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 served as Chair of the Petroleum and Natural Gas Engineering Program from 2015 to 2018 and an Editor-In-Chief for all SPE technical journals from 2018 to 2020.
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 Ph.D. 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 served as a Distinguished SPE Lecturer for 2019–2020.
- Predictive equation-of-state (EOS) for microemulsion phase behavior to aid petroleum and chemical companies in improved project design.
- Transformation of petrophysical models to physics-based models, specifically related to rock-fluid interactions and use in enhanced oil recovery.
- New generation compositional simulation that is more robust, accurate, and computational efficient.
Recent Publications
- Duffy, T., Gamwo, I., Johns, R.T., and Lvov, S.N., Modeling Contact Angle vs. Temperature for the Quartz-Water-Decane System, accepted by SPEJ on 4/20/21.
- Dindoruk, B, Johns, R.T., and Orr, F.M. Jr., Measurement and Modeling of Minimum Miscibility Pressure: A State of the Art Review, SPEREE, DOI: https://doi.org/10.2118/200462-PA, 2021.
- Magzymov, D., Clemens, T., Schumi, B. et al. 2021. Experimental Analysis of Alkali-Brine-Alcohol Phase Behavior with High Acid Number Crude Oil. SPE Reservoir Evaluation & Engineering. SPE-201369-PA (in press; posted 18 January 2021), https://doi.org/10.2118/201369-PA.
- Duffy, T, Li, J., L, Johns, R.T., and Lvov, S.N. Capillary Contact Angle for the Quartz-Distilled Water-Normal Decane Interface at Temperatures up to 200 °C, Colloids and Surfaces A: Physicochemical and Engineering Aspects, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.colsurfa.2020.125608 . Vol. 609, 2021.
- Khorsandi, S., Li, L, and Johns, R.T., A New Way of Compositional Simulation Without Phase Labeling, A New Way of Compositional Simulation without Phase Labeling, SPE J. 1–19. Paper Number: SPE-190269-PA, https://doi.org/10.2118/190269-PA. 2021.
- Purswani, P., Johns, R. T., Karpyn, Z. T., & Blunt, M.. Predictive Modeling of Relative Permeability Using a Generalized Equation of State. SPE Journal, https://doi.org/10.2118/200410-PA, 26(01), pp. 191-205, 2021.
- Cronin, M., Emami-Meybodi, H., & Johns, R. T. (2020, May 1). Multicomponent Diffusion Modeling of Cyclic Solvent Injection in Ultra-Tight Reservoirs. Society of Petroleum Engineers. doi:10.2118/196008-PA.
- Khodaparast, P., and Johns, R.T., A Continuous and Predictive Viscosity Model Coupled to a microemulsion Equation of State, doi:10.2118/190278-PA, SPEJ, 25(03), pp. 1070-1081, 2020.
- Zhang, K., Nojabaei, B., Ahmadi, K., and Johns, R. T., Effect of Gas/Oil Capillary Pressure on Minimum Miscibility Pressure for Tight Reservoirs. Society of Petroleum Engineers. doi:10.2118/199354-PA, SPEJ, 25(02), pp. 820-831, 2020.
- Purswani, P., Tawfik, M.S., Karpyn, Z.T. and Johns, R.T., On the development of a relative permeability equation of state. Comput Geosci, https://doi.org/10.1007/s10596-019-9824-2, 24(2), pp. 807-818, 2020.