Happiness Imuetinyan

Author: Happiness Imuetinyan

  • Out of Equilibrium, Supercritical CO2 Reveals a Hidden Layered Structure

    Out of Equilibrium, Supercritical CO2 Reveals a Hidden Layered Structure

    A new study in Nature Communications shows that supercritical CO2 spontaneously stratifies in layers with sharply different properties when it’s pushed out of equilibrium by a stabilising temperature gradient.

    Anglet, France — 11 August 2026

    Supercritical fluids are commonly described as a phase that is neither gas nor liquid, with properties that vary continuously between the two. This in-between character makes supercritical fluids useful for industrial applications because they combine the high density of a liquid with the low viscosity of a gas. Supercritical CO2 transported through pipelines is a good example where its high density enables efficient transfer, while its low viscosity reduces energy consumption.

    A new study led by researchers at the Université de Pau et des Pays de l’Adour (UPPA), just published in Nature Communications, shows that this picture only holds when the fluid is left undisturbed at equilibrium. When supercritical CO2 is subjected to non-equilibrium conditions, e.g. a stabilising temperature gradient, the kind found in real pipe, reservoir, or industrial process, it spontaneously organises itself into distinct layers, each with its own thermal and mechanical behaviour.

    How They Did It

    The team used a high-sensitivity optical technique called dynamic shadowgraphy to track mesoscopic-to-macroscopic, naturally occurring density fluctuations within a layer of supercritical CO2 held in a specialised high-pressure cell. By applying a controlled vertical temperature difference across the fluid, heating from above, and analysing how fluctuations at different spatial scales evolved and decayed over time, the researchers could effectively “watch at” the fluid’s internal dynamics without disturbing it.

    They ran three experiments at different pressures and temperature gradients, deliberately chosen to probe the fluid at increasing proximity to its critical point and to the so-called Widom lines, extended, ghostly traces of the liquid-gas boundary that persist into the supercritical region and mark where properties like density and heat capacity vary most sharply.

    What They Found

    • Far from the Widom region, the fluid behaved close to the classic textbook picture: its properties varied smoothly, and the fluctuation data were well described by a single, uniform layer with one characteristic Brunt-Väisälä oscillation frequency.
    • Closer to the Widom region, that simple picture broke down. The data could only be explained by assuming the fluid was effectively split into two distinct sublayers, each behaving as if it had its own local thermal expansion coefficient.
    • Right next to the critical point, the effect was strongest of all: the fluctuation signal required three distinct sublayers to accurately model the complete dynamics of the system, with thermal expansion coefficients differing by more than an order of magnitude between the “bottom” and “top” of the sample. The researchers describe this as a signature of a quasi-liquid and two transition layers.

    Each of these layers showed its own distinct Brunt-Väisälä oscillation, the same physics that produces internal waves in stratified oceans and atmospheres, indicating that gravity was coupling the fluid’s thermal and viscous behaviour differently at different depths. This is, in effect, direct hydrodynamic evidence that a supercritical fluid under realistic conditions is not a single homogeneous phase but a stack of dynamically distinct layers.

    A further benefit of the method: because a single experiment spans a continuous range of temperatures and pressures across the fluid layer, the team could effectively sample many points of the phase diagram and extract quantitative thermophysical properties (thermal diffusivity, viscosity, thermal expansion) at each depth without needing a new setup for every condition.

    Why It Matters

    Supercritical CO2 is central to various industrial and environmental technologies, including carbon capture, utilisation, and storage (CCUS), enhanced geothermal systems, processes in the pharmaceutical and food industries, and supercritical CO2 power cycles utilised in next-generation energy plants. Supercritical CO2 is seen as a medium with unique dynamics that break down out of equilibrium, especially near the critical point, where tiny thermal variations induce large gradients. This study suggests that under realistic, non-equilibrium conditions, that assumption can break down, and engineers may effectively be dealing with a layered medium rather than a single homogeneous one, with implications for how heat, mass, and momentum move through these systems.

    The findings also open a new conceptual angle on the physics of the critical region itself. Existing theoretical frameworks describe the Widom region using equilibrium concepts. This study instead probes it dynamically, through non-equilibrium fluctuations, and finds structure that equilibrium pictures alone don’t capture. This stratified-hydrodynamics framework could extend to other systems shaped by non-equilibrium gradients, including planetary atmospheres and interiors, where such gradients are the norm rather than the exception.

    The team notes an open question for future work: whether this stratification would persist under reduced-gravity conditions, which would help clarify how much of the effect is driven by temperature versus buoyancy itself.

    The Team

    The study was led by Paul Fruton, working with Emma Lisoir, Happiness Imuetinyan, Cédric Giraudet, and Fabrizio Croccolo. The core work was carried out at the LFCR laboratory (CNRS / E2S UPPA / Université de Pau et des Pays de l’Adour). The project was conceived by Cédric Giraudet and supervised by Paul Fruton and Fabrizio Croccolo, who also led its funding and management.

    The research was carried out within the E2S UPPA Hub Newpores and the CO2ES Industrial Chair, with support from the French government’s Investissements d’Avenir program (ANR) and from CNES via CNRS GdR 2799 MFA.

    “We went in expecting to measure the usual smooth fluctuations of a supercritical fluid. Instead, we found the fluid was quietly splitting itself into layers, each behaving like its own little pocket with different physical properties. That wasn’t something we set out to find.”

    Read the Full Study

    Non-Equilibrium Stratification in Supercritical CO2 Fruton, P., Lisoir, E., Imuetinyan, H., Giraudet, C. & Croccolo, F. Nature Communications (2026). DOI: 10.1038/s41467-026-74538-3

    The article is published under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives (CC BY-NC-ND) license. Processed data underlying the figures are openly available via figshare (DOI: 10.6084/m9.figshare.32408229); raw imaging data are available from the corresponding author on request.

    For media inquiries, please contact: fabrizio.croccolo@univ-pau.fr

  • Presenting at ECTP2026: CO2 Ternary Mixtures

    Presenting at ECTP2026: CO2 Ternary Mixtures

    I recently had the opportunity to present at the 23rd European Conference on Thermophysical Properties (ECTP2026), held June 21–24, 2026, at the Serge Kampf Les Fontaines campus in Gouvieux, near Paris.

    My talk covered the high-pressure thermophysical properties of the CO₂ + cyclohexanol + toluene ternary system, a work carried out as part of the CO₂ES Industrial Chair (TotalEnergies / UPPA / CNRS). This mixture is used in our laboratory to study convective dissolution of CO₂ in transparent porous media, a process central to long-term geological CO₂ storage. Remarkably, no thermophysical data existed for this ternary system before our study.

    We presented phase equilibrium data showing liquid–liquid immiscibility above a CO₂ mole fraction of 0.6, classifying the system as a Type III fluid with an upper critical end point between 8 and 13 MPa. Density measurements and molecular simulations agreed within 2–3%. The Fick diffusion matrix revealed significant, asymmetric cross-diffusion coupling that increases with CO₂ concentration and temperature, a phenomenon that cannot be ignored in mass transfer modelling.

    The ongoing work is moving into non-equilibrium thermodynamics. We have already measured the Soret coefficient and diffusion coefficient of the binary cyclohexanol–toluene mixture at ambient pressure. The next step is to extend these measurements to the ternary CO₂-containing system at high pressure using a new thermodiffusion cell currently being commissioned in our laboratory.

    The all-inclusive format at Les Fontaines created a relaxed scientific atmosphere where real conversations happen. I came away with sharper thinking about the work, new connections in the thermophysical properties community, and some wonderful collaborations for the future.

    This work is part of the CO₂ES Industrial Chair and was carried out at the LFCR laboratory (UMR 5150, CNRS/UPPA) in collaboration with the Thermodynamics group at the Technical University of Berlin. I am grateful to my co-authors for their support and to the ECTP2026 organising committee for an excellent conference.

    Interested in CO₂ storage thermodynamics or high-pressure fluid mixtures? Reach out at h.imuetinyan@univ-pau.fr

  • A Week in Bergen: My Experience at the 8th International Workshop on Offshore Geologic CO₂ Storage

    A Week in Bergen: My Experience at the 8th International Workshop on Offshore Geologic CO₂ Storage

    Last April, I packed my bags and headed to Bergen, Norway, for the 8th International Workshop on Offshore Geologic CO₂ Storage, which is two days of cutting-edge science, lively debate, and one unforgettable site visit. Organised by IEAGHG and the Gulf Coast Carbon Centre (GCCC), hosted by Equinor, and bringing together researchers, engineers, regulators, and industry players from around the world, this workshop is unlike any other event in the CCS calendar. Here’s what I took away.

    First Impressions: Bergen Sets the Scene

    Bergen is the kind of city that makes you feel like science matters. Surrounded by mountains and fjords, with the UNESCO-listed Bryggen wharf right around the corner from the conference venue, there’s something quietly inspiring about doing climate work here in a country that has been pioneering offshore CO₂ storage since the 1990s. About 3,000 Equinor employees work in the Bergen region alone, and you can feel the energy of a place where decarbonisation isn’t just a talking point, but it’s the day job.

    Day 1: A World Tour of CO₂ Storage Projects

    The workshop kicked off with an extraordinary international project roundup. In under two hours, we heard updates from CO₂ storage initiatives across the Americas, Europe, and Asia-Pacific, such as from Brazil (Petrobras), the Netherlands (Porthos), Denmark (Greensands and Bifrost), Greece (Prinos), Portugal, South Korea, Japan (Tomakomai), Taiwan, and multiple Australian projects, including CarbonNet and DeepC Store. It was a vivid reminder of just how global this effort has become.

    What struck me most was the sheer diversity of geological settings, regulatory frameworks, and project maturity levels represented in that single room. Some projects are still in exploration; others are already injecting. The gap between those stages and what it takes to bridge it ran as a thread through many of the discussions that followed.

    The afternoon moved into basin-scale management, one of the more technically complex yet critically important topics in offshore CCS. How do you manage pressure across a shared geological basin when multiple projects are injecting CO₂ into the same formations? Talks from NORCE and Norway’s regulator, SODIR, gave a sobering yet fascinating look at the regulatory and modelling challenges this poses. The session on prospect development rounded out the day, with presentations on legacy well screening, brine management, and aquifer modelling, the nuts and bolts of making a CO₂ storage site work safely over decades.

    Presenting My Research: Convective CO₂ Dissolution Under the X-ray Spotlight

    I had the privilege of presenting a poster on our group’s work at the DMEX Centre for X-ray Imaging at the Université de Pau et des Pays de l’Adour. Our research tackles a question that lies at the heart of long-term CO₂ storage safety: once CO₂ is injected underground and begins dissolving into the resident brine, how does it actually move through the rock?

    This process, called convective dissolution, is one of the key mechanisms by which CO₂ becomes permanently trapped underground. As CO₂-rich brine is denser than fresh brine, it sinks and drives a circulation that accelerates dissolution. The problem is that this process is extremely difficult to observe directly, especially in 3D, under realistic reservoir conditions.

    That’s exactly what we set out to do. Using our purpose-built X-ray tomography setup, we can image convective plumes forming and propagating through actual porous rock cores in real time, at pressures of 40–50 bar. The conversations my poster sparked were genuinely exciting as other researchers were curious about the experimental setup, the image analysis approach, and how our findings might inform reservoir simulations.

    Day 2: From Injection Lessons to Monitoring Innovation

    Day 2 had a different energy; it was more operational and focused on the current situation on the ground. The injection session opened with lessons learned from four live projects: Northern Lights, Greensands (Denmark), Poseidon (UK), and the Ravenna project in Italy. Each project is at an early stage of injection, and each came with candid reflections on what surprised them, what worked, and what they’re still figuring out.

    The monitoring sessions were, for me, one of the highlights of the whole workshop. CCS only works if we can verify that the stored CO₂ stays where we put it, and the scientific creativity behind monitoring right now is remarkable. Talks covered seismic integration, full-waveform inversion at the legendary Sleipner site, fibre-optic sensing (an enLightening story, as the presenter cheekily called it), passive acoustics, and citizen-science approaches. Each session opened up new questions: How do you monitor in a crowded offshore environment where other infrastructure gets in the way? How do you scale monitoring programs as injection ramps up?

    The afternoon’s interactive panel on the evolution of monitoring programs from baseline surveys through to full injection brought operators and regulators together in a way that felt genuinely collaborative. Hearing a Norwegian regulator (SODIR) and the UK’s NSTA discuss their approaches side by side was a valuable window into how governance frameworks are converging and where they’re still diverging.

    The Northern Lights Site Visit: Seeing CCS in Action

    If the two workshop days were the mind, the site visit to the Northern Lights project was the heart.

    We departed Bergen at 8am and arrived at the facility, where we were welcomed by the operations team. Northern Lights is the world’s first commercial cross-border CO₂ transport and storage service receiving CO₂ captured from industrial sources across Northern Europe, shipping it by tanker to Norway, and injecting it into a geological formation 2,600 metres beneath the North Sea seabed. The group from a previous workshop had visited the site back in 2020, before construction began. Seeing it now operational, with ships docking and CO₂ flowing, was extraordinary.

    We heard from the operations manager about the journey from concept to reality, the logistics of managing a fleet of ships, and what the early injection period has taught the team. The mayor of Øygarden municipality also spoke about what it means for a coastal community to have this new industry take root, a reminder that the social and economic dimensions of CCS are as real as the geological ones.

    The site itself is striking: a compact, purpose-built facility perched on the Norwegian coastline, with the North Sea stretching out beyond it. Standing there, it’s hard not to feel the weight of what’s been achieved and the scale of what still needs to happen for CCS to make a meaningful dent in global emissions.

    Final Thoughts

    What I carry away from Bergen is something beyond the specific technical content, though there was plenty of that. It is a renewed sense that the offshore CCS community is moving from proof of concept to operational reality, and doing so with rigour, transparency, and an appetite for honest conversation about what’s hard.

    For a researcher working on the fundamental science of CO₂ storage, trying to understand what happens at the pore scale when CO₂ meets brine meets rock, workshops like this are invaluable. They connect the microscopic to the global, the laboratory to the seabed, the equation to the tank. And they remind you that the work is urgent, the stakes are real, and the community doing it is genuinely excellent.

    Until the 9th edition, wherever it may be held.

    The research presented in my poster was carried out with support from the EU (grant agreement No. 850853), the E2S UPPA Hub Newpores, the CO2ES industrial chair, the EquipEX IMAGINE², and the ISIFoR project BESCO.

  • Busting the Myths Around CO₂ Storage: Highlights from the SPE Distinguished Lecture, 4 June 2026

    Busting the Myths Around CO₂ Storage: Highlights from the SPE Distinguished Lecture, 4 June 2026

    This month, SPE France had the pleasure of hosting Diego A. Vazquez Anzola as part of the Society of Petroleum Engineers’ prestigious Distinguished Lecturer Programme. Diego’s talk titled“CO₂ Storage Risks and Costs: Busting Perceptions and Myths” was one of the most thought-provoking sessions I have attended in recent memory. With two decades of experience spanning hydrocarbon exploration, CCS project development and sustainable energy, Diego brought rare clarity to a topic that is often clouded by misconception and misplaced pessimism.

    His core argument was simple but powerful: Carbon Capture and Storage is necessary and technically achievable, but it will only become sustainable if it is investable. The IEA estimates we need to scale from 40 Mt of CO₂ stored today to around 5,000 Mt per year. That gap demands we get serious not just about engineering but also about business models, regulations, and operational realities.

    The lecture was structured around five myths that Diego systematically unpacked.

    Myth #1 – Long-term Carbon Storage Creates No Real Value

    The first misconception Diego tackled is perhaps the most damaging: the idea that CCS is purely a cost centre with no genuine value proposition. He walked us through a spectrum of emerging business models from regulatory “stick” mechanisms (carbon taxes, ETS pricing) to “carrot” incentives (the US 45Q tax credit, Australian Carbon Credit Units) and fully market-driven approaches such as storage-as-a-service or CO₂ utilisation into clean fuels like methanol, e-methane and sustainable aviation fuel.

    Real-world projects already demonstrate this: Sleipner in Norway has been operating since 1996; Moomba in Australia came online in 2024; and the Tangguh CCUS project in Indonesia reached FID in 2024. Each of these links CO₂ storage directly to a revenue stream, whether through enhanced gas recovery, carbon credit sales or avoided carbon taxes. The lesson is that CCS works best when it is designed around value generation from the outset, not bolted on as an afterthought.

    Myth #2 – Regulations Alone Enable CCS Projects

    A widely held belief is that a strong regulatory framework is sufficient to unlock CCS investment. Diego challenged this directly. Regulation is a necessary condition, not a sufficient one. Drawing on frameworks from the EU Directive 2009/31/EC, the US EPA Class VI rules, Australia’s OPGGS Act and the UK Energy Act 2008, he showed that while these provide the structural backbone, they are deliberately non-prescriptive, focused on risk management rather than dictating technical solutions.

    What matters, Diego argued, is the ability to translate regulatory requirements into practical, proportionate work plans. The regulation sets the boundary; the technical and commercial teams must do the rest.

    Myth #3 – Suitable Storage Sites Are Everywhere

    This was one of the talk’s most sobering moments. When comparing depleted hydrocarbon fields and saline aquifers as storage options, the trade-offs are significant. Depleted fields offer proven containment and better-understood geology, but come with legacy well complications and limited scale. Saline aquifers have enormous theoretical capacity, but injectivity, connectivity, and monitorability are often poorly characterised, requiring exploratory and appraisal wells before injection can begin.

    The implication is clear: finding a genuinely suitable storage site, one that ticks the boxes on containment, injectivity, monitorability and scalability, is harder and more expensive than commonly assumed. Site selection is not a desktop exercise.

    Myth #4 – CO₂ Injection is Simply the Reverse of Hydrocarbon Production

    This myth underestimates how thermodynamically unusual CO₂ behaves. Diego gave a compelling explanation of the Joule-Thomson effect: when CO₂ is forced through a pressure drop (as at a wellhead), it can cool to extreme temperatures, in real field cases as low as -45°C to -85°C. This creates serious material integrity challenges that simply do not arise in conventional production operations. Equipment qualification for these conditions is non-trivial, and ignoring it has real cost and safety consequences.

    It was a reminder that CO₂ injection is its own engineering discipline, not a mirror image of production.

    Myth #5 – Legacy Wells Are Easily Repurposed

    The final myth is one I suspect many in the audience had not fully considered. The presence of legacy abandoned wells in or near a storage reservoir is one of the most significant risk factors for CO₂ containment. Old cement can become brittle when exposed to CO₂; leakage pathways can develop along casing strings, through cement fractures or between cement and rock. Diego cited research showing corrosion rates on the order of 2–4 mm per year are manageable in isolation, but the brittleness induced by CO₂ exposure is the deeper concern.

    Repurposing a legacy well for CO₂ injection is not a shortcut, but it requires rigorous integrity evaluation and, in many cases, significant remedial work.

    Key Takeaway: Value, Maturation Time and Scalability

    Diego closed with a framework that I found genuinely useful. He proposed that the best measure of a CCS project’s success is not simply whether it stores CO₂ safely, but whether it performs well across three dimensions: value generation, maturation time, and scalability. CCS hubs, which are clusters of emitters sharing transport and storage infrastructure, score well on all three and are increasingly the model that front-runner projects are converging on.

    Government incentives help, Diego noted, but they are not the primary driver of the best projects. The projects that work are those built around a coherent value proposition from day one.

    It was an exceptional evening of knowledge-sharing. My thanks to Diego for a genuinely memorable session and to everyone who joined us.

    For more information on the SPE Distinguished Lecturer Programme, visit www.spe.org/dl.

  • Story Behind the Paper: Free-interface convective mixing in porous media

    Story Behind the Paper: Free-interface convective mixing in porous media

    During my PhD, I held a 3-month PhD fellowship in the Department of Physics at the University of Torino, where I worked with Prof. Guido Boffetta and the Complex Systems group on the numerical simulation of convective mixing in porous media, a collaboration that became the core of this paper. Visiting Torino allowed me to immerse myself in advanced computational fluid dynamics and to better understand how fundamental fluid-mechanical instabilities manifest in porous structures, a topic at the crossroads of physics, engineering, and environmental science.

    The work examines a fluid-dynamic process that is simple in setup yet rich in physics: convective mixing driven by buoyancy in a porous medium with a free interface separating two miscible fluids. This configuration is a canonical model for situations in which a lighter fluid overlies a heavier one, and diffusive transport across the interface gradually alters the density field until an instability develops and vigorous mixing sets in. Such flows are fundamental to many natural and engineered systems, from groundwater contaminant transport and heat transfer in thermal insulation to geological carbon dioxide (CO2) sequestration, where dense CO2-rich brine can sink into deeper aquifers.

    In this study, we use high-resolution direct numerical simulations of the governing Darcy-scale flow equations to capture the initiation and evolution of convection when miscible fluids interact across a free interface in a porous medium. Our simulations were performed in both two-dimensional (2D) and three-dimensional (3D) geometries to quantify how spatial dimensionality affects plume development, mixing dynamics, and dissolution fluxes.

    A key finding is that, although both 2D and 3D simulations display similar qualitative convective behaviours, such as the formation of rising and sinking plumes that promote mixing, their mixing rates and structures differ. Specifically, the 2D setup tends to produce stronger convective fluxes and more rapid interface deformation compared to the 3D case, with dissolution fluxes approximately 15% higher. This highlights the need for caution when applying 2D results to real 3D systems, as dimensional effects can significantly influence outcomes. (Springer)

    What made this project particularly rewarding was the opportunity to collaborate across disciplines, blending physical intuition from fluid dynamics with computational techniques and environmental motivation. The fellowship in Torino was not just a change of scenery but a chance to grow as a researcher: to ask deeper questions about why mixing occurs the way it does and how seemingly small modelling choices (such as geometry or dimensionality) can have large consequences for interpretation. The result is more than a paper; it is a window into the multiscale complexity of convective processes that shape many phenomena in science and engineering.

    The free full-text PDF can be found at https://rdcu.be/e6m1G

  • CO2 Sequestration: Linking Subsurface Physics to Practical Decarbonization

    CO2 Sequestration: Linking Subsurface Physics to Practical Decarbonization

    Geological CO2 sequestration is emerging as a critical solution for reducing industrial emissions and enabling large-scale decarbonization. On March 12, 2026, the Society of Petroleum Engineers France Section will host a distinguished lecture titled “CO2 Sequestration: Practical Insights for Decarbonization Success,” bringing together researchers and industry professionals working at the forefront of carbon storage.

    Following injection into deep saline aquifers, CO2 becomes progressively trapped through mechanisms such as dissolution trapping, in which CO2 dissolves into brine, triggering density-driven convection. This process enhances long-term storage security by transporting dissolved CO2 deeper into the formation. Recent advances, including X-ray CT imaging of reservoir rocks, now allow researchers to directly observe and quantify these processes, improving predictive models and storage strategies.

    This lecture offers a valuable opportunity to gain practical insight into subsurface CO2 behaviour, learn from field and laboratory experience, and connect with the CCS community. It will be particularly relevant for researchers, engineers, and students interested in subsurface energy systems and climate solutions.

    If you are interested in carbon storage, subsurface engineering, or decarbonization technologies, I strongly encourage you to attend and engage in the discussion.

  • New Publication: Uncovering the Dynamics of CO₂ Convective Mixing in Porous Media

    New Publication: Uncovering the Dynamics of CO₂ Convective Mixing in Porous Media

    I am pleased to announce the publication of our latest research article in Transport in Porous Media, titled “Direct Observation of Convective Mixing During CO₂ Dissolution in Saturated Transparent Porous Media.”

    This study offers real-time visual evidence of how CO₂ dissolves and starts to mix convectively in porous media, a vital process for long-term geological carbon storage. While convective dissolution has been extensively modelled, direct observations under reservoir-like conditions are still scarce. Our research helps fill this gap.

    Using high-pressure optical shadowgraphy, we observed CO₂ dissolving into a saturated porous medium under controlled temperature and pressure conditions that simulate subsurface storage environments. This setup enabled us to capture:

    • The onset of convection,
    • The growth and acceleration of descending plumes,
    • And the quantitative scaling of plume velocity with the Rayleigh number.

    Our results indicate that, within the studied conditions, the plume velocity approximately follows a square-root relationship with the Rayleigh number, providing new experimental support for predictions long established in theory and simulation. These measurements offer a valuable benchmark for refining models of CO₂ dissolution and improving forecasts of long-term storage efficiency.

    This work was made possible through collaboration with Fabrizio Croccolo, Paul Fruton, and Cedric Giraudet, whose contributions were essential to the project’s success.

    The article is available open access here:
    https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11242-025-02259-0

  • Presenting at the 17th Journées d’Études des Milieux Poreux (JEMP 2025) – France InterPore Chapter, Orléans

    Presenting at the 17th Journées d’Études des Milieux Poreux (JEMP 2025) – France InterPore Chapter, Orléans

    I am pleased to announce my participation in the 17ᵗʰ Journées d’Études des Milieux Poreux (JEMP 2025), organised by the France InterPore Chapter, which will be held in Orléans, France. This conference brings together scientists and industry experts who study the movement and transport within porous materials systems, which are vital to energy, environmental, and industrial applications.

    During the conference, I will present my recent work on the convective dissolution of CO₂ in porous media, a process of great significance for geological carbon storage. Using dynamic shadowgraph imaging, my research investigates how CO₂ dissolves into a cyclohexanol/toluene (70/30 w/w) mixture and progresses through complex convective patterns within synthetic porous samples made of glass beads. These experiments illuminate the characteristic fingering structures that develop during dissolution and offer experimental data for testing theoretical scaling relationships between convective fluxes and Rayleigh numbers.

    This research aims to strengthen the connection between experimental visualisation and predictive modelling, aiding in improving our understanding of how CO₂ behaves once injected underground. A clearer understanding of these processes is crucial for evaluating the long-term safety and efficiency of carbon storage in saline aquifers.

  • Presenting at the 16th International Meeting on Thermodiffusion – Milan 2025

    Presenting at the 16th International Meeting on Thermodiffusion – Milan 2025

    I am thrilled to announce my attendance at the 16th International Meeting on Thermodiffusion, to be held from June 9 to 13, 2025, at the Università degli Studi di Milano, Italy. This gathering brings together researchers who study how thermal gradients influence mass transport in complex fluids. It presents an exciting chance to engage with a highly specialised community making strides in both the fundamental aspects and applications of thermodiffusion. I am honoured to deliver an oral presentation on Thursday, June 12, where I will share findings from my study titled:

    “Shadowgraphy Study of Transport Properties in Cyclohexanol/Toluene Binary Mixtures.”

    In a recent study, we investigated the equilibrium properties of ternary mixtures comprising cyclohexanol, toluene, and CO2, under pressures reaching up to 30 MPa (Imuetinyan et al., 2025). We now transition to examining the non-equilibrium properties of these mixtures, starting with a detailed analysis of binary liquid mixtures of cyclohexanol and toluene at atmospheric pressure. Our focus is on a thin layer of the binary fluid subjected to a steady temperature gradient, which stabilises the system in the influence of gravity. At the same time, we analyse concentration fluctuations around the stationary concentration gradient driven by the Soret effect.

    Although thermodiffusion may not often make headlines, it plays a vital role in systems where heat and concentration gradients coexist, such as in oil recovery, CO₂ sequestration, polymer processing, and even in astrophysical environments. Gaining a better understanding of these effects supports the development of more precise models in complex fluid dynamics and thermodynamics.

    The Milan conference offers a unique opportunity for professionals in this field to share insights, foster collaborations, and refine future research directions. Topics of discussion will cover non-equilibrium thermodynamics, Soret-driven instabilities, thermodiffusion, and phase change materials (PCM).

    You can view the complete scientific program by clicking here.

    The event is supported by the Department of Physics of the Università degli Studi di Milano, the European Space Agency (ESA), and the European Physical Journal E (EPJ E).

    I am eager to connect with fellow researchers, learn from their work, and gather feedback that can inform the next phase of my project. I plan to share reflections and highlights from the conference on my blog afterwards, so stay tuned if you are interested in thermodiffusion and experimental transport phenomena.

    If you are attending the conference, please feel free to reach out. I would be delighted to connect!

  • Geoscience Skills Shortage: A Hidden Threat to the Energy Transition?

    Geoscience Skills Shortage: A Hidden Threat to the Energy Transition?

    The energy sector is undergoing one of the most profound transformations in its history. As we pivot toward low-carbon solutions, the role of geoscientists is becoming more essential than ever. Yet there is a growing concern: are we facing a shortage of geoscience skills just when we need them most?

    This urgent question will be explored in depth at the upcoming 2025 EAGE Annual Conference & Exhibition in Toulouse, France, during a panel session titled:

    “Geoscience Skills Shortage – A Threat for Energy Transition?”
    📅 5 June 2025 | 🕥 10:40 – 12:00
    📍 Organised by the EAGE Young Professionals Community

    The panel brings together diverse voices from industry, academia, and start-ups – all contributing their perspectives on the evolving geoscience talent landscape:

    • Elena Dudchenko – Manager of Transformation Training and School Relationships, TotalEnergies
    • Claude Cavelius – CEO, Deeplime
    • Zuo Xu – Business Development Manager, Sub-Saharan Africa, Viridien
    • Nihal Darraj – CCUS Researcher, Reservoir Engineering, Imperial College

    Moderated by two members of the YPs Committee:

    • Carrie Holloway – Senior CCS Geologist, SLB
    • Tiexing Wang – Project Research Geophysicist, Shearwater

    As a member of the EAGE Young Professionals Committee, I am proud of our collective efforts in spotlighting such an important issue. Although I won’t be attending the conference in person this year, I wanted to help spread the word by sharing this event here. The discussion addresses the gap between emerging needs in energy innovation and the current pace of geoscience training and recruitment. The energy transition will not move forward without scientific talent on the ground, understanding subsurface dynamics, advancing carbon storage, and ensuring sustainable resource management.

    If this resonates with you, I invite you to explore the EAGE YPs Committee LinkedIn post.

    This event is hosted by TotalEnergies, with Shell as the strategic programme sponsor and S&P Global Commodity Insights as the knowledge partner. It reflects EAGE’s ongoing mission to support young professionals and equip the energy sector with the geoscience expertise it needs.

    If you will be in Toulouse, make sure to attend and share with your colleagues.