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Development of a Microfluidics Flow and Transport Laboratory


EMSL Project ID
25677

Abstract

The Environmental Spectroscopy and Biogeochemistry (ESB) Facility, in collaboration with the University of Illinois at Champaign/Urbana, proposes to develop a microfluidics capability to investigate the effects of fluid flow and transport at the microscale. Currently ESB houses the Subsurface Flow and Transport Laboratory (SFTL) in which EMSL Users conduct column- and intermediate-scale research on fluid flow and reactive transport. The proposed Microfluidics Flow and Transport Laboratory (MFTL) would address fundamental scaling issues associated with fluid flow and reactive transport from both a combined experimental and theoretical approach at the micron scale, bridge the gap in experimental capabilities from the molecular scale within EMSL to the laboratory scales currently available in the SFTL, and permit simultaneous spatially and time resolved spectroscopic examination of geochemical and/or biogeochemical processes. It is expected that inclusion of such a capability within the EMSL will attract quality Users with strong interests in pore-scale flow and transport phenomena. Studies at the pore scale will help to create a more robust link between real world observations and the underlying theoretical framework. A complete microfluidics flow and transport laboratory consists of a capability to fabricate micromodels and a system to conduct various flow and transport experiments. In this partner proposal support is requested to develop the experimental capability, using micromodels supplied by the University of Illinois.

Project Details

Project type
Large-Scale EMSL Research
Start Date
2007-06-01
End Date
2009-09-30
Status
Closed

Team

Principal Investigator

Mart Oostrom
Institution
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory

Team Members

Changyong Zhang
Institution
ExxonMobil Research and Engineering

Matthew Covert
Institution
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory

Charles Werth
Institution
University of Texas at Austin

Thomas Wietsma
Institution
Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory

Related Publications

Influence of Mg2+ on CaCO3 precipitation during subsurface reactive transport in a homogeneous silicon-etched pore network

Boyd V, H Yoon, C Zhang, M Oostrom, NJ Hess, BW Fouke, AJ Valocchi, and CJ Werth. 2014. "Influence of Mg2+ on CaCO3 precipitation during subsurface reactive transport in a homogeneous silicon-etched pore network." Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta 135:321-335. doi:10.1016/j.gca.2014.03.018