About:
Russell T. Johns is the George E. Trimble Chair of Energy and Mineral Sciences at the Department of Energy and Mineral Engineering at The Pennsylvania State University. He also holds the Energi Simulation Chair in Fluid Behavior and Rock Interactions. He recently served as Chair of the Petroleum and Natural Gas Engineering Program from 2015 to 2018 and is currently the Editor-In-Chief for all SPE journals.
Prior to his current position, he served on the petroleum engineering faculty at The University of Texas at Austin from 1995 to 2010. He also has nine years of industrial experience as a petrophysical engineer with Shell Oil and as a consulting engineer for Colenco Power Consulting in Baden, Switzerland. He holds a BS degree in electrical engineering from Northwestern University and MS and PhD degrees in petroleum engineering and water resources from Stanford University. He has over 250 publications in enhanced oil recovery, thermodynamics and phase behavior, unconventional gas engineering, multiphase flow in porous media, and well testing. Dr. Johns received the SPE Ferguson medal in 1993, the Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE) Distinguished Member award in 2009, the SPE Faculty Pipeline award in 2013, the 2016 SPE international award in Reservoir Description and Dynamics, and the Wilson Excellence in Research award from the College of Earth and Mineral Sciences in 2018. He is currently director of the Enhanced Oil Recovery consortium in the EMS Energy Institute at Penn State University. He has been selected as a Distinguished SPE Lecturer for 2019 and 2020.
- Provide a predictive equation-of-state (EOS) for microemulsion phase behavior that will significantly aid petroleum companies in improved project design.
- Change how petrophysics is currently modelled in the petroleum industry, specifically related to rock-fluid interactions and use in enhanced oil recovery.
- Develop and test a new generation compositional simulator that is more robust, accurate, and computational efficient.
Recent Publications
- Purswani, Tawfik, M., Karpyn, Z, and R.T. Johns, On the Development of a Relative Permeability Equation of State, Computational Geosciences, 2019
- Cronin, M., Emami-Meybodi, H., & Johns, R. T. Unified Theory of Ultimate Hydrocarbon Recovery for Primary and Cyclic Injection Processes in Ultra-Tight Reservoirs (reference number: SREP-19-17522), Scientific Reports, 2019
- Cronin, M., Emami-Meybodi, H., & Johns, R. T. (2018, December 1). Diffusion-Dominated Proxy Model for Solvent Injection in Ultratight Oil Reservoirs. Society of Petroleum Engineers Journal. doi:10.2118/190305-PA
- Torrealba, V., Hoteit, H., and Johns, R., Micellar Radii Description for Phase Behavior and Viscosity Modeling of Surfactant Solutions and Microemulsions, Langmuir. 34. 10.1021/acs.langmuir.8b02828, 2018.
- Torrealba, V. A., Johns, R. T., & Hoteit, H. (2018, November 1). Curvature-Based Equation of State for Microemulsion-Phase Behavior. Society of Petroleum Engineers. doi:10.2118/194022-PA
- Rezaveisi, M., Sepehrnoori, K., Pope, G. A., and Johns, R.T. Thermodynamic Analysis of Phase Behavior at High Capillary Pressure. SPE Journal. https://doi.org/10.2118/175135-PA, 2018.
- Ghosh, S., & Johns, R. T. (2018, February 1). A Modified HLD-NAC Equation of State To Predict Alkali/Surfactant/Oil/Brine Phase Behavior. Society of Petroleum Engineers. SPEJ, doi:10.2118/175132-PA
- Torrealba, V, and Johns, R.T., Coupled Interfacial Tension and Phase Behavior Model Based on Micellar Curvatures, Langmuir, 33 (47), pp 13604–13614, DOI: 10.1021/acs.langmuir.7b03372 November, 2017.
- Mohebbinia, S., Sepehrnoori, K., Johns, R.T., and Korrani, A.N., Simulation of asphaltene precipitation during gas injection using PC-SAFT EOS, Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering, Volume 158, pp. 693-706, 2017.
- Khorsandi, S., Li, L., and Johns, R. T. Equation of State for Relative Permeability, Including Hysteresis and Wettability Alteration. SPEJ, Society of Petroleum Engineers. doi:10.2118/182655-PA, August 1, 2017
- Khorsandi, S., Qiao, C., & Johns, R. T. (2017, April 1). Simulation of Surfactant/Polymer Floods With a Predictive and Robust Microemulsion Flash Calculation. SPEJ, 22 (02), 470-479, doi:10.2118/179566-PA
- Nojabaei, B., Siripatrachai, N., Johns, R.T., and Ertekin, K., Effect of large gas-oil capillary pressure on production: A compositionally-extended black oil formulation, Journal of Petroleum Science & Engineering, vol. 147, 317-329. November, 2016.
- Khorsandi, S., Qiao, C., & Johns, R. T. (2016, October 1). Displacement Efficiency for Low-Salinity Polymer Flooding Including Wettability Alteration. Society of Petroleum Engineers. SPEJ, doi:10.2118/179695-PA, October 2016.
- Khorsandi, S., Qiao, C., and Johns, R.T., Simulation of Surfactant-Polymer Floods with a Predictive and Robust Microemulsion Flash Calculation, SPEJ, 22 (02), pp. 470-479, October 2016.
- Khorsandi, S., Johns, R. T., Robust Flash Calculation Algorithm for Microemulsion Phase Behavior, Journal of Surfactants and Detergents, doi:10.1007/s11743-016-1877-9, 19(6), 1273-1287, 2016.