PIRE Investigation of Multi-Scale, Multi-Phase Phenomena in Complex Fluids for the Energy Industries

Masahiro Kawaji（PI），Sanjoy Banerjee，Robert Messinger，Jeffrey Morris，Vincent Pauchard（CUNY City College）多相流体流动涉及液体的混合物，通常也包括固体和气体，在自然界和环境中发挥着重要作用。多相流的研究对于油气生产与加工、能量转换与储存、制冷和加热/冷却系统等许多关键能源技术具有重要意义。这个PIRE项目将研究复杂的液-液多相系统中发生的微观现象。合作研究将导致实验和建模方法的创新，从而提高工业系统的能源和工艺效率。它还将加快学生和早期职业研究人员的教育和培训，为他们提供参与实质性国际研究经验的独特机会，利用PIRE网络的范围，规模，专业知识和设施。纽约城市学院（CCNY）将与11个国际伙伴机构合作，其中3个在挪威，4个在法国和德国。合作伙伴将提供专门知识和研究工具，以补充纽约市中心现有的专门知识和研究工具。资源和研究基础设施将共享，以建立强有力的国际伙伴关系，并使多相流体的研究进展，否则不可能发生。该研究和教育计划将确保美国在复杂多相流体及其在工程系统中的应用领域保持其竞争地位。该PIRE项目包括四个研究重点，其中微观尺度上对传输现象的分子和界面控制的洞察将导致商业规模能源过程的变革性改进：沥青质、天然气水合物、钻井液和相变纳米乳液，在石油&天然气、热能储存和环保制冷方面具有多种应用。这四个研究方向的关键共同问题是分子尺度的现象，特别是在界面上，影响宏观尺度的性质和行为。通过实验和理论/数值分析，该项目的总体目标是（i）阐明多相系统中界面和网络结构的形成，聚集和稳定性的分子水平现象，以及（ii）控制它们的发展和对宏观尺度流变学和输运过程的影响。将解决与通过网络形成物质或颗粒的界面吸附和/或结晶过程相关的基本问题，所述网络形成物质或颗粒可以在分散相之间形成桥并且显著地影响宏观流体行为，例如，从流体到凝胶状系统的转变或热和质量传递不稳定性。这些问题的解决可以改变有效地使用、运输和控制复杂的多相流体的能力，所述复杂的多相流体包括具有其它不混溶和分散的液相、气相和/或固相的液体。为了解决这些问题，将使用纽约中心和国际伙伴机构提供的跨领域研究方法，例如，从分子尺度的核磁共振（NMR）光谱、密度泛函理论（DFT）和分子动力学（MD），到微观和宏观尺度的X射线断层扫描、X射线粒子跟踪测速、流变测量和晶格玻尔兹曼（LB）模拟。使用尖端的实验和理论研究技术，从原子长度尺度探测物理化学现象，拟议的项目将改变现有的多相流体的理解，同时结合一套独特的非侵入性，基于辐射的技术，波长范围从射频到伽马射线频率（例如，高分辨率层析成像）。

Masahiro Kawaji (PI), Sanjoy Banerjee, Robert Messinger, Jeffrey Morris, Vincent Pauchard (CUNY City College)Multi-phase fluid flows involving mixtures of liquids, and often solids and gases as well, play an important role in nature and in the environment. Research on multi-phase flows is important to many key energy technologies, including oil-gas production and processing, energy conversion and storage, refrigeration and heating/cooling systems. This PIRE project will investigate microscopic phenomena occurring in complex liquid-liquid, multi-phase systems. The collaborative research will result in innovations in both experimental and modeling methods, leading to improvements in energy and process efficiency in industrial systems. It will also accelerate education and training of students and early career researchers by providing them unique opportunities participate in substantive international research experiences, taking advantage of the scope, scale, expertise, and facilities of the PIRE network. The City College of New York (CCNY) will collaborate with eleven international partner institutions, three in Norway, and four each in France and Germany. Partners will contribute both expertise and research tools that are complementary to those available at CCNY. The resources and research infrastructure will be shared to build strong international partnerships and enable research advances in multi-phase fluids that could not occur otherwise. The research and education plans will ensure that the U.S. maintains its competitive status in the field of complex, multi-phase fluids and their applications to engineering systems.This PIRE project includes four research thrusts wherein microscopic-scale insight into molecular and interfacial control of transport phenomena would result in transformative improvements in commercial-scale energy processes: asphaltenes, gas hydrates, drilling fluids, and phase-change nano-emulsions, with diverse applications in oil & gas, thermal energy storage, and environmentally friendly refrigeration. The critical common issue in the four research thrusts is that molecular-scale phenomena, particularly at interfaces, impact macro-scale properties and behavior. Through experiments and theoretical/numerical analyses, the overarching objectives of this project are to (i) elucidate molecular-level phenomena that govern the formation, aggregation and stability of interfacial and network structures in multi-phase systems, and (ii) control their development and effects on macro-scale rheology and transport processes. Challenging fundamental issues will be addressed related to interfacial adsorption and/or crystallization processes by network-forming species or particles, which can form bridges between dispersed phases and dramatically affect macroscopic fluid behavior, e.g., transitions from fluid to gel-like systems or heat and mass transfer instabilities. Resolution of these problems could transform the ability to efficiently use, transport, and control complex, multi-phase fluids, which include liquids with other immiscible and dispersed liquid, gas, and/or solid phases. To address these issues, cross-cutting research approaches available at CCNY and international partner institutions will be used, e.g., from nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy, density functional theory (DFT) and molecular dynamics (MD) at the molecular scale, to X-ray tomography, X-ray particle tracking velocimetry, rheological measurements and Lattice Boltzmann (LB) simulations at the micro- and macro-scales. Using cutting-edge experimental and theoretical research techniques that probe physicochemical phenomena up from the atomic length scale, the proposed project will transform existing understanding of multi-phase fluids while incorporating a unique set of non-intrusive, radiation-based techniques with wavelengths ranging from radiofrequencies to gamma-ray frequencies (e.g., high resolution tomography).