Department Water Resources and Drinking Water

Porous media are highly heterogeneous environments where processes unfold across microscopic spatial and temporal scales. The movement of immiscible fluids strongly influences chemical mixing, adsorption, and reactions at solid surfaces. For instance, contaminants such as pesticides or PFAS often adsorb in the unsaturated zone, slowing their migration and naturally protecting groundwater. Yet, the influence of microscale flow and water content on adsorption and desorption remains poorly understood. Similarly, in deep aquifers, mineral dissolution—such as the reaction of calcite or dolomite with carbonic acid during CO₂ sequestration—alters porosity and flow, but the interplay between flow dynamics, solute transport, and mineral reactions at the pore scale is not well characterized. These examples highlight how microscale coupling between flow, heterogeneity, and surface reactions governs large-scale processes essential for sustainable subsurface applications, including carbon and hydrogen storage.

This project seeks to elucidate how microscale flow dynamics control fluid–solid reactions and to determine how this understanding can be scaled up. By linking detailed pore-scale mechanisms with macroscopic behavior, the research will improve predictive models and advance the efficiency and safety of technologies vital to climate change mitigation and the energy transition.