Saleh Mohammadrezaei was awarded a Rideal Travel Bursary to attend the 18th Annual Meeting of the International Society for Porous Media (InterPore2026) in Nantes, France. Here he tells us about his highlights from the conference.
"I gave an oral presentation titled "Modeling the Drying Process of CO2–Water in Porous Media with a Novel Volume-of-Fluid Lattice Boltzmann Model." The work introduces a new VOF–LBM scheme capable of resolving the evaporation front and capillary dynamics that govern drying in CO2-saturated saline aquifers — a process of central importance for geological carbon storage, since drying near the injection well drives salt precipitation, alters permeability and ultimately limits injectivity.
"The talk sits at the core of my Shell-funded PhD with Professor Vahid Niasar on pore-scale modelling of multiphase flow, CO2 systems and salt precipitation in saline porous media. InterPore2026 gave me direct feedback from leading groups working on closely related problems, sharpened my view of where the new VOF–LBM scheme should be benchmarked next, and connected the drying work to ongoing efforts on reactive transport and hydrate kinetics within my thesis and a recent manuscript submitted to Environmental Science & Technology.
"As I approach completion of my PhD and seek postdoctoral positions in computational subsurface science, InterPore is the most important venue in which to make my work visible. The meeting let me introduce the model to researchers whose groups I am applying to, and to begin conversations with industrial scientists from Shell, TotalEnergies and Thermo Fisher Scientific on applied problems in carbon storage. These exchanges will materially shape the next stage of my career.
"I gratefully acknowledge the financial support of the SCI–RSC Rideal Trust, which made my attendance at InterPore2026 possible."
Saleh Mohammadrezaei
PhD student
The University of Manchester
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