Groundwater and Hydrogeochemistry

REACTANT

GeotheRmal Energy enhAnce polar and emerging organic ContaminanT removAl iN groundwaTer

The project REACTANT aims at investigating the suitability of using Low Enthalpy Geothermal Energy (LEGE) systems to enhance the removal capacity of contaminants of emerging concern (CECs) in groundwater, specially focusing on polar (highly mobile) organic compounds which pose evidence-based environmental and human health threats. Therefore, REACTANT will contribute to increase the availability of freshwater resources (essential to cover the growing demand) and will encourage the use of renewable energies like geothermal energy (needed to supply clean energy and thus, to mitigate climate change).

Funding: Agencia Estatal de Investigación - PID2021-128995OA-I00

Start Date: 01/09/2022 – End Date: 31/08/2025

Funding: European Project

Coupled processes of multiphase flow, transport, and mechanical deformation in heterogeneous porous and fractured media across spatial and temporal scales.

Multiphase flow, deformation, transport, mixing, and reaction processes in porous and fractured media are fundamental across many scientific and engineering disciplines. Unraveling the underlying mechanisms that control them and developing quantitative and predictive tools are key to understanding a series of engineered technologies and natural phenomena such as the quantification of natural nutrient cycles in soils, the design of effective soil and groundwater remediation strategies, and the development of safe and efficient geoenergy technologies. The inherent heterogeneity of porous and fractured media across scales is at the heart of the limitations of current conceptual models. The main goal of HydroPore II therefore is to determine the fundamental principles underlying coupled flow, transport, reaction, and deformation processes in heterogeneous porous and fractured media. Following an interdisciplinary methodology based on laboratory scale experiments, high resolution numerical simulations, and numerical and analytical upscaling techniques, HydroPore II will identify and quantify the dynamics of two-phase displacements, thermally-driven deformation and fracturing, and solute mixing and chemical reactions under complex flow conditions across scales.

Start Date: 01/09/2023 – End Date: 30/08/2026

Funding: National Project

https://hydropore.es/

MACIN

MAntle/Crust INteraction in the Permo-Carboniferous magmatism of the Catalan Pyrenees

The main objective of MACIN is to develop from a petrological perspective a multidisciplinary research (including structural geology, petrology, geochemistry, isotopic geochemistry, geochronology, and thermodynamic modelling) that aims to understand the tectono-magmatic setting of the Permo-Carboniferous magmatism of the Catalan Pyrenees. The origin of silicic magmas is nowadays under discussion, both the calc-alkaline magma formation, and their rheology and possible emplacement mechanisms. Therefore, the integration of structural and petrological techniques with geochemical and numerical modelling of fossil magma chambers can bring light to understanding of the emplacement mechanisms of silicic batholiths during different stages of orogenic cycles, and how this contributed to the evolution of the continental crust, as well as to the development of the coeval large-scale silicic volcanism and the quantification of mantle and crustal sources in the whole process.

Funding: MICINN. PID2020-114273GB-C2

Researchers: Eduard Saura (UAB), Jordi Cirés (ICGC), Montserrat Torné (GEO3BCN), Carmen López (IGN)
Support: Gerardo Aguirre (UNAM, Mexico), Bruno Scaillet (CNRS, France), Juan Andujar (CNRS, France), Carmen Rodríguez (IACT-CSIC)

Start Date: 01/09/2021 – End Date: 31/08/2025

Funding: National Project

KARST: Predicting flow and transport in complex Karst systems

Karst aquifers are a treasure and a threat: while up to 25% of the world population depends on them for drinking water, they also have capabilities for extremely fast conduction of water and contaminants. In the light of climate change, we need to prepare for extreme flooding and understand the consequences for karst aquifers. Despite their socio-economic importance, decades of research, and high-profile disasters, karst structures and processes remain notoriously difficult to assess. Because of the complexity of karst and its lack of accessibility, the foundations of flow and transport modeling in karst systems are weak. Key phenomena related to extreme events such as flash floods and heavy tails in tracer recovery are still beyond current modeling capabilities.

KARST will establish the next generation of coupled stochastic modeling frameworks to predict karst processes, assess the vulnerability of karst aquifers, and forecast their response to extreme events. Our approach will bridge structures and processes on all scales, far beyond the capabilities of current theories and computer simulations. This will be achieved by targeting three key objec- tives: (i) Identification and quantification of flow and transport dynamics at the conduit scale. (ii) Characterization and modeling of karst network structure at the catchment scale. (iii) Derivation of a new upscaled approach to predict karst processes at different resolution scales. Together, this will result in an unprecedented multiscale modeling framework for the prediction of flow and transport in karst.

Funding: European Union, ERC Synergy Grants 2022 - Ref.: 101071836

IDAEA-CSIC (Spain): Marco Dentz (corresponding PI)
IFPEN (France): Benoit Noetinger (PI)
University of Neuchatel: (Switzerland): Philippe Renard (PI)
University of Ljubljana (Slowenia): Bojan Mohar (PI)

Partners:
INRIA (France): Sylvain Lefebvre
University (Canada): Simon Frazer

Start Date: 01/05/2023 – End Date: 30/04/2029

Funding: European Project

https://erc-karst.eu/

European training network on control prediction and learning in mixing processes

The CoPeRMix network brings together a collection of experts at the European scale from academia and industry, who have all adopted new angles of attack to the problem of mixing according to their needs and fields of application, in order to foster the emergence of a unified viewpoint, through intensive collaboration between different schools of thought and methods. This effort builds up on existing collaborations between several participants, and lectures or courses delivered by some of us in various university curricula in their own institution, and abroad. More precisely, this training network is the emanation of the “Mixing Days” organized by the consortium on a yearly basis (Marseille in 2016, Rennes in 2017, Barcelona in 2018 and Brussels in 2019), which have been the opportunity to conceive and share a new methodology: the lamellar description of mixing.
It consists in viewing a mixture as a set of elongated lamellae and sheets and understanding how they are stretched and dispersed by the stirring flow. This first step provides the necessary information to address the stirring/molecular diffusion coupling, leading to the complete statistical description of the mixing process i.e. the full concentration distribution. This disruptive vision has prompted new numerical (Diffusive Strip Method) and experimental methods. They offer an unprecedented opportunity of accurately describe Stirring protocols which is the ground to understanding and model- ling Mixing and its Impact in a diversity of fields. This lamellar description of mixing provides a consistent and invertible theoretical framework giving us also the opportunity to Learn from mixed scalar fields.

Very promising outcomes are expected as the CoPerMix programme unites leading academic and industrial partners with a broad expertise in the fundamentals and applications of mixing in a very wide range of fields.

Start Date: 01/01/2021 – End Date: 31/12/2025

Funding: European Project

https://www.copermix-itn.eu/