Abstract
As the global energy transition unfolds, oil and gas are expected to remain significant components of the energy mix for the coming decades. In this context, carbon management technologies—such as carbon capture, utilization, and storage (CCUS)—along with bridging solutions like enhanced oil recovery (EOR) —will be vital to reducing the carbon intensity of hydrocarbon production.
This presentation focuses on a promising fluid system: aqueous nanobubble (NB) dispersion. While nanobubbles have found diverse applications in agriculture, food processing, and wastewater treatment, their behavior in low-pressure, open systems does not translate directly to subsurface environments. Our recent work explores the characteristics of aqueous NB dispersions under elevated pressures relevant to deep geological formations.
After briefly introducing selected research initiatives from the Energi Simulation Industrial Affiliate Program on Carbon Utilization and Storage at The University of Texas at Austin, the seminar will delve into recent experimental and modeling efforts aimed at characterizing high-pressure NB dispersions. These efforts involve a systematic methodology for evaluating thermodynamic stability, interfacial behavior, and transport characteristics across varying pressure-temperature regimes.
We will discuss how NB dispersions can enhance sweep efficiency and control gas mobility in EOR operations, as well as promote mineralization in reactive rocks during CO₂ sequestration. Field-scale implications and deployment strategies will also be considered, highlighting the potential for nanobubble technologies to bridge the gap between current hydrocarbon use and future carbon-neutral energy systems.
Bio
Ryosuke Okuno is a professor in the Hildebrand Department of Petroleum and Geosystems Engineering at the University of Texas at Austin. He currently leads the Energi Simulation Industrial Affiliate Program on Carbon Utilization and Storage at the Center for Subsurface Energy and the Environment. Before joining his current department, Okuno served as an assistant professor of Petroleum Engineering in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Alberta from 2010 to 2015. He has seven years of industrial experience as a reservoir engineer and is a registered Professional Engineer in Alberta, Canada. His research and teaching interests include carbon capture, utilization, and storage; enhanced oil recovery; unconventional oil and gas resources; hydrogen energy; thermodynamics; multiphase behavior; numerical flow simulation; and applied mathematics. Okuno has received several awards, including the 2012 SPE Petroleum Engineering Junior Faculty Research Initiation Award, the 2019 SPE Regional Reservoir Description and Dynamics Award for the Southwestern Region, and the 2022 UT PGE Teaching Award. He serves as an Associate Editor for SPE Journal and holds the Pioneer Corporation Faculty Fellowship in Petroleum Engineering at the University of Texas at Austin. He earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in Geosystem Engineering from the University of Tokyo, and he completed his PhD in Petroleum Engineering at the University of Texas at Austin.