Prof.L. Chen

   Prof. Xi'an Jiaotong University, Los Alamos National Lab, Transport in porous media, fuel cell&flow battery, shale gas, CO2 sequestration, pore-scale and multiscale simualtion

"Advanced pore-scale model for multiple physicochemical processes in porous media"

Abstract:

Multiple physicochemical reactive transport processes in porous media are pervasive in energy and environmental science. Typical examples include fuel cells and batteries, geological storage of carbon dioxide and nuclear waste, exploitation of conventional/unconventional hydrocarbon resources and VOC emissions. In such processes, strongly coupled single or multiphase flow, heat transfer, mass transport and chemical reactions simultaneously take place in complex structures of porous media. A better understanding of these processes is critical to improving efficiency and durability of the electrochemical energy conversion systems, to enhancing the hydrocarbon recovery, to managing safe disposal of energy-related waste, and to controlling the air quality. Such processes, however, is a challenging problem for theoretical analysis, experimental studies and numerical simulations as not only multiple processes are involved but also these processes are strongly coupled. Besides, the complicated morphology of porous media leads to complicated interfacial interactions between reactive transport processes and the porous structures. In this paper, we will introduce our work of developing advanced pore-scale numerical methods which take into account the coupled multiple physicochemical processes and their interactions. Such pore-scale numerical methods have been adopted to investigate at pore-scale several typical physicochemical processes in energy and environmental science, including multiphase flow and electrochemical processes in gas diffusion layer and catalyst layer in proton exchange membrane fuel cell, multicomponent reactive transport with solid dissolution-precipitation during CO₂ sequestration, brine thermal migration in crystals during nuclear waste disposal, and VOC emission. Complicated pore-scale phenomena are captured and the coupled mechanisms are revealed by the pore-scale studies.