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
• 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.