (FE0028193) – by Dr. Tip Meckel
GoMCARB Partnership 2021-22 Research Highlights (GOMCarb) (FE0031558) – by Ramon Trevino
Portrait of a Depleted Field, Offshore Gulf of Mexico and its Potential for CCS (FE0031558) – by Dr. Alex Bump
Data Needs for Estimating CO₂ Storage Capacity in Saline Aquifers with EasiTool: An Onshore Example from the SECARB Region – by Dr. Carlos Uroza
Environmental Justice Considerations for CCS Projects, by Ramón Gil-Egui, Dr. Susan Hovorka and Dr. Katherine Romanak

August 11, 2022: Congratulations to our M.S. student, Shadya Taleb Restrepo, who was recently selected for the 2022 Research Experience in Carbon Sequestration (RECS) program. RECS is a leading carbon capture, utilization and storage (CCUS) education and training experience, sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy, that also serves as an ongoing career network for graduate students and early career professionals in the United States of America. Attendees receive hands-on experience from world-renowned experts on a range of CCUS topics ranging from science to technology to policy and business. This year, between September 11–20, 2022, attendees will participate in various site tours, live lectures, discussions and group exercises associated with CCUS deployment in Colorado and Wyoming. RECS 2022 attendees will benefit from CCUS experiences in the region including commercialization, targeted investments, and technology deployment. RECS alumni (>600) share their CCUS work experience, and facilitate opportunities for networking and getting exposure to the RECS community, which is particularly important for graduate students and early-career researchers. Congratulations, Shadya!

August 4, 2022: Susan Hovorka gave a lecture on Geologic Storage as part of Carbon Dioxide Management at AIPG Texas section Geodayz meeting at Pickle Research Campus, Austin Texas.

July 18, 2022: The GCCC welcomes Dr. Reza Ershadnia as a Postdoctoral Fellow who will be working under the direction of Dr. Seyyed Hosseini. Reza received his Ph.D. from the Geology Department at the University of Cincinnati and earned B.S. and M.S. degrees in Petroleum Engineering from the Sharif University of Technology in Tehran, Iran. Reza research interests lie at the interface of geoscience, chemical, and environmental engineering problems. He is particularly interested in physics and fluid dynamics of multiphase flows in porous media, with a specific focus on carbon dioxide and hydrogen storage in aquifer systems. Welcome to the GCCC, Reza.

June 30, 2022: GCCC congratulates postdoc Hailun Ni on a successful application to the BEG Proposal Development Assistance Grant Program.

June 6, 2022 Susan Hovorka participated in the National Academy of Science’s Committee on Earth Resources (CER) Spring 2022 Meeting on “Basin-scale carbon sequestration".

June 1st, 2022: The GCCC group at a weekly summer meeting.

2022 GCCC Group photo — Clockwise from top left: Dallas Dunlap, Reinaldo Sabbagh, Dr. Carlos Uroza, Charlie (Yu-Chen) Zheng, Dr. Tip Meckel, Michael V. DeAngelo, Dr. Alex Bump, Edna Rodriguez Calzado, Dr. Hailun Ni, Richard Colt Larson, Dr. Seyyed Hosseini, Shadya Taleb Restrepo, Ramon Gil-Egui, Dr. Susan Hovorka, Ramón H. Treviño, Angela Luciano, Dr. Sahar Bakhshian, and Yushan Li.

May 19–20, 2022 (New Orleans, LA) The GCCC participated in the 5th International Offshore Geologic CO₂ Storage Workshop. Our own Katherine Romanak was co-chair of the workshop, Dr. Susan Hovorka served as the official host, and both Drs. Tip Meckel and Alex Bump were members of the organizational steering committee. This dynamic group was involved with chairing 5 out of 9 sessions held during the 2-day workshop that included 170 attendees (50 in-person and 120 virtually); they chaired or co-chaired key topical sessions that included the introduction or setting the scene for the workshop (Romanak), a status update on 16 international projects (Hovorka and Romanak), technical aspects of depleted fields (Bump), containment and pressure management (Meckel), and monitoring offshore CCS (Romanak). GCCC Staff facilitated discussions following each session. On the first day of the workshop, Dr. Alex Bump and Dr. Carlos Uroza presented "Gulf of Mexico Depleted Field Example" within the technical aspects of depleted fields session. Please view the agenda and download presentations or videos from this comprehensive summary of CCS projects developing offshore here.

May 18, 2022: (New Orleans, LA) The DOE NETL GoMCarb Partnership partners (i.e., GCCC staff and partners from LBNL, LLNL, Lamar University, Aker Solutions, Texas A&M GERG, Trimeric, UTIG GBDS) presented an overview of the previous years’ research results. In attendance (remotely and in person) were parties interested in sub-seabed carbon geo-sequestration in the Gulf of Mexico, GoM (e.g., DOE and other federal and state officials/regulators, businesses and the GoMCarb advisors). The meeting was hosted by Southern States Energy Board and held in conjunction with several other meetings: 1) SECARB Offshore Partnership annual research review, 2) a GoM states and federal regulators workshop, and 3) the 5th International offshore CCS workshop, led by Tim Dixon, IEAGHG R&D Programme General Manager. Attendance at the meetings exceeded expectations because of current high interest in GoM sub-seabed carbon geo-sequestration.

May 3, 2022: Dr. Tip Meckel and GoMCarb partner, Prof. Daniel Chen from Lamar University, participated in the Second Carbon Summit hosted by the Greater Port Arthur Chamber of Commerce. Media coverage from the Southeast Texas Business Journal, Volume 13 Issue 3, June 2022 noted that the conference was “three times bigger than in 2019” and that “industry’s participation was the icing on the cake”.

April 14, 2022: The GCCC’s Principle Investigator, Dr. Susan Hovorka, attended the 1st Symposium on Legal System Changes to Address Climate Change and the Energy Transition hosted by the State Bar of Texas ENRLS and Texas Law Environmental Journal and presented a talk “CCUS in Texas – potential and path forward”.

April 4–7, 2022: Drs. Tip Meckel and Susan Hovorka attended the 2022 Carbon Capture, Utilization and Storage Gordon Research Conference in Ventura California. Hovorka gave a paper on “Remaining Challenges in Storage of CO₂ in Deep Saline Formations”

April 1, 2022: The GCCC congratulates Postdoctoral Fellow, Dr. Hailun Ni, for being awarded an equipment matching fund by the JSG Equipment Committee to support the purchase of new laboratory equipment for her on-going research project on monitoring CO₂ plume migration and trapping with tank-scale ultrasonic sensing. Congratulation, Dr. Ni!

Illustration of the ultrasonic system setup (left) and the corresponding acquired 2D zero-offset images (right) for a submerged brass bar (a) and water-filled glass beads (b).

March 29–31, 2022: The following summarizes the GCCC’s exciting highlights from the 2022 American Association of Petroleum Geologist’s – Carbon Capture, Utilization, and Storage (AAPG’s CCUS) Conference in Houston, TX.

Dr. Susan Hovorka, Dr. Tip Meckel, Dr. Katherine Romanak, Ramon Trevino, Dr. Sahar Bakhshian, Dr. Alex Bump, Dr. Carlos Uroza, and Dr. Hailun Ni from GCCC and Dr. Shuvajit Bhattacharya from TORA recently attended the AAPG CCUS 2022 conference in Houston. GCCC members extensively contribute to this conference by serving on the technical committee, chairing several technical sessions, delivering talks, and presenting posters.

In her luncheon speech, Dr. Hovorka delivered a talk on Getting to Closure and addressed how CO₂ storage permanence is tied to careful site selection, well-engineered injection strategy, and a well-designed monitoring strategy. Dr. Romanak made an oral presentation on the Importance of Environmental Monitoring. In her oral presentation, Dr. Bakhshian talked about a hybrid deep learning and process-based methodology to detect anomalies in soil gas monitoring data applicable to CO₂ geological storage. Dr. Bhattacharya delivered two talks entitled Predicting Sweet spots for CCUS in Fractured Hydrothermal Dolomites in Michigan, Integrating 3D Seismic Attributes, Seismic Inversion, and Petrophysics, as well as, Overpressure on the Gulf Coast: Identification and Implications for Carbon Storage. Dr. Bump and Dr. Ni presented their research studies in the poster session held on the last day of the conference. Dr. Jiemin Lu, one of the former GCCC members, presented a poster entitled Drill Cores from a Large-Scale CO₂ Storage Reservoir at Cranfield, Mississippi. His poster presentation included displaying a collection of sandstone and seal cores of the lower Tuscaloosa from the Cranfield field in Mississippi.

The Risk Assessments session was co-chaired by Dr. Bakhshian and Dr. Ni. Mr. Trevino from GCCC and Dr. Ali Tura from the Colorado School of Mines co-chaired the Subsurface Storage session held on the first day of the conference. The subsurface Storage session on the second day was co-chaired by Dr. Bhattacharya.

Attending the AAPG-CCUS conference was also a rewarding experience for GCCC members from a networking standpoint, as they had a chance to meet with their former graduate students, industry peers, and consortium industry sponsors.

Dr. Meckel met with his former students at the AAPG-CCUS conference. From left: Izaak Ruiz (now with Repsol Green Ventures Americas), Dr. Tip Meckel, and Dr. Prasanna Krishnamurthy (now with ExxonMobil).

GCCC members met with their former colleague Dr. Jiemin Lu (now with Schlumberger). From left: Dr. Alex Bump, Dr. Jiemin Lu, Dr. Susan Hovorka, and Ramon Gil-Egui.

Dr. Susan Hovorka met with her former student, Melianna Ulfah (now with Tetra Tech). From left: Dr. Carlos Uroza, Dr. Susan Hovorka, and Melianna Ulfah.

Dr. Sahar Bakhshian and Dr. Hailun Ni co-chaired the Risk Assessments session.

Ramon Trevino co-chaired the Subsurface Storage session with Dr. Ali Tura from the Colorado School of Mines.

Photo of poster session — Dr. Hailun Ni (left) and Dr. Sahar Bakhshian (Right) at the poster session. Dr. Hailun Ni presented her study on Predicting CO₂ Gravity-Driven Drainage Saturation using Machine Learning.

March 16, 2022: Dr. Tip Meckel attended a CCS Roundtable organized by the UK Consulate in Houston, Department of International Trade. Comparisons of UK and US CCS activities was discussed, with a lot of focus on how experience might be shared. A final report from the working group will be issued soon.

February 25, 2022: Dr. Tip Meckel participated in an U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and India workshop on CCS. Dr. Meckel presented on the topic of “Onshore versus Offshore Storage in the Gulf Coast, U.S.A.” Thirty-five attendees included academic researchers from India and the U.S., as well as representatives from U.S. DOE and their counterparts in India.

February 21, 2022: GCCC congratulates our graduate research assistant, Shadya Taleb Restrepo, on being selected for the Rocky Mountain Association of Geologists (RMAG) Foundation’s Robert M. Cluff Scholarship. The Foundation's Trustees were impressed by Shadya's academic record, extensive work experience, and well-presented, research topic. Shadya’s graduate research involves studying fluid, specifically CO₂, migration and long-term storage at the pore-scale level using microfluidic devices in a laboratory setting with an overall emphasis on CO₂ storage. Shadya's proposal titled, "Multiphase flow studies for geological carbon dioxide (CO₂) sequestration in the Gulf of Mexico using microfluidics devices" was successfully funded. Congratulations, Shadya, and special thanks to the RMAG Foundation.

Click here to view 2021 news and events.