Research profile

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• Environmental geochemistry of polluted sites with special attention to mobility of heavy metals and metalloids in soils, sediments and waste dumps

from mining and industrial sites through time

• Mineralogy, diagenesis and reservoir characterization of carbonates and sandstones

• Ore deposits in Europe and in the Central African Copperbelt

• Mineralogical characterisation and use of industrial minerals (natural zeolites, building materials, clays,..) with a focus on quantitative XRD-

powderdiffraction techniques

• Hydrogeological studies: characterization of aquifer properties and potentiality, vulnerability studies, remediation of groundwater contamination,

groundwater flow and transport modelling, modelling river and groundwater interactions, multicomponent reactive transport modelling, ...

Prof. Rudy Swennen , prof. Philippe Muchez, prof. Jan

Elsen, prof. Marijke Huysmans, prof. Valérie Cappuyns,

dr. Rieko Adriaens, dr. Hannes Claes, dr. Jeroen Soete,

dr. Niels Hulsbosch and 24 PhD students • Speciation analysis in function of changing environmental parameters and

predictive modeling of contaminant species

• Micro-focus tomography techniques for hydrocarbon reservoir

characterisation

• Computer modelling to quantify the mineral composition with a special focus

on clay minerals

• Modelling the hydrogeology of low permeability sediments, taking into account

the importance of upscaling and heterogeneities in low permeability

environments

Dept. Aard- en Omgevingswetenschappen,

afdeling Geologie

Geo-instituut

Celestijnenlaan 200E – box 2410

3001 Leuven

jan.elsen@kuleuven.be

• TraRAS: Travertine reservoir analogues - industry funding

2014 – 2017.

• An advanced mineralogical study of the clay mineral fraction

in the Boom Clay – SCK•CEN, PhD research, 2015-2019

• Potentially Toxic Elements (PTEs) in industrial solid waste:

solid-phase characterization, leaching behavior and potential

contamination of soils and sediments (Vietnam), 2011-

2015

• Sedimentary petrology of clay deposits – NIRAS – ONDRAF

funding, 2014-2018

• GEODES – GEOthermal Deep Sources for electricity -

industry funding, 2013 – 2017

• Stratiform Cu-Co deposits in Central Africa

Applied Geology & Mineralogy

Gilles Mertens and Rieko Adriaens win the Reynolds Cup 2016 – competition.