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Sarah

Sarah Eileen Gasda

Research Director Computational Geosciences and Modelling

sgas@norceresearch.no
+47 56 10 71 14
+47 905 08 106
Nygårdsgaten 112, 5008 Bergen, Norway

Background

I am currently Research Director at NORCE Energy and hold a Professor II appointment in the Department of Physics and Technology at the University of Bergen. I also lead a national center for petroleum research, the Centre for Sustainable Subsurface Resources (CSSR), that in the next 8 years will perform research to develop new subsurface knowledge that can be use in the green transition. CSSR is awarded by the Research Council of Norway, with UiB as the main research partner in the centre.

I joined NORCE in 2011 (previously Uni Research) in Bergen as a senior researcher before being promoted to Chief Scientist in 2018. I hold a PhD in Civil and Environmental engineering from Princeton University in 2008. I was also awarded a post-doctoral fellowship at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Department of Environmental Science and Engineering, funded by KAUST (King Abdullah University of Science and Technology).

My research and expertise is in computational methods and modeling of multiphase flow in porous media with particular focus on geological CO2 storage. Over the past 20 years, my research has contributed to improving our understanding of long-term processes in CO2 storage, migration, and containment, including the potential of leakage from legacy wells and faults. I have focused recently on understanding the role of pressure in large-scale storage and seeking more efficient commercial-ready simulation tools for appraising basin-scale regions for gigatonne storage development. I am also actively investigating multi-physics processes during CO2 storage in depleted oil/gas reservoirs related to wettability alteration and gravity-driven miscible flooding. I am also looking forward to working in newly awarded projects for subsurface hydrogen (H2) energy storage where we will model lab-based observations of coupled biogeochemical and flow processes impacting efficient energy storage.

I currently lead the research group in Computational Geosciences and Modelling, a multidisciplinary group of 11 permanent research staff and 2 postdoctoral researchers with PhDs in one of engineering, applied mathematics, physics or computer science. The core of the research group’s activities center around the Open Porous Media initiative (OPM), a collaborative open-source software development project, and the National IOR Center of Norway. The research group’s project portfolio is focused within CCUS and IOR, but also includes smaller projects within medical technology, climate modeling, microplastic pollution and geothermal energy. The group seeks to apply modeling and simulation expertise towards emerging applications in within energy, climate and the environment.

Track record

I have established a strong research track record: 60 papers in peer-reviewed journals and proceedings, research grant leadership of 15+ CCS- and H2-related projects.

Long-term academic-industry partnerships have played an active role in my research. As a PhD student, my project was part of the Carbon Mitigation Initiative, a long-term research center funded by BP. Joining NORCE, I was part of the scientific leadership in the Center for Environment Friendly Energy Research FME-SUCCESS, which was jointly funded by industry partners including Equinor, DEA, Octio. Most recently, I have projects in collaboration with TOTAL, Equinor, Aker Solutions, Wintershall-DEA, and the Norwegian CCS Centre.

Professional Service

I am currently serving as Associate Editor of the International Journal of Greenhouse Gas Control (IJGGC) since 2019, which is a fantastic way to keep track of new developments in CCUS research. I am also on the Editorial Board for Petroleum Geoscience, with focus on application of geosciences to CO2 storage, energy storage and the energy transition.

I am also active in international networks tasked with coordinating research to meet global objectives for large-scale CCS deployment, including EERA CCS JP and IWG9. In addition, I have served as a panel member for the 2017 Mission Innovation: CCUS Expert's Workshop.

Projects

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Publications
Subsurface carbon dioxide and hydrogen storage for a sustainable energy future – Nature Reviews Earth & Environment 2023
The Impact of Pre-Project Data Quality and Quantity on Developing Environmental Monitoring Strategies for Offshore Carbon Storage: Case Studies from the Gulf of Mexico and the North Sea. – Social Science Research Network (SSRN) 2022
Simulators for the Gigaton Storage Challenge. A Benchmark Study on the Regional Smeaheia Model. – 2022
Impact of deformation bands on fault-related fluid flow in field-scale simulations – International Journal of Greenhouse Gas Control 2022
Field-scale impacts of long-term wettability alteration in geological CO<inf>2</inf> storage – International Journal of Greenhouse Gas Control 2022
Dynamic estimates of extreme-case CO2 storage capacity for basin-scale heterogeneous systems under geological uncertainty – International Journal of Greenhouse Gas Control 2022
CO2 Convection in Hydrocarbon Under Flowing Conditions – Transport in Porous Media 2021
Numerical studies of long-term wettability alteration effects in CO2 storage applications – 2021
A Finite-Volume-Based Module for Unsaturated Poroelasticity – 2021
Effective permeability of deformation bands in fault damage zones – Can deformation bands reduce the risk of fault leakage? – 2021
PVT and flow behaviour of impure CO2 in aquifers – 2021
Numerical studies of CO2 leakage remediation by MICP-based plugging technology – 2021
Convective Dissolution in Field Scale CO2 Storage Simulations Using the OPM Flow Simulator – 2021
Convective Mixing Driven by Non-monotonic Density – Transport in Porous Media 2021
Modeling of relative permeabilities including dynamic wettability transition zones – Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering 2021
Practical approaches to study microbially induced calcite precipitation at the field scale – International Journal of Greenhouse Gas Control 2021
Impact of time-dependent wettability alteration on the dynamics of capillary pressure – Advances in Water Resources 2020
Implicit linearization scheme for nonstandard two-phase flow in porous media – International Journal for Numerical Methods in Fluids 2020
CCS: A Hidden Gem for Mitigating Climate Change – NORCE - Norwegian Research Centre AS 2020
Protection of Caprock Integrity for Large-Scale CO2 Storage on the Norwegian Continental Shelf – International Journal of Greenhouse Gas Control 2019
Estimation of reduced pressure buildup due to brine seepage using a convolution technique – Computational Geosciences 2019
Effect of temperature and concentration of impurities in the fluid stream on CO2 migration in the Utsira formation – International Journal of Greenhouse Gas Control 2019
CO2 convection in oil driven by non-monotonic mixture density – 2018
Storage Capability [FME SUCCESS Synthesis report Volume 1] – SUCCESS [Christian Michelsen Research AS] 2018
Assessment of CO2 storage capacity based on sparse data: Skade Formation – International Journal of Greenhouse Gas Control 2018
Seal Integrity Workshop: Summary and Recommendations – Uni Research 2018
Numerical Solution of CO2-Hydrocarbon Convective Mixing – 2018
Impact of Wettability Evolution on Dynamic Capillary Pressure – 2018
Estimation of reduced pressure build-up due to brine seepage using a convolution technique – 2018
An analytical plane-strain solution for surface uplift due to pressurized reservoirs – Geomechanics for Energy and the Environment 2018
Baseline integrity property measurement of legacy oil and gas wells for carbon storage projects – Greenhouse Gases: Science and Technology 2017
Vertical Equilibrium Flow Models with Fully Coupled Geomechanics for CO&lt;sub&gt;2&lt;/sub&gt; Storage Modeling, Using Precomputed Mechanical Response Functions – Energy Procedia 2017
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