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Energy
Availability of inexpensive energy has long been identified as a key element
for economic prosperity and national security. For decades, the energy industry
has been a driver of research on new materials and tools for thermophysical
property measurement. The production of hydrocarbons for meeting our energy
needs and providing raw materials to the petrochemical industry will continue
to be a dominant industry driver for decades to come. However, it is now recognized
that production and use of hydrocarbons comes with an environmental cost. Therefore,
emissions associated with hydrocarbon use and surface subsidence in areas around
reservoirs will continue to be areas of important research.
Among the primary
needs of the petroleum and natural gas industries are :
- advanced methods to recover the approximately 65% of hydrocarbons remaining
in oil and gas reservoirs after primary and secondary recovery,
- locating
new sources of hydrocarbons,
- technologies for producing novel energy resources
like gas hydrates,
- new processes for upgrading the produced fossil fuels
(for example, converting coal to liquids or gas, converting gas to liquid
fuels etc.); and
- improved methods for reservoir characterization and for
transporting hydrocarbons to market
The Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering Department has established a reputation
in most of these key areas. Professors Miller and Hirasaki are developing novel
techniques to improve recovery of hydrocarbons using surfactant-based approaches.
These methods have also been shown to be effective for environmental remediation.
The NMR laboratory established by Professor Kobayashi and now directed by Professor
Hirasaki is providing fundamental information to expand the usefulness of down
hole NMR logs for reservoir characterization.
 Research on gas hydrates, was
initiated at Rice 50 years ago in Professor Kobayashi’s lab. Professor
Chapman has taken over this work and expanded it through the introduction of
molecular modeling methods. In addition, a new initiative was formed within
the Shell Center for Sustainability to combine the hydrate energy research
with geologic information in order to understand the historical impact of gas
hydrates on climate change on the earth. This initiative is led by Professors
Chapman and Hirasaki from Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering and Professor
Dickens from Earth Science.
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Biosystems
