Slippery Rock University (SRU in Pennsylvania) petroleum and natural gas engineering major, Allison Taylor, SPE, is helping test whether nanogels can improve how gas, specifically CO2, is stored underground during CO2 flooding operations.
Working under the guidance of SRU Assistant Professor of Engineering Xindi Sun, SPE, Taylor and James Josiah, are researching to determine if nanogels can travel deeper into a reservoir and plug high-permeability zones, preventing CO2 from breaking through too quickly and increasing the efficiency of both enhanced oil recovery and long-term CO2 storage.
“The nanogel is supposed to plug downhole,” Taylor said. “If you want to store gas, you’re pumping CO2, and that’s not good for the environment, so you want to keep it downhole. The nanogel is able to get further into the reservoir than the previous gels used in drilling.”
The project is funded American Chemical Society’s Petroleum Research Fund which supports new, understudied projects in the oil and gas industry.
“I enjoy my career, and I want to keep learning and developing my knowledge by continuing the research,” she said. “The more I get into this industry, the more I want to learn and grow as an engineer.”