Abbas Firoozabadi

WEBSITE(S)| The Firoozabadi Group | Publications | Google Scholar

Abbas Firoozabadi has a PhD degree from the Illinois Institute Technology and did post-doctoral research at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI.  Professor Firoozabadi has taught graduate level courses on equilibrium and irreversible thermodynamics at the University of Texas-Austin, Imperial College London, Yale University, Tokyo University, Rice University, and Peking University. He has established a research consortium at the Reservoir Engineering Research Institute (RERI) in Palo Alto, Ca with the funding from major energy companies in the US and abroad, and US-DOE.
 
His published work covers multi-component-multiphase flow in fractured media and equilibrium and flow in unconfined and confined media. He has received four of the five major awards of the Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE) including the Anthony Lucas Gold Medal. Professor Firoozabadi is a member of the US National Academy of Engineering (NAE).  

Research Areas

Professor Firoozabadi’s research addresses hydrocarbon energy production from conventional and unconventional subsurface formations and the stewardship of the environment. Atomistic and molecular structures in fluid and solid bulk phases and at the fluid-fluid and fluid-solid interfaces are investigated to engineer molecules at low concentration for improved hydrocarbon recovery. In recent years the focus has been on understanding of mechanisms from mechanical properties of solids, adsorption/desorption, and flow in confinement as well as fracking by different fluids. Increase in fluid-fluid interface elasticity by low concentration of functional molecules has been introduced by his group recently. He also pursues improved understanding of the processes by measurements. Most of the mathematical formulations are in the framework of bulk phase equilibrium thermodynamics, irreversible thermodynamics, interfacial thermodynamics, and molecular simulations. In large scale media, higher-order numerical simulations are advanced to investigate flow in the subsurface.

Education

1976 Postdoctoral Fellow, Chemical Engineering, University of Michigan

1975 Ph.D., Gas Engineering, Illinois Institute of Technology

1972 M.S., Gas Enginering, Illinois Institute of Technology

1970 B.S. Gas Engineering, Abadan Institute of Technology, Abadan, Iran

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