ABOUT ME
Microstructures and everything about rock salt, evaporites, hydration, and deformation have been a passion of mine since I started studying Geosciences. I am fascinated by being able to see rocks fundamentally transform on a lab scale and how such results allow us to further understand the dynamic impact of grain-scale mechanisms on the rheology of whole geological structures. Additionally, applying my research to contribute to the energy transition provides me with great personal motivation as a researcher and member of society.
The BIG PICTURE
One of the key challenges of our time is to curb global CO2 emissions and make renewable energy production and consumption more independent from seasonal fluctuations. One way to achieve this is to use hydrogen as intermediate energy storage medium and develop underground hydrogen storage (UHS) technology, with rock salt caverns as a potential storage complex. My current research goal is to help assess safe conditions for short-cycle UHS in salt caverns.
My MOST CURRENT research
I am interested in finding out about grain-scale mechanisms that control salt deformation under hydrogen storage conditions and to provide input for numerical models that are aimed at predicting storage integrity and operational safety. I use triaxial deformation tests to deform natural rock salt samples under simulated conditions that are comparable to those in the cavern walls of typical NW European salt caverns during cyclic hydrogen storage. During deformation, mechanical behaviour and permeability evolution are monitored. After the experiments, microstructural analysis is conducted using optical microscopy, SEM and EBSD.