Sophie Roman
Associate Professor, University of Orléans (France)
Here are the main projects in which I am involved.
TRACE-it - ERC Starting grant project (2022-2027)
Controlling particle flow driven by local concentration gradients in geological porous media
The objective of TRACE-it is to figure out how to control particle flow in geological environments using concentration gradients as the driving force. All details, news, and job offers about the project are here.
The project website is down (https://erc-trace-it.cnrs.fr/). Hope to be back soon!
GéoMIME - ANR Project (2022-2026)
Microfluidics for controlling multiphase and species transport towards clean energy systems in the subsurface
Multiphase flow in porous media is important in several environmental and industrial subsurface applications such as the sequestration and storage of CO2 in geological formations or soil remediation. The predictive capabilities of multiphase systems, however, must be improved. GéoMIME aims at examining the underlying mechanisms that control residual and solubility trapping in porous media. We posit that the accurate prediction of multiphase flow and mass transport in the subsurface can only be achieved by developing a deep understanding of the processes at the pore-scale, i.e. at the scale of a single pore and of a network of pores. GéoMIME relies on novel experimental and computational microfluidics to reveal the complex dynamics of capillary and dissolution trapping in order to improve our estimation of reservoir storage capacity, reduce the footprint required to sequester CO2, and assess the long-term stored CO2 behavior.
Team: Sophie Roman (PI), Nathan Bernard (PhD student, ISTO, Orléans), Cyprien Soulaine (ISTO, Orléans), Aneta Slodczyk (ISTO, Orléans), Aurélien Canizarés (CEMHTI, Orléans), Arnaud Stolz (GREMI, Orléans), Julien Maes (GeoEnergy Engineering, Heriot-Watt University).
INTER-AQ - MITI (CNRS) 80|PRIME (2021-2024)
Mass transfer at fluid / fluid interfaces in geological porous media: aquifer-on-chip experiments
INTER-AQ is a project supported by the MITI (Mission pour les Initiatives Transverses et Interdisciplinaires) from CNRS (the French National Centre for Scientific Research). The call for proposal « 80|Prime » from the MITI funds interdisciplinary research projects between different CNRS teams. The project includes a Ph.D. fellowship. The objective of the INTER-AQ project is to reveal the complex and coupled dynamics of mass transfer and transport at fluid-fluid interfaces and its impact on the redistribution of fluids and species in porous media. For that, we develop an interdisciplinary approach that combines the concepts and tools of microfluidics to represent subsurface processes, vibrational spectroscopy to develop in situ quantification methods, and plasma physics to control the surface properties of the pores.
Team: Sophie Roman (PI), Viktor Gredicak (Ph.D. student, ISTO, Orléans), Aneta Slodczyk (CEMHTI, Orléans), Claire Douat (GREMI, Orléans), Lionel Mercury (ISTO, Orléans).
a) Water trapped in a dead-end pore shows a recirculating motion measured by micro-PiV (Roman et al. 2020), b) Atmospheric plasma treatment of a microchannel (Audebert 2020), c) Micro-Raman setup.
CATCH - ANR Projet (2018-2023)
PI: Christophe Tournassat (University of Orléans)
Dynamic characterization and modeling of coupled structural - chemical - and transport processes: a multiscale approach
The CATCH project aims at estimating changes of transport parameters in geological media in response to porosity evolution. Fore more details, here is the website of the project.