Facilities and Laboratories

This laboratory is equipped with a customized dual-holder coreflood unit, slim tube apparatus, porosimeter, Anton Paar viscometer, gelation and gelant characterization equipment, high-pressure cell, ovens, Soxhlet extractor, and a full suite of chemistry instruments. The facility is well suited to address challenges related to CCUS/CCS, advanced core analysis, waterflooding, enhanced oil recovery (EOR) methods—including miscible displacement, chemical flooding, and foam flooding—as well as improved oil recovery (IOR) techniques with a focus on conformance control and produced water management.

• High Pressure and High Temperature Coreflood System RelPerm with Radioactive Source. Ideal instrument for multiphase multicomponent flow analysis in porous media under extreme conditions and for relative permeability measurements at ultra-high pressures and corrosive environments.
• High Pressure and High Temperature Magnetic Suspension Balance instrument. Ideal for high end research on various topics, including hydrogen storage, CO2 storage in tight rocks and other porous media, fluid rock interactions, etc.
• PVT Analysis System: HPHT Full Visibility PVT system, HPHT Capillary Viscometer, High Volume Flash Unit, HPHT Densitometer, Cryogenic Distillation Unit. Ideal for complex fluid characterization under extreme chemical and HPHT conditions.
• High Pressure and High Temperature Rheometer. Ideal versatile instrument for rheological studies (viscosity, shear rates, elasticity) of liquids pressurized with gases, polymers, drilling fluid, and more, under wide range of conditions.
• Slim Tube System for High Pressure and High Temperature conditions. Ideal instrument for dynamic miscibility test of the actual flow in porous media under extreme conditions.

The Imaging laboratory is focused on quantitative characterization of subsurface materials to aid in the development of predictive rock properties models. The work is closely linked to the ability to make reliable petrophysical and geomechanical measurements. Multiple imaging modalities are employed including:

• Transmitted light microscopy, using a Zeiss Axio Imager Z2 providing registered images in plane, cross polarized, reflected and fluorescent light.
• Micro-CT X-ray computed tomography, using a Zeiss Versa 510 instrument with resolutions ranging from 20 microns to 0.007 microns/pixel as a function of sample size.
• Laser Raman microscopy, using a Horiba LabRam microscope.
• Scanning electron microscopy with an FEI Quanta 250.

We have also written a plug in for ImageJ (QPI) that allows quantitative image analysis for mineralogy, particle size and shape, contact length, total porosity, porosity type analysis, pore body and pore throat size distributions, etc. The integration of quantitative multimodal imaging and image analysis with rock properties measurements has allowed significant progress to be made in the areas of rock properties prediction.

Modeling and Simulation of Porous Media (MSPM) focuses on characterization, modeling, numerical simulation, optimization, and data analysis for the applications in petroleum engineering and subsurface energy and environmental systems.

We study a wide range of processes in unconventional reservoirs, spanning scales from 10 nm to 1 cm, where subsurface engineering interfaces with nanofluidics and nanomechanics. Our goal is to quantitatively determine how small-scale processes control the large-scale (~ 1 cm) behavior in the subsurface. Our laboratory is designed to conduct high-precision measurements to develop physically representative models. Standard measurements conducted on core plugs or blocks are used to test our results, but they are not the main focus of our research. Current activities include laboratory experiments, theoretical investigations, the development of predictive models, and engineering and scientific applications. Our recent efforts have increasingly focused on the application of deep learning and generative artificial intelligence.

The Plasma Simulation Laboratory features a pulse plasma generation equipment with an output capacity of up to 20kJ of electrical energy connected to a triaxial cell with a monitoring and recording system.

The Energy Industry Partnerships (EiP) team is leading the charge to help the University of Houston emerge as the leading energy university by bringing value to the energy industry using smart, innovative and integrated approaches to the recovery of oil and gas through research pertaining to CO2 – EOR conventional & unconventional Reservoirs, waterflooding / IOR – conventional & unconventional reservoirs and integrated reservoir management – conventional & unconventional Reservoirs.

The Rock Mechanics laboratory includes three tri-axial testing systems capable of following user defined stress or strain paths, that can simultaneously measure permeability, electrical, acoustic and thermal conductivity properties. Measurements can be made under reservoir stress and temperature conditions. One of the tri-axial systems is also equipped with acoustic emissions measurement capability as a function of stress. The system is used to determine acoustic signatures of failure mechanisms along varying stress paths. Six isostatic cells for porosity/permeability measurements, and for sample aging with CO2 and H2 at reservoir temperature and pressure are also available.

The Petrophysics laboratory is equipped with Boyle’s Law and Archimedes systems for grain density and porosity measurements, a 2 MHz NMR for measuring total porosity and estimating pore body size distributions, a capacitive dielectric property measurement system with measurement accuracy much greater than probe techniques, isostatic cells for Co-Cw and Formation Factor measurement, and colorimetric and titration CEC measurement equipment.

Well Drilling and Completion Flow Loop Laboratory features the Well Drilling & Completion Flow Loop and the Wellbore Production/Injection Flow Loop.