Sep 2022
The global demand for sustainable energy, coupled with the declining conventional sweet oil and gas reserves in key areas of the world has necessitate the exploration and production (E&P) of petroleum reservoirs with high sulfur content above 12%. Historically, high sulfur-bearing reserves (also called Ultra-sour reservoirs) has been left undeveloped because of the technical challenges in producing high H2S and CO2 fields, cost involved in E&P, and the stringent governmental restrictions on sulfur content in hydrocarbon products, which range from local pollution to global climate effects. Recent interest to explore Ultra-sour reservoirs as a key strategy to meet future energy demands by utilizing either the hydrocarbon products or waste sulfur by-products (such as sulfides, polysulfides, polythionates and thiosalts) as an alternative feedstock’s for hydrogen energy production have the potential of driving sulfur-bearing hydrocarbon operations and sustainable energy production into new technology frontiers. In this work, we highlight the complexity of sulfur speciation chemistry and their links in sulfur biogeochemical cycles in different Earth’s systems, the variation in four S-isotope geochemistry (described using ‘delta’ notation δ34S and capital delta Δ33S and Δ36S notations) transformed and transferred between different reservoirs including massive sulfides deposits and sulfur-rich resources in the Kingdom. These novel S-isotope fractionations are used to guide exploration strategies on the extent of mixing, alteration, maturation as well as microbial and chemical reaction processes of producing unexploited sulfur and their intermediate products that can potentially serve as a commodity and feedstocks for the production of clean hydrogen energy technologies for carbon-free future.
Harry D. Oduro is a Ghanaian born American Geoscientist in Saudi Aramco, EXPEC Advanced Research Center where he and his group specializes in Advanced Sulfur, Isotope, and Petroleum Geochemistry technologies for effective exploration, production, and management of Sulfur-bearing conventional and unconventional reservoirs (so-called ultra-sour reserves).
He received his B.Sc. in Chemistry at the Kwame Nkrumah University Science Technology KNUST, Ghana.
He did his M.Sc. funded by America Chemical Society Petroleum Research Funds (ACS-PRF) in Geology/Geochemistry studying Iron Sulfide Formation Chemistry at the University of Vermont (Burlington, USA).
He received a NASA Astrobiology Institute Scholarship to pursue his Ph.D. at the University of Maryland (College Park, USA) investigating Organosulfur Isotope Geochemistry’s in Earth System Sciences under the direction of Prof. James Farquhar.
He held postdoctoral position at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) as an Agouron-Geobiology Research Fellow and MIT School of Science Energy Fellow before joining the University of St. Andrews (Scotland, UK) in 2013 as an Assistant Professor of Sulfur-Isotope Geochemistry.
In April 2015, Harry joined Saudi Aramco (Dhahran, Saudi Arabia) where he is currently developing applied research in sulfur biogeochemistry and geo-engineering solutions to resolve longstanding problems in the exploration and production of untapped sulfur-bearing hydrocarbon resources in the Kingdom.
Among other research interests is to apply insights from industrial geochemistry coupled with synthetic organic chemistry and materials science application towards a more sustainable, eco-friendly and renewable energy products ranging from the use of bauxite waste residues for microbial and sulfur treatments to the capturing of in-situ reservoir sulfur, nitrogen species for large-scale ammonia, hydrogen and fertilizer production.
Harry has published a variety of papers and US patents in sulfur biogeochemistry, and received numerous awards recognition including US Geochemical Society Board Award (2021), SPE - Reservoir Completions & Optimization Technology Award (2019), Saudi Aramco CEO Excellence Award (2017), Saudi Aramco Best Innovative Energy Technology Award (2017).