Richard Hammack and Colton Kohnke, NETL physical scientists with significant experience conducting subsurface electromagnetic surveys and data collection, are scheduled to appear on a panel as presenters at the International Meeting for Applied Geoscience and Energy (IMAGE) Aug. 26-29 in Houston, Texas.

The fourth annual IMAGE event will be hosted by the Society of Exploration Geophysicists (SEG), and the American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG), in conjunction with the Society for Sedimentary Geology. IMAGE ’24 offers a forward-looking technical program of more than 1,000 presentations and an exhibition experience where all sectors of geosciences and energy come together to innovate, collaborate, and network. For registration information, click here.

Hammack has been working with a drone-based LiDAR system to map buried steel pipelines — some as small as two inches in diameter — and is also exploring the use of methane sensors on drones to detect methane emissions from abandoned wells.

Kohnke was part of an NETL team that launched airborne technology at a commercial-scale carbon dioxide (CO₂) geologic storage site in Mississippi to complete a first-of-its-kind electromagnetic survey and collect data needed to monitor greenhouse gas sequestered in the subsurface.

Deep underground storage of CO₂ is a major component in the nation’s efforts to achieve a 100% carbon emission-free electricity sector by 2035 and a net-zero carbon economy by 2050 and prevent the disastrous impact of climate change.

NETL researchers use their expertise to help locate orphan wells — long-abandoned oil and gas operations that no longer have a responsible operator. The wells can sometimes leak methane into the atmosphere many decades after they were first installed.

Hammack and Kohnke, who work in NETL’s Geological and Environmental Sciences (GES) focus area, will present at the IMAGE ‘24 event on the Laboratory’s efforts to tackle the challenge of clean energy production from fossil energy sources by focusing on the behavior of natural systems at both the earth’s surface and subsurface. Their presentation will be part of a panel discussion with representatives from the Colorado School of Mines titled “Unsupervised compensation of spiral-shaped drone magnetic survey using a recurrent convolutional autoencoder.”

NETL is a U.S. Department of Energy national laboratory that drives innovation and delivers solutions for an environmentally sustainable and prosperous energy future. By using its world-class talent and research facilities, NETL is ensuring affordable, abundant and reliable energy that drives a robust economy and national security, while developing technologies to manage carbon across the full life cycle, enabling environmental sustainability for all Americans.