Kyung Jae Lee

University of Houston | U of H, UH · Department of Petroleum Engineering

Electromagnetic (EM)-assisted catalytic heating for in-situ hydrogen generation directly from petroleum reservoirs is an emerging method for decarbonizing petroleum industry and facilitating energy transition. Lab-scale experiments have shown that hydrogen generated from methane cracking in the presence of sandstone via EM heating can reach up to a...

The unbalanced supply and demand of lithium (Li) has elevated the urge for its extraction owing to the accelerated surge of battery and electric vehicle (EV) industries to meet the carbon emission reduction target. As the cost of extracting Li from brine is typically 30–50% lower than conventional hard-rock sources, this work intends to critically...

Reactive transport modeling of subsurface environments plays an important role in addressing critical problems of geochemical processes, such as dissolution and precipitation of minerals. Current transport models for porous media span various scales, ranging from pore-scale to continuum-scale. In this study, we established an upscaling method conne...

To meet the extensive demand for lithium (Li) for rechargeable batteries, it is crucial to enhance Li production by diversifying its resources. Recent studies have found that produced water from shale reservoirs contains various organic and inorganic components, including a significant amount of Li. In this study, findings from hydrothermal reactio...

With the increasing usage of nuclear energy, how to properly dispose nuclear waste becomes a critical issue. In this study, a multiscale modeling approach combining the experimental findings is presented to address the illitization process, its impact on transport properties, and system behavior of bentonite buffer in engineered barrier systems (EB...

Bentonite has been widely used as buffer and backfill materials for nuclear waste disposal in last few decades. The main reasons of bentonite being selected for buffer and backfill materials include its low hydraulic permeability and high plasticity, which can restrict the transport of nuclear waste through the barrier and maintain the sealing abil...

In order to mitigate climate change, diversifying the sources of lithium supply is crucial for the decarbonization of energy sector through enhanced renewable electricity generation and electrified transportation. Shale brines have been recently found to be containing significant amount of lithium, but relevant subsurface phenomena regarding its or...

Integrity of engineered barrier system (EBS) needs to be secured for the safe isolation of high-level radioactive waste. Mixed clay bentonite, which composes the buffer of EBS, is known to experience the clay synthesis while interacting with heated pore fluid during radioactive decay. This clay synthesis includes the illitization of smectite, where...

Considering the high number of wells in offshore formations such as the Gulf of Mexico having a risk of leaking gas into the surrounding formations, a deep understanding of the fate and transport of gas released from damaged wells is of special relevance for hazard assessment and prevention in offshore petroleum operations. This work explores a rob...

For the safe disposal of high-level radioactive waste using Engineered Barrier Systems (EBS), bentonite buffer is used by its high swelling capability and low hydraulic conductivity. When the bentonite buffer is contacted to heated pore water containing ions by radioactive decay, chemical alterations of minerals such as illitization reaction occur....

The demand for lithium (Li) has greatly escalated during the past decade and is predicted to increase continuously with the market growth of the electrified transportation and renewable energy, given that Li–ion batteries are the major energy storage method for these sectors. In spite of the urgent need of satisfying the increasing demand of Li, so...

It has been reported that ∼60% of total U.S. hydrocarbon production comes from shale reservoirs. Understanding of reactive transport is of fundamental importance to the application in subsurface systems of natural shales that have rich compositions of carbonate, clay, and sulfide, which have high reactivity with water. In this study, we focus on th...

The recent increase in unconventional oil and gas exploration and production has promoted active research on hydraulic fracturing, but the impact of interactions between fracturing fluid and kerogen on the alteration of kerogen wettability has not been well understood. The objective of this study is to experimentally estimate the changing wettabili...

Given that kerogen is a source of vast amount of hydrocarbons and organically–bound inorganic elements, it’s important to understand the thermal decomposition kinetics of kerogen. Green River Shale contains a significant amount of immature kerogen (Type I), which can be an ideal source for the sample of experimental study. In this study, Thermograv...

Primary and secondary recovery methods are usually not sufficient to maximize the oil recovery. In many cases, more than 40% of the Oil Initially in Place is left in the reservoir after implementing these recovery methods. To resolve the issue at hand, petroleum engineers have at their disposition a plethora of tertiary recovery methods such as che...

Carbon dioxide (CO2) storage and sequestration is regarded as an effective approach to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions. While injecting an enormous amount of CO2 into carbonate-rich aquifers, CO2 dissolves in the formation brine under the large pressure and the subsequently formed CO2-enriched brine reacts with the calcite. Reaction-induced chang...

CO2 storage and sequestration are regarded as an effective approach to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions. While injecting an enormous amount of CO2 into carbonate–rich aquifers, CO2 dissolves in the formation brine under the large pressure, and the subsequently formed CO2–enriched brine reacts with the calcite. Reaction–induced changes in pore stru...

Hydrochloric acid (HCl) is commonly used in acid fracturing. Given that the interaction between acid and rock affects multiphase flow behaviors, it is important to thoroughly understand the relevant phenomena. The Darcy-Brinkman-Stokes (DBS) method is most effective in describing the matrix-fracture system among the proposed models. This study aims...

Inherent pore structure of rocks has a significant impact on the acid–rock interaction during the acidizing process. In this study, a new pore-scale reactive transport model applying Darcy–Brinkmann–Stokes method has been developed based on the open-source computational fluid dynamics platform, OpenFOAM, and validated with experimental results. By...

Natural fractures are the essential pathways by which water, hydraulic fracturing fluids, oil and gas, reactants, and contaminants can travel in the porous media. To fully understand subsurface processes relevant to the fluid transport in natural fractures, the Darcy–Brinkmann–Stokes (DBS) pore–scale method was employed to investigate the effects o...

Secondary recovery methods such as waterflooding are often applied to depleted reservoirs for enhancing oil and gas production. Given that a large number of discretized elements are required in the numerical simulations of heterogeneous reservoirs, it is not feasible to run multiple full-physics simulations. In this regard, we propose a data-driven...

Hydrochloric acid is commonly used in acid fracturing. Given that the interaction between acid and rock affects multiphase flow behaviors, it's important to thoroughly understand the relevant phenomena. Darcy-Brinkman-Stokes (DBS) method is most effective to describe the matrix-fracture system among the proposed models. The objective of this study...

In the numerical simulations of thermal recovery for unconventional resources, reservoir models involve complex multicomponent–multiphase flow in nonisothermal conditions, where spatial heterogeneity necessitates the huge number of discretized elements. Proxy modeling approaches have been applied to efficiently approximate solutions of reservoir si...

Reliable estimation of organic matter characteristics is essential in source and reservoir rocks evaluation. Their measurement is generally based on well logging and experiments after core sampling. In this study, we present a different approach from these methods to evaluate the characteristics of organic matter, which is based on the numerical si...

Reliable estimation of organic matter characteristics is essential in drilling decisions, source rock evaluation, and unconventional reservoir production. Their measurement is based on experiments after core sampling, which is time-consuming and economically challenging. In this study, we present a new approach to evaluate the characteristics of or...

The possibility of broaching, or the release of fluids at the seafloor due to a damaged or faulty well, is a hazard that must be assessed in the well permitting process. This paper describes a numerical simulation study of a real-life scenario where a complex, permeable sandy formation, connected to the seafloor via known chimneys/seeps, is interse...

This paper presents design and dispatch optimization models of a solid-oxide fuel cell (SOFC) assembly for unconventional oil and gas production. Fuel cells are galvanic cells which electrochemically convert hydrocarbon-based fuels to electricity. The Geothermic Fuel Cell (GFC) concept involves utilizing heat from fuel cells during electricity gene...

Feasibility of exploration and exploitation of geothermal energy from Enhanced Geothermal Systems (EGS) involves consideration of flow in naturally occurring fractures and faults. However, seismic imaging of fractures and faults in geothermal systems is difficult because the same fluid (hot brine) fills the fractures and faults as fills the matrix...

With the goal of detecting and characterizing faults and fractures in enhanced geothermal systems (EGS), a new technology involving CO2 push-pull testing, active-source geophysical imaging, and well logging has recently been proposed. This technique takes advantage of (1) the contrasting properties of supercritical CO2 and water which cause CO2 to...

Low oil price necessitates the efficient production of hydrocarbon from heavy oil reservoirs. Steam Assisted Gravity Drainage (SAGD) has been the prevalent process for mobilizing heavy oil and bitumen by steam injection. SAGD, however, has economic and technical issues relevant to low energy efficiency and high steam-oil-ratio. Solvent-aided therma...

Reaction parameters significantly affect oil production from shales by means of heating and in-situ upgrading. In this study, we perform numerical simulations of two chemical reaction models, which are mainly used in the research of kerogen pyrolysis and subsequent hydrocarbon decomposition in organic-rich porous media. They are the Braun and Burnh...

Characterizing the faults and fractures that provide flow pathways for efficient geothermal energy production is critical for design of sustainable geothermal energy production. Both natural faults and stimulated fractures in enhanced geothermal systems (EGS) are difficult to image and map by seismic methods because hot brine filling the fractures...

Grade of oil shale and reaction parameters of in-situ pyrolysis must be identified for the prediction of productivity before actual heating and production. Identification of oil shale grade and reaction parameters depends on laboratory experiments on core samples. However, laboratory-determined parameters can be different from those representing in...

We investigate the productivity and product selectivity of diverse thermal in situ upgrading processes in oil shale reservoirs. In situ upgrading processes applying the ideas of Shell In situ Conversion Process, ExxonMobil Electrofrac, and Texas A&M Steamfrac are simulated by using sector models with the assumption of symmetric patterns. In-house f...

We have studied the hydrocarbon production from oil shale reservoirs filled with diverse initial saturations of fluid phases by implementing numerical simulations of various thermal in-situ upgrading processes. We use our in-house fully functional, fully implicit, and non-isothermal simulator, which describes the in-situ upgrading processes and hyd...

We conduct numerical simulations of kerogen pyrolysis by the in situ upgrading process of Steamfrac, which entails the steam or hot-water injection into multistage transverse fractured horizontal well systems, by using a fully functional simulator developed to describe the in situ upgrading process. We first conduct simulation cases of a huff-n-puf...

Oil shale, which is composed of abundant organic matter called kerogen, is a vast energy source. Pyrolysis of kerogen in oil shales releases recoverable hydrocarbons. Here, we describe the pyrolysis of kerogen with an in-situ upgrading process, which is applicable to the majority of oil shales. The pyrolysis is represented by six kinetic reactions...

Oil shale, which comprises abundant organic matter called kerogen, is a vast energy source. Pyrolysis of kerogen in oil shales releases recoverable hydrocarbons. Here we describe the pyrolysis of kerogen using an in-situ upgrading process, which is applicable to the majority of oil shales. The pyrolysis is represented by six kinetic reactions resul...

It is critical to maintain stability of hydrate bearing sediments for safe and successful drilling. Changes of pressure and temperature distributions can trigger formation instability due to hydrate dissociation. In order to prevent such problems, it is necessary to model the behavior of hydrate bearing sediments. In this study, a real-time model o...

Oil shale, an organic-rich impermeable rock, is an abundant energy resource in the United States. Because few oil shale deposits occur in shallow formations, application of an in-situ process is necessary for thermal decomposition and subsequent oil and gas production. An earlier investigation indicated that cylindrical or planar in-situ electric h...

Wellbore stability is one of critical issues in drilling operations in all types of environments. The wellbore stability in heat sensitive formations, such as through gas hydrates bearing formations, is largely dependent upon the flow of heated mud into these formations and their dissociation. The objective of this study is to analyze the thermal d...

URTeC 1565038 The economic feasibility of the exploitation of unconventional resources is highly dependent on the ability of the operator to maximize individual well productivity, making hydraulic fracture design and implementation the defining factor for a successful field development in most cases. Some unconventional reservoirs, as shallow coal...

Oil shales are lamellar, non-porous, impermeable hydrocarbon bearing rocks that contain organic matter called kerogen which, when heated at pyrolysis temperature of approximately 650-700 oF, thermochemically decomposes to liberate hydrocarbons They are at the base of the resource triangle because cutting edge technology and higher fuel prices are r...

The objective of this study is to quantify the effect of seawater temperatures and mud circulation rates for drilling of gas hydrate bearing sediments. Numerical simulation for mud temperature estimation in drillpipe was conducted by considering heat transfer by conduction and convection. From the data for drilling used at Ulleung Basin of the East...

For sustainable development and to feed the world's energy demand continuous supply of fuel resources is of utmost important. Wells drilled in deep waters and permafrost regions contain challenging gas hydrate bearing formations. The oil industry has made certain advancements by drilling and casing gas hydrates bearing formation safely. However, wh...