George J. Hirasaki

Research Interests:

Interfacial Phenomena

Wettability

Flow and Transport Through Porous Media

NMR Fluid and Rock Properties

Surfactant/Foam Flooding

Asphaltene Deposition

Methane Hydrates

Emulsion Treatment

Education:

B.S. (1963) Lamar University

Ph.D. (1967) Rice University

 
Professor Hirasaki joined the Rice faculty after a 26 year career with Shell Development and Shell Oil Company. His research in fluid transport through porous media ranged from the microscopic scale intermolecular forces governing wettability to the megascopic scale numerical reservoir simulators for field-wide modeling.
A reoccurring theme throughout this research is the dominance of interfaces in the determination of fluid transport processes. Fluids flow through rock and soil in pore spaces that are on the order of microns. The relative transport of phases and components are governed by the degree of wetting of the solid by the fluid phases and the sorption of species on the fluid and solid surfaces in addition to the usual transport coefficients such as viscosity and diffusivity.

Professor Hirasaki's research program is sponsored by an industrial consortium, USDOE, and industrial contracts.

NMR Fluid and Rock Properties: The petroleum industry uses nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) well logging to evaluate the formation properties immediately after a well is drilled. Similar measurements are made in the laboratory with fluid and rock samples to develop the methodology to interpret the NMR signals. This investigation is in collaboration with Professor Kishore Mohanty at University of Houston.

Wettability in Petroleum Systems: Water, oil, and gas exists in porous rocks with a large specific surface area. The wetting and/or spreading of the fluids on the solid and/or fluids govern the ease of recovery of the hydrocarbons from the rock formation. Research is being conducted to understand fundamental mechanisms of wettability and to enhance the imbibition of water into carbonate rocks.

Asphaltene Deposition: Asphaltenes exists crude oil as a colloidal dispersion. This is the component that is responsible for wettability alteration in petroleum reservoirs. When asphaltene precipitation and deposition occurs during production, it can result in plugging of productions systems. The thermodynamics and surface chemistry of asphaltene precipitation and deposition is investigated in collaboration with Professor Walter Chapman and with Dr. Jill Buckley at New Mexico Tech.

Surfactant/Foam Transport: Some enhanced oil recovery processes and soil remediation processes are based on creating additional interfaces through the application of surface active materials called surfactants. These materials promote the "mixing of oil and water" by creation of nanostructures that can reduce the oil-water interfacial tension by a factor of 10E-4 and or solubilize oil into an aqueous phase containing dispersed surfactant aggregates called "micelles" They can also stabilize thin water films so that gas will flow as a dispersed "foam" phase that transports as if it is a highly viscous fluid. This investigation is in collaboration with Professors Clarence Miller, Kishore Mohanty of University of Houston, and Gary Pope of University of Texas.

Gas Hydrates: Gas hydrates currently are important in the seafloor pipeline transportation of oil and gas, a potential natural gas source for the future, and have been a cause for climate change in the geological past. An initiative on gas hydrates is sponsored by the Shell Center for Sustainability. A DOE grant is sponsoring five faculty members at Rice and one faculty member at University of Houston.

Selected Publications

1. G. J. Hirasaki, “NMR Applications in Peteroleum Reservoir Studies,” in NMR Imaging in Chemical Engineering, S. Stapf and S.-I. Han, Wiley-VCH (2006), 321-340.
2. W. Yan, C. A. Miller, G. J. Hirasaki, “Foam sweep in fractures for enhanced oil recovery,” Colloids & Surfaces A: Physico. Eng. Aspects, 282-283 (2006) 348-359.
3. J. Chen, G.J. Hirasaki, M. Flaum, “NMR wettability indices: Effect of OBM on wettability and NMR responses,” J. Pet. Sci. & Eng., 52 (2006) 161-171.
4. D.L. Zhang, S. Liu, M. Puerto, C.A. Miller, G.J. Hirasaki, “Wettability alteration and spontaneous imbibition in oil-wet carbonate formations,” J. Pet Sci. & Eng. 52 (2006) 213-226.
5. A.A. Pena and G.J. Hirasaki, “NMR Characterization of Emulsions,” in Emulsions and Emulsion Stability, J. Sjoblom, ed., (2006), Taylor & Francis, 283-309.
6. P. D. Ting, D. L. Gonzalez, G.J. Hirasaki, W.G. Chapman, “Application of the PC-SAFT Equation of State to Asphaltenes Phase Behavior,” in Asphaltenes, Heavy Oil, and Petroleomics,  O.C. Mullins, E. Y. Sheu, A. Hammami, A. G. Marshall, ed., (2007) Springer, 301-327.
7. M. Jin, G.J. Hirasaki, R.E. Jackson, K. Kostarelos, and G. Pope, “Control of downward migration of dense nonaqueous phase liquid during surfactant flooding by design simulations,” Water Resources Research, 43 (2007) W01412.
8. V. Anand and G.J. Hirasaki, “Diffusional Coupling between Micro and Macroporosity for NMR Relaxation in Sandstones and Grainstones,” Petrophysics, 48.4 (2007) 289-307.

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