The motivation for the present study stems from visualizations of the PTFE distribution in the gas diffusion layer (GDL) of Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cell (PEMFC). The GDL is a fibrous carbon layer treated with polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE), by drying a layer saturated with a solution of PTFE particles, to improve hydrophobicity [1, 2, 3]. During the fabrication, internal surfaces...
Physical dispersion and in-situ mixing of brines during low-salinity waterflooding (LSWF) occurs due to the unfavorable mobility ratio between high- and low-salinity brines. Dispersion negatively affects the performance of miscible processes, such as LSWF, and their economic viability. In our previous publication (Darvish Sarvestani et al., Energy & Fuels, 2021), we demonstrated that adding a...
The contribution of renewable energy, specially wind and solar, is expected to increase significantly in the future global energy mix [1]. However, due to the intermittent nature of these energy resources, development of large-scale (TWh) energy storage systems is essential [2]. Underground hydrogen storage (UHS) in porous media, such as depleted oil and gas reservoirs and aquifers offer...
Fluid-fluid displacement in porous media plays a significant role in many industrial applications, including geologic carbon dioxide sequestration, enhanced oil recovery, and fuel cells. Microfluidics systems are powerful tools to study fluid-fluid displacement in well-controlled geometries. Recently, the thiolene-based polymer called NOA81 emerged as an ideal material in the fabrication of...
The aqueous extracts obtained when boiling the leaves of plants (e.g. tea, parsley, coriander, etc) contain a mixture of polyphenols, which are natural polymers, and if mixed with a metal salt, they may act both as reductants and capping agents of the so-produced nanoparticles [1]. Aqueous solutions of polyphenols extracted from the leaves of parsley were mixed with aqueous solutions of ferric...
Thin capillary wicks provide an integral function serving as evaporators in vapor chamber thermal management devices [1]. The application of high heat fluxes at the evaporator causes boiling to occur in the wick; the resulting two-phase flow dynamics dictates the thermal performance and critical dryout limits. These wicks are commonly composed of high thermal conductivity copper powders...
Snap-off is a phenomenon that occurs when a non-wetting fluid is displaced by wetting fluid in pore-throat channels, leading to the breakup of droplets at the throat. Snap-off plays a key role in many industrial processes involving immiscible multiphase flows, such as aquifer remediation, carbon capture and geological storage, recovery of hydrocarbons. Here we derive geometric criteria for the...
Immiscible two-phase flow is widely present in natural and synthetic processes. The flow behaviour of two fluids is governed by constitutive relations, relative permeability and capillary pressure. These empirical relations are often influenced by the dynamic of the process and the characteristics of porous media such as heterogeneity. The effect of the non-equilibrium condition on the...
Dissolution/precipitation of minerals are key reactions in various scenarios (e.g., contaminants transport in subsurface environments or sequestration of CO2). Challenges in the assessment of the reaction kinetics arise from the high spatial heterogeneity characterizing precipitation/dissolution processes, typically resulting in a broad range of reaction rate values. High-resolution imaging of...
Understanding multiphase flow in porous media is essential in various fields, including hydrocarbon recovery, natural gas and CO2 storage, fibre-reinforced composites, and underground water remediation. Capillary snap-off, i. e., breaking up of the fluid interface and forming isolated non-wetting phase ganglia, plays a crucial role in the non-wetting phase trapping and consequently the...
Understanding the temporal and spatial evolution of bubbles in porous media is key to applications such as gas storage in subsurface rocks, air-entrained concrete, and contaminants transport in soil.
In the simplest case of a spherical bubble in unconfined bulk liquid, the evolution of the bubble can be predicted by considering its capillary pressure and the solute concentration in the liquid...
Understanding the ability of salts to crystallize at the interface between two porous media with different material properties is of paramount importance to understand the decay mechanisms involving salt crystallization in composite materials. This problem is that is very relevant to art conservation practice and civil engineering problems.
Over the past decades, much has been learned about...
CO2 capture in sediments through CO2-rich gas injection into methane gas hydrate reservoir is a recently proposed technology for methane recovery and simultaneously storing CO2 in deposits. CO2 capture and storage in CH4 hydrate formations located at low-temperature, high-pressure conditions, is an attractive proposition as technical and economic costs are lower and it is safer option to store...
Mineral dissolution significantly impacts many geological systems. Carbon released by diagenesis, carbon sequestration, and acid injection are several examples where geochemical reactions, fluid flow, and solute transport are strongly coupled. Yet, the dynamics of mineral dissolution and fluid-solid interaction remain poorly understood. The complexity in these systems involves interplay...
Minerals precipitation and dissolution dominate and control a large number of geochemical processes in porous media. The precipitation/dissolution reactions alter the pore space and its connectivity in a way that has a complex feedback on the solutes transport. Pore-scale reactive transport models provide the numerical framework to understand and predict such interactions. While incorporation...
Recirculating flows are increasingly being recognized as a common phenomenon in porous and fractured media. While tracer studies have shown that recirculating zones frequently contribute to anomalous transport observed in breakthrough curves, it is less clear how the recirculating flows may influence mixing and subsequent geochemical reaction. In the case of mineral dissolution, recirculation...
