| Project Detail |
Modelling colloids to understand geologic flows
Colloids, mixtures where one substance is dispersed in tiny particles throughout another, are found throughout the natural world. They include gels, sols and emulsions; even viruses and bacteria can be considered colloids. The EU-funded COCONUT project aims to develop new prediction tools that explain how colloids can control immiscible two-phase flows in complex geological formations. Nanoparticle colloids have the potential to remobilise trapped particles beneath the surface, such as in contaminated groundwater or oil deposits. The project will combine hydro-electro-chemical modelling and microfluidic experiments which focus on pore-scale mechanisms of flows and the upscaling of these to a continuum-scale. The end goal is to demonstrate how colloids can control a two-phase flow in geological systems at the column-scale.
The COCONUT project aims at developing predictive capabilities to understand how colloids (nanometals, fine particles, bacteria, viruses, asphaltenes..) control immiscible two-phase flow in complex geological formations. Colloids (including nanoparticles) have an incredible potential to remobilize non-aqueous phases trapped by capillary forces in soils and the subsurface, and then to remediate contaminated groundwater or to enhance oil recovery. Their use in daily engineering, however, is still underexploited because the lack of knowledge regarding their transport mechanisms is an obstacle to precise control of two-phase flow. Importantly, the presence of colloidal particles flowing in the subsurface challenges the standard modeling viewpoint of flow and transport based on Darcys law. We posit that the precise control of colloids on the motion of two-phase flow can only be achieved by developing a deep knowledge of the coupled hydro-electro-chemical processes at the pore-scale. The COCONUT project uses a combined modelling-experimental strategy focusing on the pore-scale mechanisms and on the upscaling to the continuum-scale. The project is multi-disciplinary and uses computational and experimental sciences, fluid dynamics, electrochemistry, and mathematics. The project will require the development of hydro-electro-chemical computational models at different scales of interest (WP1). We will use high-resolution simulations to interrogate emergent physico-chemical processes and characterize the surface attractive and repulsive forces at the nanoscale (WP2). Then, we will decipher the mechanisms leading to the displacement of fluids trapped in an unsaturated porous medium in the presence of colloids using pore-scale modelling and microfluidic experiments (WP3). Finally, we will demonstrate and optimize the two-phase flow colloidal control in geological systems at the column-scale (WP4). |
