Pollution is arguably the worst environmental global challenge faced by society. While pollution problems are local in nature, current policies (e.g., spill it rivers the outflow of wastewater treatment plants, WWTPs) favor the broad spread of pollutants, to the point that many of them are becoming global threats (e.g., antimicrobial resistance, endocrine disruptors, microplastics). While this...
The complexity of food arises not only from their multicomponent chemical nature but also from the diverse molecular and supramolecular arrangements that form a complex matrix comprising both matter and voids. Porous regions, distributed across nano-, micro-, and macro-scales, are not merely empty spaces but critical features that influence food functionality and sustainability. Food porosity...
In crystalline rocks of the Earth’s crust, most fluid flows are accommodated by networks of interconnected fractures. Immiscible two-phase flow in such geological fractures is relevant to various industrial contexts, including subsurface fluid storage and hydrocarbon recovery. The fractures are natural objects resulting from thermally- or mechanically-inducted fracturing of a geological...
The design of porous materials with well-defined architectures is a central challenge in materials chemistry, since pore size, connectivity, tortuosity, and shape strongly determine their potential applications in catalysis, separation, energy storage, and sensing.
Conventional sol-gel approaches often lack the versatility to achieve such deliberate structural control, motivating the...
Recovery from shale and tight oil reservoirs remains limited, with recovery factors often below 10% of the original oil in place despite horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing. Traditional reservoir models fail to capture the physics of nanometer-scale pores, where confinement, adsorption, and molecular diffusion dominate. This presentation examines how confined thermodynamics reshapes...
Beyond the orbit of Mars, most of the solid planetary bodies contain a large fraction of water ice. During the last three decades, a series of space missions to Jupiter’s system (Galileo 1995-2003, Juno (2016-2026), Saturn’s system (2004-2017), dwarf planets Ceres (Dawn (2014-2018) and Pluto (New Horizons 2015), have revealed that several of these icy worlds possess salty water oceans beneath...
Nanoremediation is a promising in-situ remediation strategy based on the subsurface injection of reactive suspensions of engineered nanoparticles (NPs), aimed at promoting the degradation, transformation, or immobilization of a broad range of groundwater contaminants. The success of field-scale applications depends on the ability to characterize and predict NP transport, retention, and...
Many porous media processes of interest involve microorganisms such as bacteria, fungi and viruses; examples include bioremediation, bioclogging, nutrient cycling, plant-microbe interactions, and critical mineral recovery. Consider the life of a bacterium in a porous medium. The size of its home is measured in micrometers – typical soil/sediment pores range in size from a few micrometers...
