With a thesis on a very topical theme, CCUS, Mohan Sharma graduated as the sixth PhD at the Centre.
The title of Mohan Sharma's thesis is «CO2 Mobility Control with Foam for Enhanced Oil Recovery and Associated Storage. Multi-Scale Approach for Field Application». This thesis investigates the mechanisms involved in CO2-Foam displacement, both at small and large scales, for a field pilot in a carbonate reservoir.
Sharma's results were obtained by running experiments in laboratory, numerical modelling using appropriate tools and data acquisition in field.
How to recover the residual oil?
A significant amount of residual oil is left behind post waterflood, which can be recovered using CO2 for Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR). Mohan Sharma's research aims at advancing the technology of using foam as mobility control agent for CO2 EOR by performing a field pilot, with a focus on integrated reservoir modelling to assist technology transfer to other fields.
Sharma's research was funded by the Research Council of Norway through the project «CO2 Storage from Lab to On-Shore Field Pilots Using CO2-Foam for Mobility Control in CCUS» at UiB; The National IOR Centre of Norway at UiS; and scholarship for research exchange stay at TU Delft.
Collaborator
Three years and a couple of months have passed since Sharma started his PhD at UiS and the Centre. Since the beginning, Sharma has been working close with Professor Arne Graue and the Petroleum and Process Technology Research Group at University of Bergen.
«You have been a good link for the fruitful collaboration between our university and Bergen. Your work has also been important for the industry partners of the Centre. Through your work, the IOR Centre is one step closer to reaching its goal; a field pilot,» vice dean of research Helge Bøvik Larsen said in his speech to Sharma.
Besides UiS and UiB there have been 10 more universities from Europe and USA working in the project Sharma has been a part of.
Bøvik Larsen ended the speech by praising Mohan for his work.
«It combines attractive applicability for the industry together with state-of-the-art science,» he said.
Text and photo: Kjersti Riiber