Geochemistry Department

Geochemistry Department Core Capability:
Reactive Transport Modeling

The Earth Sciences Division at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory is home to one of the leading groups for Reactive Transport Modeling in the world today.  The group includes scientists in both the Geochemistry and Hydrology Departments within Earth Sciences, but also includes collaborators within the Computing Science Division at LBNL.  Collectively, the group has 100 years of experience in RTM code development and application.

The particular focus of the group is the development and application of mechanistic, multicomponent, reactive transport models to a range of important earth and environmental problems, including:

The codes are developed and applied ultimately for the purposes of system prediction, but are widely and routinely used for data interpretation, especially for complex field-scale systems where simple intuitive interpretive approaches may not be suitable.

The Reactive Transport modeling capabilities continue to evolve at Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory, with new developments that include:

  • Pore-scale reactive transport modeling based on Direct Numerical Simulation
    Reactive Pore
  • Incorporation of isotopic systematic into multicomponent reaction networks
  • Development of coupled microbiological metabolic and biogeochemical models
  • Explicit modeling of diffuse double layers and other electrochemical phenomena
  • Coupling reactive transport to mechanical and mechano-chemical processes

Reactive Transport Codes in the Earth Sciences Division

The Geochemistry group at Berkeley Lab's Earth Sciences Division has played an integral role in the development of Reactive Transport capabilities in two software packages designed primarily for continuum-scale modeling:

The Tough2 family of codes, including TOUGHReact and Tough+RT

Visit the TOUGH2 Web site at LBNL

Visit the TOUGHREACT Web site at LBNL

Developers within Geochemistry:

The CrunchFlow reactive transport software

Visit the CrunchFlow Web site

Principal developer: