Low Carbon Energy and Resources Technologies Research Group

Oil, Gas and the Environment 

Understanding more about the deposition, generation and fate of oil and gas is crucial for our future energy security and to mitigate environmental impacts.

Encompassing both conventional (traditional oil and gas fields) and unconventional (shale gas and oil sands) resources, our research, which is supported by both research councils and industry focusses on the development of new experimental approaches to resolving current questions in petroleum geochemistry.

Oil Gas environment
 

We have partnerships with the nearby British Geological Survey, and a network of collaborating universities worldwide. We also offer a range of analytical services to the petroleum and environmental industries.

 

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.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Low Carbon Energy and Resources Technologies

Energy Technologies Building
The University of Nottingham
Jubilee Campus, NG7 2TU


telephone: +44 (0) 115 84 68661
email:LCERT@nottingham.ac.uk