Jason Geiger, New DENIN Fellow, Is Developing Technology to Remediate Oil and Natural Gas Brine Spills

“I wasn’t always a great student,” said Jason Geiger, newly named DENIN Fellow for 2023–2025. “If you would go back and tell my high school teachers that I’m a graduate student who’s been awarded a fellowship, they wouldn’t believe you. But finding something that I was passionate about motivated me to really put in the time and effort.”

What he’s passionate about is studying the remediation of produced waters—contaminated water that returns to the surface after injection into the ground during natural gas or oil production.

Many people are aware of oil spills as a big problem for the oil industry, Geiger said, but about 10 barrels of brine are produced during well drilling and operation for every barrel of oil, so “the potential for an issue to occur is actually just as significant, if not more significant, with produced water.”

Salt levels in produced water can be several times that of seawater. Spills of produced water can kill vegetation, contaminate groundwater, and prevent stormwater infiltration.

Produced water spills are traditionally remediated by excavating, taking the soil to a landfill, and then backfilling with fresh soil. But this is not a sustainable way of remediating the problem. Geiger, through Ph.D. research with his advisor, Paul Imhoff, professor of civil and environmental engineering at UD, is testing a more sustainable method that leaves the soil in place. Geiger is using a chemical that modifies the crystallization habit of the salts in the produced waters and allows them to form on top of the soil where they can be easily removed. He’s currently doing lab experiments to see how these reactions are occurring, but soon he’ll test the method in the field in the Permian Basin of West Texas.

Geiger grew up playing outside in the woods of western Pennsylvania. His father worked in the natural gas industry. Hydraulic fracturing of new natural gas wells was a big industry during his high school and undergraduate years, so helping to solve a problem in the energy industry feels right to him. He worked as a technician in the industry before and during college.

Varun Kasaraneni, associate professor of environmental science and engineering, Geiger’s undergraduate research mentor at Gannon University in Pennsylvania, was an important person in his life, helping him realize he could succeed in graduate school and beyond. “He was really formative in developing me as a researcher and pushing me to ultimately go to grad school,” Geiger said.

Once he completes his doctoral degree in about 2026, Geiger thinks he’d like to work at a primarily undergraduate institution so he can encourage students as Kasaraneni encouraged him. He has taught and mentored undergrads and disadvantaged K–12 students through several different programs, including at the University of Pittsburgh, and valued the opportunity to encourage students to continue to chase their dreams or to push themselves harder so they can achieve more. “That’s certainly something that motivates me—having an impact in the lives of others,” Geiger said.

He’s most proud of the accomplishments of the undergrads and other students he has mentored, taught, or tutored. “I take a lot of pride in the achievements of students that I’m working with,” he said. “I like to see them go on to do great things.”

Geiger feels that receiving the DENIN Fellowship validates his work and his efforts, and he’s excited about the fellowship’s opportunities for outreach and networking with the other recipients. The fellowship “gives you backing and support for educational outreach,” he said. “Having that backing to push toward those goals means a lot to me.”

The highly competitive DENIN Fellowship offers financial support and professional development opportunities to students at UD whose Ph.D. research interests bridge science and society.

by Joy Drohan, Eco-Write, LLC