The Advanced Energy Consortium (AEC) is an internationally recognized research consortium founded by and based at UT Austin’s Bureau of Economic Geology in 2008. The consortium is dedicated to achieving a transformational understanding of subsurface oil and natural gas reservoirs through the deployment of the world’s most advanced micro/nano sensors and materials technologies to illuminate the subsurface.
Since inception, the AEC has had more than:
- 40 patents
- 275 publications
- 32 university and institution research partners
$50 million invested in research and development have created breakthrough technologies in:
Microfabricated Sensors
- High temp batteries and capacitors
- Micro-pressure sensor with less than 1psi resolution
- Up to 10k psi, 125C, and 1,200 measurements were taken
- 53% recovery of 9mm sensors from downhole
- Microsensor systems on a chip as small as 1mm long and 1mm wide
Contrast Agents
- Remote imaging of hydraulically fractured network boundaries with 5’ lateral precision has been achieved
- Flow anisotropy detection with magnetic nanoparticles has been demonstrated
- Coating for stabilizing nanoparticles in API brine and 95C for more than one month has been developed
Payload Delivery Systems
- Multiple time/temperature-triggered platform nano-payload technology has been developed
- Over 90% weight equivalent of 12M HCl has been encapsulated
- Over 2 days’ delayed release profile for HCl cargo has been demonstrated
