Apostolos Kantzas

Awards / Accolades

 

• DR KANTZAS performs research in the areas of flow through porous media, visualization of flow phenomena in chemical reactors and porous media and applications of process tomography in physical and chemical processes. Applications involve primarily reservoir engineering problems and multiphase reactor engineering problems.
• Dr. Kantzas leads a 40+ member research group that operates a series of laboratories that specialize in challenges related to energy and imaging. A full core analysis laboratory is used for the determination of rock/fluid interactions and fluid flow phenomena in porous media that include; capillary pressures (both centrifuge and porous plate); relative permeabilities (steady state, unsteady state, centrifuge); wettability, and recovery efficiency. The laboratory is also used in Coal Bed Methane research (including measurements for gas in place determination), enhanced oil and gas recovery research, as well as heavy oil and oil sands technology. Reservoir simulation packages are used for predictive studies on reservoir performance, including improved conformance and enhanced oil recovery.
• The group has pioneered work in process tomography of porous media and other physical or chemical processes is done using a facility that includes x-ray CAT scanners, gamma camera systems and x-ray imaging systems as well as a new micro-tomography system. Computational Fluid Dynamics programs are used for the modelling of such processes.
• The group is a leader in Low Field NMR technology applications in heavy oil and oil sands. A NMR based water-cut meter has been developed and is currently being commercialized. NMR based froth and ore analyzers are designed for the oil sands mines. Several computer algorithms were developed for oil field applications.
• Previous work in oil and gas research includes: Gravity Assisted Immiscible Gas Injection; Reservoir characterization using CAT scanning; Miscible displacement processes; Modelling of water and gas coning; Polymer gel, polymer enhanced foam and foam gel technologies; Bacterially induced plugging; Non thermal recovery of heavy oil; Enhanced Gas Recovery; Water flooding of heavy oil reservoirs; Network modelling of flow through porous media; Centrifuge technologies; Thin section image analysis; Pipeline soil interactions; Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Core Analysis.
• Work related to multiphase reactor engineering deals with methods of flow characterization in fixed and fluidized beds both at the laboratory and plant level. Use of x-ray tomography techniques allows the determination of the distribution of solids in fluidized beds, and the distribution of fluids in fixed beds. Use of Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Imaging provided information on polymer properties under a variety of conditions (e.g. flow, mechanical and thermal history, rheology, density, etc.). Novel Particle Tracking Technology is used to model solid trajectories and velocities.
• Previous work in process tomography includes: Development of partially scaled models of gas phase reactors; Fluidization characteristics of HDPE. LLDPE; Fluidization characteristics of sticky resins; Determination of voidage distributions in fluidized beds; Determination of fluid distributions in fixed beds; Utilization of gamma-ray sensors for reactor density measurements; Entrainment loads for HDPE, LLDPE; MRI of polyolefins; Effects of temperature of NMR relaxation; Effects of stress on NMR relaxation; Design and implementation of a novel photo-catalytic reactor.
• Dr. Kantzas is a member of APEGGA, the Society of Petroleum Engineers, the Petroleum Society of CIM, the American Institute of Chemical Engineers, the Canadian Society of Chemical Engineers and the Society of Core Analysts.
• For details visit the group's web-site at http://www.ucalgary.ca/tipm/

 

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