ESE Winter Newsletter

An overview of the recent publications, events and exciting work that's been happening in the Department of Earth Science and Engineering.

Contents

Publications
Conferences, Talks, Lectures, Seminars
Research Funding
Outreach
Impact and Media
Awards
PhD Vivas

Publications

Al-Ghanemi, M, Alsane, A., Dhote, P., Bora, A., Al-bahar, M.A. Purewal, S., et. al. (2020). Application of United Nations Framework Classification for Hydrocarbon Reserves and Resources Volumes for a Mature Oil Reservoir in Kuwait. Presented at SPE ATCE October 2020, PE-201606-MS 

Davey, J., Roberts, S., Wilkinson, J.J. (2020) Copper- and cobalt-rich, ultrapotassic bittern brines responsible for the formation of the Nkana-Mindola deposits, Zambian Copperbelt. Geology. DOI: 10.1130/G48176.1

Salimzadeh, S., Zimmerman, R.W., Khalili, N. (2020). Gravity hydraulic fracturing: A method to create self-driven fractures. Geophys. Res. Letts., 47, e2020GL087563. DOI: 10.1029/2020GL087563

Wang, H. & Brito-Parada, P. R. (2020). Shape deformation and oscillation of particle-laden bubbles after pinch-off from a nozzle. Chemical Engineering Journal 127499. DOI: 10.1016/j.cej.2020.127499

Wang, H. & Brito-Parada, P. R. (2021). Deformation dynamics of particle-laden bubbles: The effect of surfactant concentration and particle contact angle. Minerals Engineering 160, 106706. DOI:10.1016/j.mineng.2020.106706

Conferences, Talks, Lectures, Seminars

ESE's Advanced Mineral Processing Research Group held a short webinar series with Technical University Munich's (TUM) 'Chemical Process Engineering Lab'. The schedule, which included a person from each team for each session, was as follows:

Nov 16^th / Session1: Multi-Criteria Process Assessment

• Fernando Sitorus (ESE): Multiple-criteria decision-making methods with application to the choice problem. 
• Yannic Tönge (TUM): Energy efficiency and techno-economic analysis of routes to synthetic fuels. 

Nov 30^th / Session 2: Methods for Process Design, Optimization and Control 

• Paulina Quintanilla (ESE): Developing flotation dynamic models for predictive control. 
• Quirin Göttl (TUM): Fully automated flowsheet synthesis by reinforcement learning. 

Dec 14^th / Session 3: Resources recovery 

• Diego Mesa (ESE): Froth flotation characterization and optimisation. 
• Eva Baumeiser (TUM): Perturbation scheme to model thermodynamic properties in poorly specified mixtures.

On 12^th November, Cristina Saceanu gave a presentation at the International Conference on Coupled Processes in Fractured Geological Media (CouFrac 2020), entitled "Thermo-mechanical modelling of spalling failure around deposition boreholes in underground nuclear waste repositories". Cristina is a PhD student in the Rock Mechanics group, working on a project funded by the Swedish nuclear waste management organisation SKB, and supervised by Dr Adriana Paluszny and Prof Robert Zimmerman.

On 18^th November, Jemimah-Sandra Samuel gave a paper presentation in the Virtual Asian Pacific Oil and Gas Conference and Exhibition 2020 in Perth Australia. Her presentation was titled “Fast Modelling of Gas Reservoirs Using POD-RBF Non-Intrusive Reduced Order Modelling” and is co-authored with Professor Ann Muggeridge.

Paulina Quintanilla, a PhD student from the Advanced Mineral Processing Research Group, gave a talk in the College of Scholars Day 2020 event, organised by the Society of Chemical Industry (SCI), as part of her SCI Scholarship award. Her talk covered an overview of her PhD entitled “Dynamic physics-based flotation models for effective predictive control”, a brief introduction of her significant academic events and how SCI Scholarship has supported her research. This event took place virtually on the 24^th of November.

Research Funding

A new project funded by BHP Minerals (£550K) involving a collaboration between ESE (Matt Jackson) and NHM (Jamie Wilkinson) has recently been awarded to investigate the formation of high grade hypogene porphyry copper deposits. The identification of such high value deposits at an early stage of exploration is critical for reducing risk, energy costs and environmental impacts. Through a tender process, BHP have identified two groups worldwide to lead in their efforts to better understand how and why these deposits form and to develop tools that will allow their early recognition.

Outreach

RAISE Imperial Student Engagement Workshop 

Engaging students and staff effectively as partners in learning and teaching is arguably one of the most important issues facing higher education in the 21^st century, and is especially important in the face of the challenges presented by Covid-19 and remote learning.

On 11^th November, the RAISE Imperial Group hosted a workshop for the Geochemical Society as part of their new Online Workshop series.  The workshop was well attended and aimed to provide guidance and strategies for academic staff wishing to initiate, sustain or extend student-staff partnerships.  

We would like to thank the Geochemical Society for allowing us to share what the RAISE Imperial Group have learnt over the past year. The workshop was recorded and is available to view on the Geochemical Society website. 

Roving with Rosalind Project

3^rd year PhD student Sara Motaghian is leading a UKSA funded outreach project named Roving with Rosalind. The project has just launched in November, and it is aimed at children aged between 7 and 14 in disadvantaged and rural areas across the UK, who often have limited opportunities to participate in science outreach activities.

The project is also setting out to help teachers train to deliver more effective science education. Roving with Rosalind aims to remove barriers to Space and STEM education by sending self-contained kits and resources based on the ExoMars Mission. 

Schools can sign up to borrow one of five kits packed with practical science experiments and take part in a suite of online activities, each linked to national science curricula. The activities are accompanied by video introductions from real space scientists, showcasing the diversity of talent working in the field. 

Each activity provides insight into a different aspect of the science experiments that will be undertaken by the robotic Rosalind Franklin rover when it touches down on Mars in 2023. The rover is a key part of the joint European/Russian ExoMars mission, set to launch in 2022, which will search for traces of life on the red planet. 

The resources are hosted here. Teachers, technicians and STEM ambassadors can register interest in hosting a kit by accessing this link. Parents and guardians can also register an interest on behalf of their child’s school using the same link. 

 Impact and Media 

Dick Selley in a letter published in The Times of 6^th November described the unorthodox use of a geological hammer to defend himself from a wolf attack.

Rob Lowther was elected on to the committee of the Geological Curators Group during their GCG 47^th AGM on the 30^th November 2020.
Geological collections are an irreplaceable part of our scientific and cultural heritage and the Geological Curators’ Group is dedicated to their better care, maintenance and use.

The Group aims to:

• improve access to, and knowledge of, such collections for all purposes – from leisure and tourism to education and science.
• improve the status of geology in museums and the standard of geological curation in general by: holding meetings and workshops; providing information and advice; documenting and conserving geological sites; the surveillance of geological collections.

 Awards

James Burtonshaw was awarded the Energy Institute Prize for the Best MSc Research Thesis in Petroleum Engineering for 2020. His project, "Interaction of hydraulic and pre-existing fractures, and effect on well productivity", was supervised by Robin Thomas and Adriana Paluszny of the Imperial College Rock Mechanics Research Group. An extended abstract of his thesis was published in the October 2020 London SPE Review.

Victoria Milanez Fernandes has been awarded Graduate Teaching Assistant of the Year (2020) for the Faculty of Engineering.

Carl Jacquemyn, Matt Jackson and Gary Hampson have received the 2019 ‘Best paper’ award from the journal of Mathematical Geosciences, for their publication on grid-free surface-based  geological modelling. The paper is available here.

PhD Vivas

Beni Setiawan successfully defended his PhD thesis on 25^th November, with only minor corrections required. His thesis, entitled "Mechanical Wellbore Stability in Anisotropic Rock Formations", was supervised by Prof. Robert Zimmerman. The external examiner was Prof. Bernt Aadnoy from NTNU (Trondheim), and the internal examiner was Dr J-P Latham. Congratulations to Beni!