Dr. Jenn-Tai Liang will be joining the faculty of the department of petroleum engineering this fall. Professor Liang previously taught at The University of Kansas and served as the director of the Tertiary Oil Recovery Program, a Kansas state-funded research center. He also was the program manger at the U.S. Department of Energy Idaho National Laboratory and was in charge of oil recovery research.
“I am very pleased to welcome professor Jenn-Tai Liang to the Harold Vance Department of Petroleum Engineering," said Dan Hill, head of the department. "His joining our faculty gives us an instant presence in the field of nano-materials being developed for a variety of oilfield applications. He brings with him a very capable research staff, and will be building a world-class laboratory for the synthesis and testing of nano-materials. It is personally very satisfying to have Jenn-Tai Liang join us, as he was my second Ph.D. graduate and has been a good friend for many years.”
An avid researcher, Liang’s major focus is on developing promising uses for nanotechnology in enhanced oil recovery operations and other oilfield chemical applications. Based on drug-delivery technologies from the pharmaceutical industry, Liang’s previous research group successfully developed a chemical delivery system that uses nanoparticles to entrap and protect the chemicals from the hostile underground environments. The current oilfield applications of Liang’s nano-scale chemical delivery system include delayed gelation for water shutoff and in-depth conformance control, delayed release of scale inhibitors to extend the treatment life time, and fracture fluid cleanup. He has been awarded six U.S. patents with several more pending for the new technologies developed in this area.
Liang signed joint development agreements with ConocoPhillips and a major oilfield service company to develop field specific applications of nano-scale chemical delivery systems. To date, ConocoPhillips has contributed $3.2 million to support the nano research program and is already in the process of commercializing the first two new technologies developed for in-depth conformance control.
He also received major funding from the Department of Energy (DOE) to evaluate the use of dilute surfactants produced from agriculture waste streams to improve oil recovery by altering the reservoir rock to a more water wet state. In collaboration with University of Alaska at Fairbanks and ConocoPhillips Alaska Inc., Liang was awarded $320,000 by DOE to model wax deposition in Alaska North Slope crude oils.
Liang also published 21 papers in peer-reviewed journals and authored 18 professional conference papers. He is internationally known for his nano research program and has been invited by universities and oil companies worldwide to give more than 40 invited lectures on the application of nano technologies for oil field applications. He earned his Ph.D. from The University of Texas at Austin.