Current Projects
Shale gas resource estimation
Funder: Statoil; Centre for Environmental Geochemistry (UoN/BGS Fellowship)
Total value: £180k
Principle Investigators:
Co-Investigators:
Project partners:
- British Geological Survey (BGS)
- Zhejiang University (China)
- Advanced Geochemical Systems Ltd.
Associated publications:
Uguna, C., Carr, A.D., Snape, C.E., Meredith, W., Scotchman, I.C., Murray, A., Vane, C.H., 2016. Impact of high (900 bar) water pressure on oil generation and maturation in Kimmeridge Clay and Monterey source rocks: Implications for hydrocarbon retention and gas generation in shale gas systems. Marine and Petroleum Geology 73, 72-85;
Uguna, C., Carr, A.D., Snape, C.E., Meredith, W., 2016. Retardation of oil cracking to gas and pressure induced combination reactions to account for viscous oil in deep petroleum basins: Evidence from oil and n-hexadecane pyrolysis at water pressures up to 900 bar. Organic Geochemistry 97, 61-73;
Xie, L., Sun, Y., Uguna, C.N., Li, Y., Snape, C.E., Meredith, W., 2016. Thermal cracking of oil under water pressure up to 900 bar at high thermal maturities 1. Gas compositions and carbon isotopes. Energy & Fuels 30, 2617-2627;
Uguna, C., Carr, A.D., Snape, C.E., Meredith, W., 2015. High pressure water pyrolysis of coal to evaluate the role of pressure on hydrocarbon generation and source rock maturation at high maturities under geological conditions. Organic Geochemistry 78, 44-51;
Uguna, C.N., Azri, M.H., Snape, C.E., Meredith, W., Carr, A.D., 2013. A hydrous pyrolysis study to ascertain how gas yields and the extent of maturation for a partially matured source rock and bitumen in isolation compare to their whole source rock. Journal of Analytical and Applied Pyrolysis 103, 268-277.
Past Projects
Recalcitrant or black carbon in the environment
Funder: NERC
Total value: £466k
Principle Investigator:
Co-Investigator:
Project partners:
- The Scottish Universities Environmental Research Centre (SUERC)
- James Cook University (Australia)
- University of Bologna (Italy)
Associated publications:
Meredith, W., McBeath, A.V., Ascough, P.L., Bird, M.I., 2017. Analysis of biochars by hydropyrolysis (HyPy). In: Singh, B. Camps-Arbestain, M. Lehmann, J. (Eds.) Biochar: A Guide to Analytical Methods. CSIRO Publishing, 187-198;
Ascough, P.L., Bird, M.I., Meredith, W, Snape, C.E., 2016. Dates and fates of Pyrogenic Carbon: Using spectroscopy to understand a ‘missing’ global carbon sink. Spectroscopy Europe 28, 6-9;
McClean, G.J., Meredith, W., Cross, A., Heal, K.V., Bending, G.D., Sohi, S.P., 2016. The priming potential of environmentally weathered pyrogenic carbon during land-use transition to biomass crop production. Global Change Biology Bioenergy 8, 805-817;
Rombolà, A., Fabbri, D., Meredith, W., Snape, C.E., Dieguez-Alonsoc, A., 2016. Molecular characterization of the thermally labile fraction of biochar by hydropyrolysis and pyrolysis-GC/MS. Journal of Analytical and Applied Pyrolysis 121, 230-239;
Rombolà, A., Meredith, W., Snape, C.E., Baronti, S., Genesio, L., Vaccari, F., Miglietta, F., Fabbri, D., 2015. Fate of soil organic carbon and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in a vineyard soil treated with biochar. Environmental Science & Technology 49, 11037-11044.
Solving oil exploration problems using hydropyrolysis
Funder: Statoil; Woodside Energy
Total value: £100k
Principle Investigators:
Co-Investigators:
Project partners:
The Scottish Universities Environmental Research Centre (SUERC)
James Cook University (Australia)
University of Bologna (Italy)
Associated publications:
Meredith, W., Snape, C.E., Love, G.D., 2015. Development and utilisation of catalytic hydropyrolysis (HyPy) as an analytical tool for a variety of organic geochemical applications. In: Grice, K. (Ed.), Principles and Practice of Analytical Techniques in Geosciences. Royal Society of Chemistry Special Volume, Cambridge, 171-208;
Sonibare, O.O., Snape, C.E., Meredith, W., Uguna, Love, G.D., 2009. Geochemical characterisation of heavily biodegraded oil sand bitumens by catalytic hydropyrolysis. Journal of Analytical and Applied Pyrolysis 86, 135-140;
Meredith, W., Snape, C.E., Carr, A.D., Nytoft, H.P., Love, G.D., 2008. The occurrence of unusual hopenes in hydropyrolysates generated from severely biodegraded oil seep asphaltenes. Organic Geochemistry 39, 1243-1248;
Lockhart, R.S, Meredith, W., Love, G.D., Snape, C.E., 2008. Release of bound aliphatic biomarkers via hydropyrolysis from Type II kerogen at high maturity. Organic Geochemistry 39, 1119-1124.