This summer, the Gulf Coast Carbon Center is thrilled to work with three outstanding graduate students, Amir Kamali from the University of Oklahoma and Alexander Tarakanov and Mehrdad Alfi from Texas A&M University. Seyyed Hosseini, who is overseeing the students’ research, notes that the interns “have the opportunity to work closely with GCCC staff to learn about CCS related problems and apply their skills to solve them.”

Alexander Tarakanov is in the final year of his Ph. D. in the Department of Petroleum Engineering in Texas A&M University. His research is focused on the Lattice-Boltzmann Method (LBM), in particular developing LBM-based numerical schemes for simulating fluid flow from pore-scale to field-scale. This summer, Alexander is applying LBM to CO₂ sequestration, with a goal of developing code to study the distribution of CO₂ in a reservoir.

Merhdad Alfi (left) has a background in chemical engineering and has just finished his third year in Texas A&M University as a Ph. D. student in Petroleum Engineering. At GCCC, Merhdad is working on canister data obtained from shale formations in order to calculate lost gas and formation permeability. He is using an analytical solution to the continuity equation for modelling gas flow inside shale media and then matching it with experimental data gathered from the drawdown process.

Amir Kamali (right) is a Ph. D. candidate whose research involves reservoir geomechanics applied to petroleum and geothermal systems. His bachelors and masters degrees are in petroleum engineering as well. This summer, Amir is developing a transient gas transport model to quantify CO₂ and CH₄ concentrations at the bottom of the water wells and throughout the wellbore itself.