Earth Sciences Division Staff: Curtis M. Oldenburg

Biographical Summary

Curtis Oldenburg is a Staff Scientist and Program Lead for the Geologic Carbon Sequestration Program.  Curt Oldenburg received his PhD in geology from U.C. Santa Barbara in 1989, and has been working at LBNL since 1990.  His area of expertise is numerical model development and applications for coupled subsurface flow and transport processes.  He has worked in geothermal reservoir modeling, vadose zone hydrology, and contaminant hydrology.  For the last ten years, Curt Oldenburg has worked in two main areas of geologic carbon sequestration, (1) CO2 injection for enhanced gas recovery, and (2) near-surface leakage and seepage processes, monitoring, detection, and impacts including risk-based frameworks for site selection and certification.

Research Interests

• Heat and mass transfer in geological systems. 
• Dynamic behavior of subsurface systems where convection or gravity-driven flow processes occur (e.g., geothermal systems, gas reservoirs, magmatic systems, groundwater contamination in saturated and vadose zones, landfills).
• Code development and applications
  • http://esd.lbl.gov/TOUGH2
  • http://lnx.lbl.gov/GasEOS
• Injection of CO₂ into natural gas reservoirs for carbon sequestration and enhanced gas recovery (CSEGR)   
• Leakage and seepage of CO₂ from geologic sequestration sites.
• Risk assessment of geologic carbon sequestration sites.
• Ferrofluid flow and transport simulation, and applications.

Education

• 1979-1983       University of California, Berkeley. A.B. in geology, Dec. 1983.
• 1984–1985      Princeton University, Ph.D. program in geology.
  • Transferred with advisor to U.C. Santa Barbara, Fall 1985.
• 1985-1989       University of California, Santa Barbara. Ph.D. in geology, Sep. 1989.

PH.D. Dissertation:  Numerical experiments of double-diffusive convection in magma bodies

Professional Experience

• Staff Geological Scientist, LBNL,  Oct. 1994–present.
• Head, Geologic Carbon Sequestration Program, June 2008-present.
• Deputy Head, Geologic Carbon Sequestration Program, April 2007-May 2008.
• Hydrogeology Department Head, LBNL, May 2002–Jan. 2006.
• Geological Scientist, LBNL,  July 1992–Sep. 1994.
• Post-doctoral Fellow, LBNL,  Oct. 1990–June 1992.
• Post-doctoral researcher, UC Santa Barbara,  Oct. 1989–Sep. 1990.
• Research Assistant, U.C. Santa Barbara,  July 1986–Sep. 1989.
• Teaching Assistant, U.C. Santa Barbara,  Oct. 1985–June 1986.
• Assistant in Instruction, Princeton University,  Jan.–May 1985.
• Assistant in Research, Princeton University,  Sep.–Dec. 1984.
• Assistant Field Geologist, Chevron Resources.  Mar.–Aug. 1984.

Professional Activities

• Guest Editor for Transport in Porous Media Special Issue on Geologic Carbon Sequestration, current.
• Co-Guest Editor of Energy Conversion and Management Special Issue on TOUGH2 Applications in CO₂ Storage and CH₄-Hydrate Research, 2006
• Associate editor of Carbon Dioxide Capture for Storage in Deep Geologic Formations, Vol. 2, D.C. Thomas and S.M. Benson, eds., pp 1205–1216, Elsevier, 2005.
• Co-Guest Editor of Vadose Zone Journal Special Issue on TOUGH2 Applications in Hydrology (Vadose Zone Journal, 3, August 2004).
• Associate Editor for Vadose Zone Journal.
• Guest Editor of Transport in Porous Media Special Issue on Strongly Coupled Density-Dependent Flow in Porous Media (Transport in Porous Media, May 2002).

Invited Talks

• Haas School of Business (UCB) class on Energy and Sustainability, April 21, 2009.
• Stanford University, Civil and Environmental Engineering seminar, Feb. 2, 2009.
• Haas Professional School, taught session on geologic carbon sequestration, Sept. 2008.
• Berkeley Energy Resources Collaborative (BERC) Conference, Feb. 2008.
• Montana State University, April 11, 2007, “Near-Surface Dispersion of CO₂ Seepage from Geologic Storage Sites: Processes, Impacts, and Detection”
• Haas School of Business, March 6, 2007 “Geologic CO₂ storage: a safe and effective approach to reducing point-source CO₂ emissions.”
• Energy INet Workshop, Calgary, January 26, 2006, “Migration Mechanisms and Potential Impacts of CO₂ Leakage and Seepage from CCS Projects.”
• U.C. Davis, “Carbon Sequestration with Enhanced Gas Recovery,” 2003.
• Stanford University, “CO₂ Injection for Carbon Sequestration with Enhanced Gas Recovery,” May 14, 2002.

Patents

• Process for guidance, containment, treatment, and imaging in a subsurface environment utilizing ferrofluids, U.S. Patent No. 6,250,848 B1, June 26, 2001.  Inventors:  G.J. Moridis and C.M. Oldenburg.
• Carbon dioxide as cushion gas for Compressed Air Energy Storage (CAES), Patent Application S.N. PCT/US2009/039281, April 2, 2009.  Inventor:  C.M. Oldenburg.