LSU PETE Professor Receives INL/DOE Grant to Study Minerals from State’s Oil Field Brines

LSU Craft & Hawkins Department of Petroleum Engineering Associate Professor Ipsita Gupta recently received a $261,000 research grant from Idaho National Laboratory (INL)/Battelle Energy Alliance and funded by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Geothermal Technologies Office. The project aims to investigate the potential for critical minerals, specifically lithium, in produced waters from oil and gas fields within Louisiana’s Smackover Formation.

“Lithium (Li) production is a global priority due to its essential role in battery technologies and clean energy systems,” Gupta said. “The Smackover Formation, which spans from Texas to Florida and crosses into northern Louisiana, is a promising but understudied source. While lithium concentrations exceeding 400 ppm have been reported in brines from the Smackover in southwest Arkansas, the Louisiana segment remains largely unexplored.”

Gupta is collaborating with Ram Kumar (Staff Scientist) from the Geothermal Energy & Subsurface Systems group at INL. The project team is multi-disciplinary and multi-institutional with additional members that include Eric Sonnenthal, Geoglogical Staff Scientist at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory; INL Chief Geochemist Travis McLing; LSU Craft & Hawkins Department of Petroleum Engineering Chair David Schechter; LSU Department of Oceanography and Coastal Sciences Professor and Chair Kanchan Maiti; INL Geothermal Expert Ghanashyam Neupane; INL Research Scientist Trevor Atkinson; and INL Research Scientist Rachael Colldeweih.

“This project gives me a sense of déjà vu,” Gupta said. “I started my academic career with formation waters, albeit in a different light. My PhD was on understanding brine migration in the Alberta Basin in Canada, and today, after years at Chevron and later at LSU Petroleum Engineering, I find myself returning to oilfield brines in Louisiana for critical mineral recovery.”

Kumar expressed his enthusiasm for the collaboration, stating, "INL is excited to partner with Dr. Ipsita Gupta and her team at LSU and Dr. Eric Sonnenthal and his team at LBNL, on this strategically important project. We are optimistic about discovering promising lithium and other critical minerals in the Louisiana side of the Smackover Formation."