Solid Earth Science for the Energy Transition
Our new focus is on scalable, practical solutions that can become economically viable means for re-engineering our use of energy and other resources, including:
- CO2 Sequestration Techniques
- Geothermal Energy Extraction
- Subterranean chemical processes that produce natural hydrogen (H₂)
- Extracting critical metals through processes that negate the need for large open-pit mines
- Monitoring and sustainable management of freshwater resources
In addition to presentations by MIT researchers, this year’s meeting will include brief talks by collaborators and prospective collaborators in industry and the non-profit space. Out keynote speaker will be Bradford Hager, the Cecil and Ida B. Green Professor of Earth Science and former director of ERL, who will share exciting new development in geologic hydrogen research at MIT.
If you would like to attend, please contact erl-info@mit.edu for the registration link.
| Date | Session | Start time | End time | Speaker | Tentative Title | Location |
| Tuesday, 5/20/2025 | Welcome Reception | 6:00 PM | 8:00 PM | Building 54/55 Atrium | ||
|
Wednesday, 5/21/2025
|
Welcome/Overview | 9:00 AM | 9:30 AM | Oliver Jagoutz | Overview of ERL |
55-108/109
|
|
New Energy: Geothermal
|
9:30 AM | 10:00 AM | Ben Holtzman | Geothermal overview | ||
| 10:00 AM | 10:30 AM | Andrew Inglis | From Niche to Necessity: The Rising Role of Geothermal in Clean Energy | |||
| 10:30 AM | 11:00 AM | Aimé Fournier | Electro-fracturing and plasma-channel simulations for enhanced geothermal systems | |||
| 11:00 AM | 11:30 AM | Hilary Chang | Induced earthquake characterization using distributed acoustic sensing | |||
| Coffee Break | 11:30 AM | 11:45 AM | ||||
|
New Mining
|
11:45 AM | 12:15 PM | Hervé Rezeau | Find the ore: mineral chemistry applied to mineral exploration and mining | ||
| 12:15 PM | 12:45 PM | Iwnetim Abate | Earth as factory to produce clean fuels | |||
| Lunch | 12:45 PM | 1:45 PM | ||||
| New Energy: Geologic Hydrogen (Keynote) | 1:45 PM | 2:25 PM | Bradford Hager | Geologic hydrogen | ||
|
Short-form presentations: Industry / Philanthropy
|
2:25 PM | 2:40 PM | Angela Seligman (Clean Air Task Force) | TBA | ||
| 2:40 PM | 2:55 PM | Smaine Zeroug (Schlumberger-Doll Research) | Repurposing Geosciences for the Energy Transition Domains | |||
| 2:55 PM | 3:10 PM | Bezos Earth Foundation | TBA | |||
| Coffee Break | 3:10 PM | 3:25 PM | ||||
|
Carbon Sequestration
|
3:25 PM | 3:55 PM | Admir Masic | From Hot Mixing to Carbon Locking: Tracing Lime Cycle in Ancient Roman and Contemporary Concretes | ||
| 3:55 PM | 4:25 PM | Jonathan Simpson | Monitoring the Effects of Carbonate Mineralization on the Physical Properties of Basalt Using Timelapse CT Imaging | |||
| 4:25 PM | 4:55 PM | Oliver Jagoutz | Profitable biological carbon sequestration | |||
| River/Harbor Dinner Cruise | 6:00 PM | 9:00 PM | Meet at MIT Sailing Pavilion | |||
|
Thursday, 5/22/2025
|
Multi-phase Physics
|
9:00 AM | 9:30 AM | Ruben Juanes | Scientific Machine Learning for Surrogate Modeling, Parameter Identification and Transfer Learning of Multiphase Flows in Porous Media: Application to the FluidFlower CO2 Injection Experiment |
55-108/109
|
| 9:30 AM | 10:00 AM | Kripa Varinasi | Innovation at Interfaces: A Ubiquitous Platform for Energy & Sustainability | |||
|
Short-form presentations part II
|
10:00 AM | 10:15 AM | Xin Cui | Laboratory experiments to detect the contact condition between casing and formation | ||
| 10:15 AM | 10:30 AM | Ignacio Arzuaga Garcia | Interaction mechanisms between hydraulic and natural fractures in Shale | |||
| 10:30 AM | 10:45 AM | Yuesu Jin | Application of fluid-filled crack model on trans-casing borehole acoustic logging | |||
| 10:45 AM | 11:00 AM | Laxman Kaffle | Electrical Rock Fracturing Techniques and Applications | |||
| Coffee Break | 11:00 AM | 11:15 AM | ||||
|
Machine Learning for Imaging
|
11:15 AM | 11:45 AM | Sai Ravela | TBA | ||
| 11:45 AM | 12:15 PM | Luping Qu | TBA | |||
| Business Lunch | 12:30 PM | 2:00 PM | 54-209 |