SPE KAUST Student Chapters Seminar by Dr. Morteza Dejam

Bio:
Dr. Morteza Dejam is an Associate Professor of Energy and Petroleum Engineering, Computing, and Hydrologic Science at the University of Wyoming and an Associate Editor for Water Resources Research and Journal of Hydrology.

He obtained his Ph.D., M.Sc., and B.Sc. in Petroleum Engineering from the University of Calgary, Sharif University of Technology, and Petroleum University of Technology in 2016, 2009, and 2007, respectively. His research area is transport phenomena and thermodynamics of fluids in porous media, focusing on solute dispersion, phase behavior of nanoconfined fluids, geological storage, geothermal energy, enhanced oil recovery, fluid flow in shale rocks, and block-to-block interaction in fractured porous media.

Dr. Dejam’s contributions to research, teaching, and service have been recognized by the Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE) Rocky Mountain North America Region through the SPE Regional Reservoir Description and Dynamics Award and SPE Regional Distinguished Achievement Award for Petroleum Engineering Faculty in 2019 and the SPE Regional Service Award in 2022. As a high-achieving and outstanding early-career faculty member who has shown significant promise for the scholarship, Dr. Dejam has recently been recognized by the University of Wyoming’s Office of the President to receive the 2022 Presidential Scholarly Achievement Award for Promising Early-Career Faculty.

Seminar:
Part 1. Dispersion in Double-Porosity Systems
A double-porosity system resembles a fractured porous medium comprised of fracture network and porous matrix blocks. The interaction between the two media has not been considered in classical studies of the dispersion of a chemical species in a double-porosity system. Theory suggests that the interaction between the two media greatly impacts the dispersion of solute matter in fractured rocks. The first part of the talk will cover the results of recent studies on dispersion in double-porosity systems. Then, the major progress in the determination of the dispersion coefficients in a variety of coupled double-porosity systems will be described.

Part 2. Phase Behavior of Confined Fluids in Nanopores
This research aims to investigate the phase behavior of fluids confined in nanoporous media using a more reliable experimental method. For example, the bubble points of liquid mixtures in shale reservoirs are currently measured experimentally in traditional PVT cells with similar methods to that for the bulk. The capillary phenomenon is known to make the bubble points of liquid mixtures confined in nanoporous media significantly different from those in bulk characterized by PVT analysis. In the second part of the talk, a novel isochoric procedure using Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC) to measure the phase behavior of confined fluids in nanopores of shale and tight reservoirs will be described.

SPE (Society of Petroleum Engineers) KAUST Student Chapter | Website | View More Events

Contact the organizers