RECOVERING ‘LOST’ OIL TOPIC
OF LECTURE AT UH
Kishore Mohanty to Discuss Ways to Help Near-term Energy Challenge
Improving oil recovery to meet the near-term energy challenge
will be discussed at the annual University of Houston Sigma Xi lecture
at 4 p.m., Thursday, Sept. 30, in the UH Athletics/Alumni Center
Great Hall.
The 2004 recipient of the Sigma Xi Faculty Research Award, Kishore
Mohanty, a chemical engineering professor at UH, will give the lecture.
The award, given by the Houston chapter of the research society
Sigma Xi, carries a $2,000 prize and honors “distinguished
contributions to scientific knowledge and its applications.”
The process of oil recovery, explains Mohanty, involves revisiting
abandoned oil fields that still contain oil underground that has
been, up until now, beyond access via conventional methods. Mohanty
and his associates are researching new technologies that would allow
them to go back into the ground to extract usable oil that exists
but essentially has been “lost” due to a lack of effective
retrieval methods. Reviving such existing oil fields could significantly
change the way current energy-resource challenges are viewed.
“With applications in energy, environment and biotechnology,
my research focuses on transport of simple and complex fluids in
complex microstructured materials, many of which are naturally occurring,
such as sandstones, carbonates, aquifers, human bones and tissues,”
Mohanty said. “This research is aimed at imaging these structures,
understanding the physics of transport, relating the microstructures
to transport properties and developing new materials for enhanced
targeted transport.”
Sigma Xi, The Scientific Research Society, is the global honor
society of scientists and engineers that promotes scientific achievement.
Sigma Xi has chapters in every college and university in the U.S.,
and some 180 Sigma Xi members are Nobel laureates and many more
have been elected to the National Academies of Science and Engineering.
The UH Chapter of Sigma Xi promotes research at UH by awarding
research excellence prizes to faculty and graduate students, as
well as organizing this lecture and reception. The event is open
to the public.
WHO: |
Kishore Mohanty, UH chemical engineering
professor |
WHAT: |
Sigma Xi Faculty Research Award Lecture and Reception
“Improving Oil Recovery to Meet the Near-term Energy Challenge” |
WHEN: |
4 p.m., Thursday, Sept. 30 |
WHERE: |
Great Hall, Athletics/Alumni Center, UH campus
Gated visitor parking is in Lot 16F. Metered parking is along
Holman. |
For more information about the Cullen College of Engineering, visit
www.egr.uh.edu.
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For more information about UH visit the universitys Newsroom at www.uh.edu/admin/media/newsroom.
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