Dr. Siddharth Misra and Dr. Hadi Nasrabadi, associate professors in the Harold Vance Department of Petroleum Engineering at Texas A&M University, each received round 4 funding for research projects accepted by the Texas A&M Triads for Transformation (T3) program. The program, which is a component of the President's Excellence Fund, supports faculty by encouraging interdisciplinary research projects performed by faculty teams with three members, called triads.
Misra and Nasrabadi were each given $30,000 in January 2021. This seed funding finances the initial work and equipment needed to explore their research topics. Their goals are to perform a preliminary investigation and gather the data and results necessary to attract industry or academic interest, leading to additional funding for more intensive research. Another $2,000 is available from T3 to support any undergraduate student assistance the projects may require.
Misra's project is titled "Machine Learning for Monitoring Geothermal and Carbon-Sequestration Operations." His triad is investigating the use of machine-learning applications to improve real-time assessment of the dynamic behavior of dominant fluid-flow paths and fracture networks as they evolve in the subsurface thousands of feet below. The focus is to produce a system that blends together engineering, artificial intelligence, geoscience and environmental knowledge to better monitor geothermal energy production and underground carbon dioxide storage.
Nasrabadi's project is titled "Solar Thermal Desalination of Oilfield Brines Using Nanogels." His triad is investigating the increasing environmental and economic pressures tied to the production of subsurface water from wells. More than 60 million 42-gallon barrels of this highly salinated water is produced daily from oil and gas operations in the United States. The project aims to find economic desalination solutions for this brine using nano gel materials jointly with existing water treatment techniques.
"If we can find an economical way to convert produced water and feed it through reverse osmosis techniques for agriculture use, it can be beneficial for oil-producing areas like Qatar and California that have water issues," said Nasrabadi. "With this T3 support, we'll build a small-scale solar pond, test this gel material, and get some good data to show to industry and get support for the next level."
T3 is a multidisciplinary seed-grant program designed to move innovative ideas from vision to proof of concept. The program supports Texas A&M's commitments to three key pillars: advancing transformational learning, enhancing discovery and innovation, and expanding the impact on our community, state, nation and world.
Both faculty members adhered to the T3 rule that each triad's three members must come from at least two separate Texas A&M colleges, schools or campuses. Misra will be working with Dr. Duan Benchun from the Department of Geology and Geophysics in the College of Geosciences and Dr. Kan Wu from the petroleum engineering department. Nasrabadi will be working with Dr. Debjyoti Banerjee from the J. Mike Walker '66 Department of Mechanical Engineering in the College of Engineering and Dr. Nayef Alyafei from the Petroleum Engineering Program within the Texas A&M University at Qatar.