Biography
With a background in basic engineering courses and a geoscience major, work experience in the Energy Research and Innovation, Srikumar is currently involved in both pure and applied research topics where he investigates the marine sedimentary processes and assesses renewable energy systems such as, geothermal and wind energy. He investigates the applications of “Gas Hydrate systems”, which are ice-like crystalline solids formed of water and gas molecules, specifically in the High Arctic and the northeast Atlantic Margin. Gas hydrates trap enormous amounts of methane gas (clean energy and greenhouse gas) globally in oceanic and permafrost environments, which will be released with the warming climate, and contribute further to the greenhouse effect.
He did his PhD in seabed fluid flow and seepage studies in the western Spitsbergen fjords of the High Arctic, at the University of Bergen and the University Centre in Svalbard, Norway. He was working as a commercialization geophysicist with Schlumberger before joining iCRAG. He graduated with a Joint MS in Applied Geophysics from ETH Zurich, RWTH Aachen and TU Delft; and a BSc in Exploration Geophysics from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur, India.
Natural gas hydrates are important because of their potential importance as a near-future clean energy resource and their role in climate. Large concentrations of gas hydrates exist below the seafloor along the continental margins and trapped under the permafrost in the Arctic. A lot of energy is stored in hydrates: a cubic meter of methane hydrate compresses as much as 168 m3 of natural gas (methane). And there are gigatonnes of it stored in the sediments of the oceans. Gas hydrates will dissociate (separate or split) as a consequence of global warming. Ocean warming-induced gas hydrate dissociation can create gas plumes at the seafloor, releasing greenhouse methane gas into the ocean and atmosphere.
Project title: CO2 Hydrate Sealing potential for Carbon Capture and Storage (HydSeal)
Technical description
Srikumar started working at iCRAG on methane gas hydrate exploration in offshore Ireland, and its various applications, such as triggering of submarines slides, sealing effects on CO2 geological storage. However, over the last five years, he has been involved in projects (but not limited to) such as: i) Seabed and sub-surface fluid flow, ii) Volcanism, igneous sill intrusion complexes and forced folding in the Rockall Trough, their link with mantle plume and thermal maximum, iii) Geothermal energy assessment in the Dublin Basin, iv) Seabed site characterisation for offshore wind farm installations in Ireland, v) experimental, modelling and geophysical data analysis for CO2 storage, leakage monitoring, and CO2 hydrate sealing potential for CCS facilities, vi) Mega-submarine slides and their link to ice-sheet dynamics along the Atlantic Margin. He is involved in a number of High Arctic projects investigating the gas hydrate formation and dissociation dynamics linked with the warming climate, seafloor seepage, methane release to the water column, and the atmosphere. He is actively looking for collaborative research projects which serve the UN-SDGs.
Read more here and on Dr Roy's Google Scholar profile.
Role
- Postdoctoral Researcher
Institution
- UCD
Research Area
- Earth Resources
Expertise
- Offshore basins, Renewable Energy
