Research Associate in subsurface flow modelling for CO2 storage

Department: Department of Earth Science & Engineering

Location: South Kensington

Salary: £49,017 to £57,472 per annum

Hours: Full Time

Contract Type: Fixed-Term/Contract

Placed On: 22nd August 2025

Closes: 17th September 2025

About the role:

This project is jointly funded by the Royal Academy of Engineering and Shell, and the goal is to overcome the outstanding issues preventing the accurate modelling of injected CO2 migration and trapping at industrial scale storage projects. Currently modelling of CO2 storage sites is challenging, with CO2 observed to move in directions and at speeds that are not predicted through conventional simulation workflows (Krevor et al., 2023).

Advances made in the Subsurface CO2 Storage Research group have identified that the source of these discrepancies are due to small scale heterogeneities in the reservoir systems (Jackson et al., 2020; Wenck et al., 2025). This has culminated in the creation of a publicly available and opensource toolkit, called StrataTrapper (https://imperialcollegelondon.github.io/StrataTrapper/), with tools for upscaling while account for the impacts of heterogeneity in capillary pressure characteristics. In this project, the researcher will advance and apply these methods for simulating CO2 storage.

What you would be doing:

The objectives of this project are to:

1. Work with the industry partner Shell to create or make use of an existing storage site model based on the characterisation of storage site,
2. Apply the StrataTrapper upscaling approach to this model exploring the relevance and impact of heterogeneities within existing uncertainty,
3. Implement and validate hysteresis and trapping models in the StrataTrapper upscaling workflow,
4. Investigate internal consistency of a multiscale hierarchical upscaling approach and quantify the impact of heterogeneities at the various scales,
5. Identify the impact of using this workflow and
6. Make forecast estimates if possible of realistic injection scenarios within ranges of uncertainty.

What we are looking for:

• Create or make use of an existing storage site model based on the characterisation of storage site
• Apply the StrataTrapper upscaling approach to this model exploring the relevance and impact of heterogeneities within existing uncertainty,
• Implement and validate hysteresis and trapping models in the StrataTrapper upscaling workflow,
• Investigate internal consistency of a multiscale hierarchical upscaling approach and quantify the impact of heterogeneities at the various scales
• Identify the impact of using this workflow and
• Make forecast estimates if possible of realistic injection scenarios within ranges of uncertainty.

What we can offer you:

• Work with a team of researchers at the forefront of subsurface flow modelling for CO2 storage in application to real world projects
• Support for all training and material needs to carry out the research as well as to deliver the findings through participation at international conferences
• Experience with direct applicability to career paths in both academia and industry
• Work within a vibrant and diverse cohort of researchers tackling a wide range of problems in carbon capture and storage, and climate change mitigation more generally

Further Information:

This is a full time, fixed term post up to 2 years. If you require any further details on the role please contact: Sam Krevor – s.krevor@imperial.ac.uk. To apply, please visit Jobs | Imperial College London or click the 'Apply' button, above.