U.S.-France Cooperative Research: Kerogen Macromolecular Structure and Maturation

这个为期三年的美法地球科学合作奖项由约翰·拉森和利哈伊大学的一名研究生以及南希亨利·庞加莱大学的雷蒙德·米歇尔共同获得。研究人员提出了一项关于干酪根转化为石油的研究。干酪根是存在于沉积岩中的交联型分子有机固体，是石油和天然气的来源。美国和法国的团队将使用互补的方法，研究干酪根及其产品的化学结构变化。其目标是更好地描述石油形成的自然过程，并将其与试图复制(或接近复制)自然过程的实验室过程进行比较。美国团队在物理有机化学过程方面拥有专业知识。这一点得到了法国在地球化学方面的专业知识的补充。法国小组将在各种介质中进行干酪根的热反应，并将向美国小组提供干酪根有机液体样品，美国小组将表征干酪根大分子结构、热力学和萃取物的分子量分布的变化。该奖项代表了美国方面向NSF和法国国家科学研究中心(CNRS)提出的联合建议。NSF将支付美国调查员的旅费和生活费，以及一名美国研究生为期一个月的培训访问费用。CNRS将支持法国研究人员访问美国。

9909939LarsenThis three-year award for U.S.-France collaboration in earth sciences involves John Larsen and a graduate student from Lehigh University and Raymond Michels at the University Henri Poincare in Nancy. The investigators propose a study of the conversion of kerogens to petroleum. Kerogens are cross-linked molecular organic solids present in sedimentary rocks and are the sources of petroleum and natural gas. Using complementary approaches, the U.S. and French teams will study changes in chemical structure of kerogen and its products. The goal is to better characterize natural processes for petroleum formation and to compare these with laboratory processes that attempt to duplicate (or come close to duplicating) the natural process. The U.S. team has expertise in physical organic chemical processes. This is complemented by French expertise in geochemistry. The French group will carry out thermal reactions of kerogens in various media and will provide samples of kerogen-organic liquid to the U.S. group, who will characterize the changes in kerogen macromolecular structure, the thermodynamics, and the molecular weight distribution of the extracts. This award represents the U.S. side of a joint proposal to the NSF and the French National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS). NSF will cover travel funds and living expenses for the U.S. investigator and one-month training visits for an U.S. graduate student. The CNRS will support the visits of the French researchers to the United States.