(WESTERVILLE, OH — May 21, 2007) Michael Celia, Ph.D., of Princeton University has been chosen as the 2008 Henry Darcy Distinguished Lecturer in Ground Water Science, the National Ground Water Research and Educational Foundation announced today.
As the Darcy Lecturer, Celia, chair of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Princeton University, will spend the year lecturing at colleges and universities throughout the world to educate and generate interest in groundwater science.
In his lecture titled, "Geological Storage as a Carbon Mitigation Option," Celia explores carbon capture and storage (CCS)—a technique where carbon dioxide is captured and injected into deep geological formations.
Anthropogenic emissions of carbon dioxide have increased atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide by about 35 percent during the past 200 years. The current concentration, at about 385 parts per million, represents the highest carbon dioxide concentration in the last 500,000 years. Projected future emissions will lead to doubling of preindustrial carbon dioxide concentration within the next 50 years.
Injection of carbon dioxide into deep formations leads to a multiphase flow problem that may involve important mass exchange between phases, nonisothermal effects, and complex geochemical reactions. In addition, because enormous quantities of carbon dioxide must be injected to have any significant impact on the atmospheric carbon problem, the spatial scale of the problem becomes very large.
Further, broad questions involving the fate of the injected carbon dioxide, including possible leakage of carbon dioxide out of the formation, as well as the fate of displaced fluids like resident brines, lead to very challenging modeling and analysis problems. A series of simplifying assumptions may be proposed to provide more efficient numerical calculations, even to the point of allowing for analytical or semianalytical solutions.
Requests for the Darcy Lecturer for the 2008 calendar year will be accepted only by completing the online request form. The deadline for submissions is October 15, 2007. NGWREF reserves the right to be the sole entity able to confirm any request made for this lecture series. Direct any questions to Barbette Howell at bhowell@ngwa.org.
The Darcy Lecture is named in honor of French hydraulic engineer Henry Darcy, whose work in 1855 and 1856 described the flow of groundwater, through sand known today as Darcy’s law.
Established in 1994, NGWREF is operated by NGWA as a 501(c)(3) public foundation and is focused on conducting educational, research, and other charitable activities related to a broader public understanding of groundwater.
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NGWA, a nonprofit organization comprised of more than 14,000 U.S. and international groundwater professionals—contractors, equipment manufacturers, suppliers, scientists, and engineers—is dedicated to advancing the expertise of all groundwater professionals and to furthering groundwater awareness and protection through education and outreach. NGWA's vision is to be the leading community of groundwater professionals that promotes the responsible development, use, and management of groundwater resources.
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