Other Awards and Honors
2011 Impact on Scientific Community
Changyong Zhang, Mart Oostrom, Nancy Hess and Thomas Wietsma author paper selected one of "10" Best Papers of 2010" by Environmental Science & Technology journal
A paper authored by PNNL – EMSL researchers was selected by Environmental Science & Technology as one of the journal's 10 "Best Papers of 2010." Of the nearly 1,500 papers that ES&T published last year, the editors nominated 70 to be among the very best. This list was narrowed to the top 10 and then divided between three categories: Environmental Science, Environmental Technology and Environmental Policy. In March, the paper, "Pore-Scale Study of Transverse Mixing Induced CaCO3 Precipitation and Permeability Reduction in a Model Subsurface Sedimentary System," was named second runner-up in the Environmental Technology category. The paper documented the team's work to provide insights into carbon sequestration and contaminant cleanup, and how, due to mixing, changes in groundwater chemistry affect subsurface mineralization. Specifically, researchers examined under what conditions pores within underground rock formations become clogged with newly formed minerals due to changing groundwater chemistry. They found that calcite mineralization can sometimes block pores and prevent further reactions by stopping groundwater mixing—which has implications for immobilizing contaminants in the groundwater or geological storage of greenhouse gases such as CO2.
The team is composed of PNNL researchers Changyong Zhang and Mart Oostrom, EMSL researchers Nancy Hess and Thomas Wietsma, and four researchers from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Karl Dehoff, Albert J. Valocchi, Bruce W. Fouke, and Charles J. Werth. (announced 5/2/2011)