Biography

Geoff Maitland is a Physical Chemist who was a student in Oxford (as an undergraduate and DPhil research student 1965-72), had an academic career in Bristol (as an ICI Postdoctoral Fellow) and at Imperial College (as Lecturer/Senior Lecturer in Chemical Engineering) and for the last 20 years has worked in the oil and gas industry with Schlumberger.  The common thread running through his research interests over the years has been the links between interactions at the molecular/colloidal level and the bulk properties of materials.  This started with simple molecular fluids but moved on to polymer dynamics, rheology and reactors at Imperial College.  On joining Schlumberger in 1986, he initiated research on characterising and understanding the flow of drilling fluids and other complex oilfield materials.  Between 1988 and 2005 he has held several research director roles in the areas of fluid physics, chemistry and process engineering.  His research interests included rock-fluid interactions, chemical characterisation of multicomponent fluids, the development of new hydrocarbon recovery processes and the application of biological processes to oil recovery.  He sits on a number of EPSRC and DTI committees, has held several visiting chairs at UK universities and has spent much of his time stimulating and engaging in oilfield-related research with university and industrial collaborators.  He moved to a Chair of Energy Engineering at Imperial College in September 2005.

Research Interests

My research is built around three main themes :
- more efficient recovery of existing hydrocarbons
- exploitation of non-conventional sources of hydrocarbons
- mitigating the environmental impact of fossil fuels and managing the transition to alternative energies

My own expertise centres on thermophysical property measurement and prediction for fluids at extreme conditions, the rheology and flow of complex mixtures in complex flow geometries, smart responsive reservoir treatment processes, reactor engineering, small-scale laboratory studies of new hydrocarbon production, separation and chemical conversion processes and the integration of new sub-surface processes with well engineering requirements.  Existing research projects include
- Integrated monitoring, modeling and control of oilfield processes
- Carbon capture and sequestration