Mukul M. Sharma (msharma@mail.utexas.edu) is the Program Manager of the Natural Gas Engineering research program.
Natural gas represents a fossil energy source of growing importance over the coming decades. Reseach is currently being conducted in these main areas: gas condensate reservoirs, tight gas sands, and naturally fractured reservoirs.
Research Projects
Mapping of In-Situ Velocity Field - Quoc P. Nguyen
A novel gas tracer method has been introduced for the first time to visualize the in-situ velocity distribution of a gas mixture. This method has been successfully used in the determination of stationary gas in porous media during the injection of a gas or a dispersed gas-liquid system. It overcomes major limitations encountered in the conventional tracer method (i.e. based on the effluent analysis), such as uncertainties in the description of medium heterogeneity. This method has also found potential applications in: (1) understanding better dispersion phenomena in porous media, (2) characterization of heterogeneity, and (3) determination of directional permeability to gases. Enhanced Coal Bed Methane (ECBM) - Quoc P. Nguyen
Nitrogen and CO2 ECBM appears to be among significant recent developments in enhanced hydrocarbon recovery. However, this technology is still under development due to major challenges faced at both field and laboratory levels. Laboratory investigation suffers from swelling of coal samples during CO2 injection that challenges the characterization of coupled processes of CO2 absorption and CH4 desorption. In the field, the magnitude of the coal-bed methane and CO2 sequestration potential critically depends on assumptions with respect to the availability of suitable coal seams and the extent to which CO2 may replace coal-bed methane. This project is aimed at a better understanding of these aspects, thus providing a better guideline for the process design and operation at the field level. It is mainly focused on the characterization of the gas sorption processes under non-equilibrium conditions, the effect of water saturation and wettability change on productivity and quality of produced methane, and simulation of ECBM using more sophisticated geological models. Improvement of Fracturing for Gas Shales - Kishore Mohanty
RPSEA Project No. 07122-38-UT-Mohanty. Please see the Improvement of Fracturing for Gas Shales project page for more information.
Related Research
The Physical Behavior and Numerical Solution of Enriched-Gas Drives
Well Testing
Planned Research Initiatives
- Gas Hydrates
- Coal Bed Methane