The “SUBsurface ElectroMagnetic Imaging Numerical Tools for the Industry – SUBEM” project has been one of the three projects selected in the field of mathematics for «R&D Projects» 2020 – Modalities «Research Challenges» and «Knowledge Generation» by the Spanish Research Agency. Prof. David Pardo, leader of the Simulation of Wave Propagation (SIWP) research line and Ikerbasque Professor, explains that the news has been “a great privilege, and at the same time a great responsibility”. A proof of concept aims to develop the results of a research project to a practical commercial use. Researchers contact companies and institutions to explore the usability of the results in certain commercial applications or to generate software for use by third parties, for example.
The goal of SUBEM Project is two-fold: on the one hand, to assemble a trustworthy and efficient computational tool for advanced earth visualization in view of Hydrogen storage, CO2 storage, and Geothermal Energy production, and, on the other hand, promote the resulting product among companies concerned with cleaner and more sustainable energies. Principal investigator David Pardo says that “for the first objective, in particular, we will apply advanced techniques–such as refined Isogeometric Analysis and non-fitting meshes–to efficiently solve boundary value problems based on Maxwell’s equation modeling subsurface electromagnetic wave propagation. As for the second objective, attracting traditional oil and gas companies that are transitioning towards renewables energies exploitation will be key, but also having contact with smaller companies that might consider this option in the future.”
To achieve these objectives, they will rely on the complementary expertise of the group – composed of world-renowned scientists in applied mathematics, geophysical exploration and high-performance computing – and on previous and current experience in research and industrial projects. In particular, they coordinate the H2020 MATHROCKS project and participate in the Interreg POCTEFA PIXIL project, both focused on advanced strategies for the Earth’s subsurface visualization and monitoring.
“The most interesting aspect of the project is the potential applications for improving hydrogen storage in the earth’s subsurface. Hydrogen-based energy seems to have a promising future nowadays, and being able to store it underground is key for an ecological transition towards greener energies” explains Prof. Pardo, who also envisions that “the next future challenges are to design and develop new numerical methods and technologies useful for society, while training a new generation of scientists”.
About Prof. David Pardo
David Pardo is leader of the Simulation of Wave Propagation (SIWP) research group at the Basque Center for Applied Mathematics – BCAM and of the Applied Mathematical Modelling, Statistics, and Optimization (MATHMODE) group at the University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU), as well as a researcher at Ikerbasque. He has published more than 160 research papers and given more than 260 presentations. In 2011, he was awarded as the best Spanish young researcher in Applied Mathematics by the Spanish Society of Applied Mathematics (SEMA). He leads a European Project on subsurface visualization, several national research projects, as well as research contracts with national and international companies. His research interests include computational electromagnetics, petroleum-engineering applications (borehole simulations), adaptive finite-element and discontinuous Petrov-Galerkin methods, multigrid solvers, deep learning algorithms, and multiphysics and inverse problems.