UH Energy Connections Newsletter | May 2017

Spring 2017

UH Energy

CONNECTIONS Newsletter

OFFSHORE RESEARCH WITH SSI PG.8

HOW AN INDUSTRY-DRIVEN, HOUSTON BASED INSTITUTE IS SUPPORTING SAFE AND EFFICIENT OFFSHORE DEVELOPMENT

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CHEMICAL ENGINEERING STUDENT RISES AS FUTURE LEADER IN RENEWABLE ENERGY RESEARCH UH INSTITUTE PAVES THE WAY FOR UH TO BE THE LEADING ENERGY UNIVERSITY DISTINGUISHED PROFESSOR IS LEADING A TEAM OF SCIENTISTS TO OPTIMIZE OIL RECOVERY Cover photo: FMC Technologies

A RECAP OF ENERGY NEWS AT THE UNIVERSITY OF HOUSTON

UH ENERGY

SPOTLIGHT

ENVIRONMENTAL LAW The University of Houston Law Center’s Environment, Energy & Natural Resources program was recently recognized as one of the top law school programs in the country for environmental law by U.S. News & World Report with a No. 28 ranking. Additionally, the EENR program was recently praised by the LLM Guide.

STUDENT LEADERSHIP UNIVERSITY LEADERSHIP Phaneendra Kondapi, a veteran engineering educator who helped develop the nation’s first subsea engineering program at the University of Houston, has been named founding director of engineering programs at the University of Houston at Katy.

Grant Mottershaw, a senior in mechanical engineering at the Cullen College of Engineering, received the 2016 Rumbaugh Outstanding Student Leader Award in Detroit at the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) International World Congress.

SAE is a global association of more than 128,000 engineers and related technical experts in the aerospace, automotive and commercial-vehicle industries.

EDUCATION INNOVATION RESEARCH TECHNOLOGY

ENGINEERING HONORS HIGH POWER FACTOR Karun Kumar Rao, a chemical engineering graduate student in the Cullen College of Engineering, has earned a NASA research fellowship for his work to develop a safer battery.

The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) student chapter at the University of Houston Cullen College of Engineering (IEEE-UH) received high honors at the 2017 IEEE Region 5 Annual Conference and Student Competitions held in Denver, Colorado this April.

STUDENT SUCCESS Three graduate student teams from the C. T. Bauer College of Business swept a recent district supply chain competition, earning the top three spots at the 2017 APICS Terra Grande District Competition.

OFFICE OF THE PROVOST | UH ENERGY 3

EDUCATION

KEYS TO SUCCESS

CHEMICAL ENGINEERING STUDENT RISES AS FUTURE LEADER IN RENEWABLE ENERGY RESEARCH

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BY CLAIRE ANDERSEN

Rawan AlMallahi’s college career embraces all the elements of an American success story: hard work, persistence and victory against all odds. Just five years after coming to Houston from the United Arab Emirates, AlMallahi is one of the recipients of the 2017 National Science Foundation research fellowship award.

It was during her senior year of high school that AlMallahi and her family moved first to Dallas and then shortly thereafter to Houston. With graduation quickly arriving, she faced an uncertain future as she had missed most college application deadlines due to her family’s recent move. She ended up at a local community college and was immediately successful.

During her first year at San Jacinto Community College, AlMallahi won a photography competition with a photo titled “Open the Door,” accompanied by a quote offering that success can be found for those who adamantly seek it out. Four years later, AlMallahi said she still lives by the quote:

“A door may symbolize a bridge to success, a detour, or simply an obstacle that can’t be overcome, but it is up to the people to do the interpretation. It is up to the people to find the keys to their doors and open them. It is not always difficult to find that key, but it is definitely not easy either.

Sometimes, it is only a matter of looking above you and below you to find what you’re looking for. Sometimes, what we may have been looking for, might have been simply right under our noses. So open your eyes to the world, and set out on the adventure of finding the doors of your goals.”

After a year at the community college, AlMallahi transferred to the University of Houston to pursue a degree in chemical engineering.

Since then, AlMallahi has taken courses and participated in research that inspired her to focus on renewable energy. Above all, AlMallahi loves the challenge and independence of research.

“I like challenges. They present you with this challenge, they give you resources and they tell you to go solve it. I like that idea,” said AlMallahi. “I like to be independent and try to work on addressing world-wide issues like finding alternate energy sources.”

Her favorite assignment is the current research she is doing under her advisor, Megan Robertson. The project focuses on synthesizing epoxy resins from renewable sources. AlMallahi has been working to find an alternative to traditional epoxy resins, which are derived from nonrenewable sources and are often harmful for people and the environment. She is testing the possibility of replacing these harmful elements with soybean oil and vanillic acid.

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INSPIRATION A door may symbolize a bridge to success, a detour, or simply an obstacle that can’t be overcome, but it is up to the people to do the interpretation. It is up to the people to find the keys to their doors and open them. It is not always difficult to find that key, but it is definitely not easy either. Sometimes, it is only a matter of looking above you and below you to find what you’re looking for. Sometimes, what we may have been looking for, might have been simply right under our noses. So open your eyes to the world, and set out on the adventure of finding the doors of your goals.

Now a senior at the Cullen College of Engineering, Rawan AlMallahi is racing towards her future. In addition to attending the prestigious Harvard-Amgen Scholars Program last summer, AlMallahi was recently selected for the National Science Foundation (NSF) research fellowship, one of just 2,000 selected out of 13,000 applicants.

“I thought I had a good shot. I knew it was very competitive,” said AlMallahi. “I was going to apply to grad school anyways, so this is just an extra. And here we are.”

Previous NSF fellowship recipients include Google co-founder Sergey Brin, several Nobel Prize winners and numerous professors at leading universities.

Her success during her undergraduate career and the bonus of receiving the NSF fellowship gave her several impressive opportunities for continuing on to graduate school.

With offers from top universities, AlMallahi has decided to attend graduate school at the University of Michigan after she graduates in May. Among other things, she said that one professor’s research on solar energy particularly intrigued her about the program. There she will continue her research on renewable energy, particularly the solar energy applications of nanomaterials.

Despite her achievements, AlMallahi still is hesitant about her upcoming transition to graduate school.

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Having this fellowship and getting to work on a research project that I get to choose will be really exciting.

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“I’m not a big fan of transitions but knowing what I’m going to do, I’m really excited. This is just a part of life,” she said. “Having this fellowship and getting to work on a research project that I get to choose will be really exciting.”

Long term, AlMallahi plans to return to Houston, where her family still lives. She hopes to join the industry and continue her effort to find renewable energy sources. Beyond this, she would like to encourage other students, particularly minority and female students, to find the keys to their success.

“I want them to know that it’s possible. It’s a big commitment, but it’s worth it in the end because of all the exciting things you get to do,” she said.

OFFICE OF THE PROVOST | UH ENERGY 5

FACULTY

SHAPING TOMORROW’S LEADERS UH INSTITUTE PAVES THE WAY FOR UH TO BE THE LEADING ENERGY UNIVERSITY

BY CLAIRE ANDERSEN and business sides of the energy industry.

Praveen Kumar, executive director of GEMI and chairman of the Department of Finance, is focused on changing the way energy corporations think about UH. “We have all the Ivy League talent and dedication, without the attitude,” Praveen Kumar said.

Praveen Kumar, executive director of GEMI and chairman of the Department of Finance

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The UH Gutierrez Energy Management Institute is preparing students to lead the future of the energy industry.

More than two dozen energy executives gathered at the Gutierrez Energy Management Institute (GEMI) on the University of Houston campus earlier this spring, participating in a daylong strategy session to talk about what the Trump administration might mean for the industry and how best to prepare for that change.

It was a perfect fit for the institute, established by the C.T. Bauer College of Business in 2001 to both study and prepare students for careers in the law, business and public policy aspects of the energy industry. Educating students to become future leaders in the industry is the key goal.

GEMI provides a variety of undergraduate and graduate programs and certificates, one being the Global Energy Management Professional Program (GEM-PP). The program focuses on producing students that have a thorough understanding of both the technical

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“I was tired of hearing from both the energy industry and the financial industry that they wouldn’t come to UH for management track positions.”

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That’s changed, he said. GEMI-PP’s graduates have gone on to not only oil and gas companies, but also investment banks and other energy-related companies.

The institute is also focused on becoming a neutral venue that can serve as a go between for policy makers and senior executives. Through workshops and symposia throughout the year, GEMI creates a neutral space for both sides to understand and approach problems in the industry.

GEMI has also established itself as a premier research partner in the energy industry and continues to examine both short and long term challenges in the industry. One ongoing project focuses on identifying which biofuels can be refined to be useful for existing cars in a low cost way. Since beginning the project in 2008, the research findings have reached the influence of the National Renewable Energy Laboratory and spurred federally funded research on similar issues.

EDUCATION

NEW MATHEMATICAL SYSTEM CREATED BY UH PROFESSOR PROMISES A MORE EFFICIENT FUTURE FOR DATA GATHERING

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BY CLAIRE ANDERSEN

A new graduate certificate program focusing on a revolutionary data analytics system will begin next fall in the subsea engineering program. Created by Matthew Franchek, the founding director of the UH subsea engineering program, this program will train students to use adaptive model-based edge analytics, which is designed to gather key information from large masses of dark data to better predict when a system is about to fail.

The original idea came to Franchek over 20 years ago and has since been perfected for the oil and gas industry.

“Because we’re a university environment, we get to be a little eccentric on the process that we choose,” said Franchek.

“I believe we have the Spindletop of condition and performance monitoring data analytics.”

Franchek explains that this mathematical system is not only more efficient than traditional means of retrieving information but also has the ability to communicate to operators the areas within the system that need improvement.

“There are billions of dollars every year that could be recovered if you could know in advance that a system is going to be ill,” he said.

This system can be retrofitted to work with equipment already in place, saving companies from having to replace their systems. The mathematical systems have already been implemented in at least five local companies. According to Franchek, this system has saved one company over $1 million each day by avoiding unnecessary system shutdowns.

“This is not ambition, it’s not a dream. These things are running right now on subsea production systems, and they’re running on offshore drill ships,” he said.

Not only has this analytics system proven beneficial in the oil and gas industry, but Franchek said it also can be used in the biomedical field. Now that the system has proven to be cost effective, Franchek is focusing on educating a new generation of engineers about this system and its various functions.

“I believe I’ve got the evidence now to show everybody else what’s the importance to them, and I expect the program to be educating a lot of engineers,” he said.

OFFICE OF THE PROVOST | UH ENERGY 7

RESEARCH

HOW THE MISSION-ORIENTED SEISMIC RESEARCH PROGRAM IS CHANGING THE GAME IN SEISMIC EXPLORATION

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OFFSHORE RESEARCH WITH SSI

HOW AN INDUSTRY-DRIVEN, HOUSTON BASED INSTITUTE IS SUPPORTING SAFE AND EFFICIENT OFFSHORE DEVELOPMENT

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BY CLAIRE ANDERSEN The Subsea Systems Institute (SSI), established in late 2015 through the RESTORE Act, is moving forward to bridge academic research and the oil and gas industry. Funded as one of the six Centers of Excellence created after the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, SSI concentrates on improving the safety and sustainability of offshore oil and gas exploration and development.

Led by the University of Houston, SSI was created as a collaborative between UH, Rice University and the NASA Johnson Space Center to focus on engineering and technology research.

Though still relatively young, SSI is working to retrofit technology from other industries to improve deep-water oil exploration systems. It was created in 2015 with funding from the Resources and Ecosystems Sustainability, Tourist Opportunities, and Revived Economies of the Gulf Coast States Act, which required states affected by the oil spill conduct research to improve the sustainable and safe development of energy resources in the Gulf of Mexico.

SSI presents a unique environment for academic research to get feedback and support from local and international industry.

Maddock said that SSI typically operates at the early technical readiness levels, where ideas are created and developed before being fully implemented.

“We believe the oil and gas industry will support and benefit from technology crossover from other industries, aerospace being one of those,” said Maddock. “There are a lot of synergies between space exploration and the offshore, particularly the deep water offshore.”

One of those technologies is NASA’s neutral buoyancy lab (NBL). Usually used to train astronauts for spacewalks at the International Space Station, it is also available for commercial use. SSI has used the NBL to research and test its latest technology, as it

provides a similar environment to that in deep water.

SSI has four ongoing projects, one of which focuses on automated underwater vehicles (AUV). In the oil and gas industry, AUVs are typically used to inspect deep sea pipelines and systems. SSI is exploring the possibility of using AUVs to also inspect petroleum tanks onshore, offering an alternative to the current costly and timeconsuming inspections.

Another project, involving researchers from UH and Rice, focuses on coupling battery technology with super capacitors. The goal is to find an improved technology for powering and backing up devices offshore.

SSI teams tend to be small, headed by one lead researcher and a combination of staff and students, Maddock said. The projects are unique in that they are mandated to be inter-institutional, multidisciplinary and have the support and endorsement of industry.

“We want to ensure that we have as broad input as possible. It is very important that we are doing research at an academic level with direct connection to the needs of industry,” said Maddock.

Maddock is focused on creating relationships with major companies operating offshore, both locally and internationally.

This includes major operators, service companies, equipment manufacturers and consultants.

In the future, Maddock hopes to attract sponsored research directly from industry.

“Initially the key focus area will be the Gulf of Mexico. We want to see the SSI play a role in a global space and be an enduring entity that goes on for 15 years and beyond,” said Maddock.

Visit SSI online for more information: uh.edu/energy/ssi

STUDENT SUCCESS

THE ULTIMATE HOME TEAM VICTORY A TEAM OF UH GRADUATE STUDENTS SWEEPS THE IMPERIAL BARREL AWARD PROGRAM COMPETITION

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BY CLAIRE ANDERSEN

A team of five University of Houston graduate students brought home first prize from the international finals of the 2017 American Association of Petroleum Geologist’s (AAPG) Imperial Barrel Award Program (IBA) Competition.

The team was made up of two Ph.D. students, Eric Lunn and Delaney Robinson, and three M.S. students, Walter Reed, Leiser Silva and Andrew Steier. Their efforts resulted in over $20,000 in scholarships for the UH Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences.

IBA is an annual competition hosted by AAPG for geoscience graduate students from around the world. Each team presented their evaluation and analysis of a data set before a panel of experts. This year, the UH team evaluated seismic and well data from the Taranaki basin in New Zealand.

After winning the Gulf Coast section in March, the team moved on to the international final, where they competed against 11 other teams from across the world. Between the Gulf Coast regional competition and the international competition, the UH team beat out several prestigious schools including the University of Texas, Texas A&M and Colorado School of Mines. This year’s finals were held in Houston and marked the 100th anniversary of AAPG.

“It reflects very well on UH and on us to be the No. 1 team out of the 191 across the world,” said Lunn.

For the first time in the competition’s history, the panel of six judges unanimously awarded UH first place. Teams were judged not only on their data evaluation and presentation style, but also their team work.

“We all had specialties that were pretty clear at the beginning. But as we got to the last couple weeks, everyone tried to step in and cover whatever bases we needed so those specialties kind of got fuzzier,” said Steier.

The group analyzed their dataset for eight weeks, during which time they also balanced classwork and, for Robinson, a Ph.D. qualification exam and dissertation research proposal.

“It was pretty intense, this experience,” said Silva. “There was a huge learning curve in the beginning because none of us had done this before. It’s a lot of hard work.”

Beyond the scholarship and notoriety of the victory, the team also met Judith Collins, New Zealand’s Minister of Energy and Resources. Collins provided the group with a set of seismic and well data from New Zealand for use in future UH research projects.

Group photo, left to right: Andrew Steier, Eric Lunn, Delaney Robinson, Leiser Silva, Walter Reed

OFFICE OF THE PROVOST | UH ENERGY 9

COLLABORATION

O&G LAW IN ACTION REGULATORS FROM LEADING OIL PRODUCTION NATIONS GATHERED FOR ANNUAL CONFERENCE IN HOUSTON

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BY CLAIRE ANDERSEN

In effort to promote collaboration with hydrocarbon regulators, the UH Environment, Energy and Natural Resources (EENR) Center has created various opportunities for industry players and universities to contribute to the expansion of regulatory practices.

Last fall, EENR hosted the first ‘Inter-American Regulators Dialogue,’ a conference drawing delegations from oil producing countries in the Americas. Participants included Brazil, Colombia, Mexico and the United States, which together are responsible for nearly 15 percent of global oil production. The conference also featured Jacqueline Weaver, A.A. White professor of law at the UH Law Center, as the keynote speaker delivering a talk covering the ‘Role of the Regulator’ in the oil and gas industry.

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The University of Houston offers a platform where industry players and universities can contribute to the development of the regulatory practices in the 21st Century.

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Prof. Cardenas and Cruz Diez’s ‘Double Physichromie’ at UH Campus Visit EENR online: law.uh.edu/eenrcenter

“The University of Houston offers a platform where industry players and universities can contribute to the development of the regulatory practices in the 21st Century,” said Julian Cardenas, research professor at the EENR Center and program coordinator.

Cardenas hopes that in the future the conference will include regulators and universities from several other countries in order to grow the conversation and promote collaboration.

EENR also invited Magda Chambriard, former president of the Brazilian Petroleum Agency, and Yvonne Fabara, former secretary of hydrocarbons of Ecuador, to join EENR as energy visiting scholars.

During their time with EENR, Chambriard and Fabara will develop research on regulatory issues and industry practices.

Besides these activities, EENR has also organized short lectures each semester in Houston and abroad related to the hydrocarbons industry. The first talk featured Keisuke Sadamori from the International Energy Agency, who gave a lecture on international energy markets. Other lectures include a presentation on Colombian offshore projects by Vice President and Contract Manager of the Colombian National Petroleum Agency, Alexandra Lozano and Pedro Rojas at the University of Externado in Colombia.

FACULTY

SOLVING REAL-TIME O&G CHALLENGES DISTINGUISHED PROFESSOR IS LEADING A TEAM OF SCIENTISTS TO OPTIMIZE OIL RECOVERY

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BY CLAIRE ANDERSEN

As the oil industry recovers from its most recent fall, a team of six elite scientists and engineers at the University of Houston (UH) are putting their heads together to solve the real-time challenges faced by the industry.

Ganesh Thakur, a world-renowned expert in reservoir management and oil fields rejuvenation, leads this team in a multiphase project focused on improving oilfield performance for Oil India Limited. Each member of the team is an expert in their field, from geology to chemical and petroleum engineering.

“My objective is not to use only my talents, but the talents of the professors and scientists that we have here in the university to solve real life problems,” said Thakur.

Thakur was recruited to UH last fall as a distinguished professor thanks to $6 million in research funding from the Governor’s University Research Initiative (GURI) and a matching grant from UH.

With nearly four decades of experience in the oil and gas industry, Thakur possesses a clear understanding of both short and long-term challenges the industry faces, as well as the problems specific to every stage of oil recovery and production.

“I think this is the time for us to focus on building the capabilities, so as soon as things turn up and positive things start happening, we are positioned just right,” he said.

Since starting the first phase of their project four months ago, Thakur and his team have helped their client increase the oil recovery at the company’s largest oil field. In the future, the team will apply its expertise to other local and international oil fields.

In addition, Thakur is director of Energy Industrial Partnerships, where he is charged with building connections between the energy industry and UH professors and students.

“I want to touch everybody in the University of Houston who is going to be focusing on the energy industry,” Thakur said. “We have a sincere desire to get our university recognized as the energy university, and to do that we feel we cannot do it alone.”

Group photo, left to right: Ahmed Alzahabi, La Donna Finnels-Neal, Ganesh Thakur, Sriram Balasubramanian, Sushanta Bose, Peila Chen

OFFICE OF THE PROVOST | UH ENERGY 11

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