Dr. Aaditya Khanal's Research Projects

A brief summary of each

Our research focuses on modeling the flow of fluids in porous media with direct application to energy extraction and climate change mitigation. We are interested in CO2 sequestration in saline aquifers, hydrogen storage, oil and gas production forecasting, phase behavior modeling, and machine learning applications to solve complex engineering problems. We use both numerical simulations and experiments for our research.

 

Convective dissolution in saline aquifers

The geological sequestration of CO2 through injection into deep saline aquifers offers a promising approach to reducing the amount of CO2 entering the atmosphere from burning fossil fuels. The injected CO2 gets trapped in the porous media by different mechanisms such as structural, capillary, dissolution, and mineral trapping. Dissolution trapping is the most dominant storage mechanism for CO2 injected into deep saline aquifers in longer timescales. We currently use experimental and numerical methods to predict the onset of dissolution in saline aquifers with different properties. 

 

Application of data-driven methods for predicting fluid flow in porous media

We aim to use data-driven methods for accurate and computationally efficient prediction of oil/gas production, CO2 storage by different mechanisms, flow property prediction, and various other aspects of fluid flow in porous media. 

 

Numerical reservoir simulation for CO2 sequestration, EOR and hydrogen storage

We use advanced numerical simulation to model various aspects of CO2 sequestration, CO2 EOR, and geological storage of hydrogen. The integrated effort towards reduction in GHG gases and clean fuel will assist in achieving global net zero goals.