Prof.L. Chen
Prof. Xi'an Jiaotong University, Los Alamos National Lab, Transport in porous media, fuel cell&flow battery, shale gas, CO2 sequestration, pore-scale and multiscale simualtion
"Advanced
pore-scale model for multiple physicochemical processes in porous media"
Abstract:
Multiple physicochemical reactive
transport processes in porous media are pervasive in energy and environmental
science. Typical examples include fuel cells and batteries, geological storage
of carbon dioxide and nuclear waste, exploitation of conventional/unconventional
hydrocarbon resources and VOC emissions. In such processes, strongly coupled
single or multiphase flow, heat transfer, mass transport and chemical reactions
simultaneously take place in complex structures of porous media. A better
understanding of these processes is critical to improving efficiency and
durability of the electrochemical energy conversion systems, to enhancing the
hydrocarbon recovery, to managing safe disposal of energy-related waste, and to
controlling the air quality. Such processes, however, is a challenging problem
for theoretical analysis, experimental studies and numerical simulations as not
only multiple processes are involved but also these processes are strongly
coupled. Besides, the complicated morphology of porous media leads to
complicated interfacial interactions between reactive transport processes and
the porous structures. In this paper, we will introduce our work of developing
advanced pore-scale numerical methods which take into account the coupled
multiple physicochemical processes and their interactions. Such pore-scale
numerical methods have been adopted to investigate at pore-scale several
typical physicochemical processes in energy and environmental science,
including multiphase flow and electrochemical processes in gas diffusion layer
and catalyst layer in proton exchange membrane fuel cell, multicomponent
reactive transport with solid dissolution-precipitation during CO2
sequestration, brine thermal migration in crystals during nuclear waste
disposal, and VOC emission. Complicated pore-scale phenomena are captured and
the coupled mechanisms are revealed by the pore-scale studies.