Basic Research Needs for Geosciences - Energetics Meetings and ...

INTRODUCTIONRecommendations of priority research directions and long-term grand challenges for thegeosciences were developed.The workshop was sponsored by the DOE Office of Basic Energy Sciences (BES). It follows theformat of several previous BES workshops that dealt with other important aspects of energyfutures. Those workshops examined overall energy challenges during “Basic Research Needs toEnsure a Secure Energy Future” (October 2002), the production, storage, and use of hydrogenduring “Basic Research Needs for the Hydrogen Economy” (May 2003), “Basic Research Needsfor Solar Energy Utilization” (April 2005), “Basic Research Needs for Superconductivity” (May2006), “Basic Research Needs for Solid-State Lighting” (May 2006), and “Basic Research Needsfor Advanced Nuclear Energy Systems” (August 2006). Reports from those and relatedworkshops are available on the BES web site at http://www.sc.doe.gov/bes/reports/list.html.The workshop included 127 invited attendees from U.S. universities, national laboratories, andgovernment agencies, as well as representatives of academia, industry and government fromforeign countries. The report was prepared by the 84 members of five topical panels. Theworkshop program and attendee list are provided in Appendices 2 and 3.A plenary session covered the technology needs and the basic research challenges for geoscienceneeded to support prediction of the behavior of geologic storage systems. The workshop thendivided into four panels that investigated specific areas in more detail:• Multiphase Fluid Transport in Geologic Media• Chemical Migration Processes in Geologic Media• Subsurface Characterization• Modeling and Simulation of Geologic SystemsIn addition, a separate panel considered crosscutting research issues and grand challenges. Thepanels included research leaders in the specific areas from universities, national labs, and otherinstitutions. Other participants included observers from assorted government agencies, whorotated among the various panel sessions. Participants received in advance a documentdescribing current technology perspectives and applied research needs. That document (theTechnical Perspectives Resource Document) is provided in Appendix 1. The panels were askedto consider the gaps in current knowledge, opportunities for significant advances in basicknowledge with a pathway for impact on geoscience in general, as well as the potential forimpact on uses of geoscience to support future energy technologies. Each panel recommended aset of priority research directions to address these opportunities and challenges to the assembledparticipants at a final plenary session at the end of the workshop.This report was prepared by core writing teams from the Multiphase Fluid Transport, ChemicalMigration, Characterization, Modeling, and Crosscutting panels. Their reports outline in detailthe research needs and the scientific issues that will have to be addressed systematically. Therecommendations of those panels are summarized in four Panel Reports, three Grand Challenges,six Priority Research Directions, and three Crosscutting Issues. Taken together, theserecommendations outline a program of geoscience research that will be of critical importance forthe energy transitions that will take place in this century.4 Basic Research Needs for Geosciences: Facilitating 21 st Century Energy Systems