Abstract:

The Deepwater Horizon (DWH) oil spill is one of the world's largest marine oil spills in history, releasing about 4.9 million barrels of crude oil to the northern Gulf of Mexico over 87 days from April 20 to July 15, 2010. While unfortunately this oil spill has severely impacted coastal and deep-sea ecosystems, it offered a unique opportunity for scientists to examine physical and biogeochemical behaviors of hydrocarbons in marine environments, and their toxicity to marine organisms. As a result of the $500M BP funds to the research community over more than10 years, much novel knowledge has been gained in many research directions, such as numerical modeling of oil droplets in both micro- and macroscales, multi-omics and bioinformatics of oil-degrading microorganisms, and the biological and chemical weathering processes of oil in marine environments. 

Among all the legacy knowledge gained from the DWH oil spill research, the key role of photooxidation in transforming petroleum hydrocarbons under Gulf of Mexico environmental conditions, to me, cannot be highlighted enough. For example, it is estimated that asphaltenes or tar balls on shorelines contained as much as 10% oxygen by mass, a magnitude that is unprecedented in oil spill research. A full understanding of the photooxidation, therefore, is important in terms of oil spill research, such as for predicting the fate of oil should another oil spill occur. However, it is extremely challenging to elucidate the processes of photooxidation, not only due to the complicated photooxidation itself but also the complex mixture of oil. 

In this seminar, I will talk about how I got interested in the photooxidation of oil from the beginning of the DWH oil spill, and how my research group have been tackling this issue stepwise. With both field and laboratory work, I will try to convey a simple message: sunlight is extraordinarily powerful in transforming aromatic hydrocarbons of oil in both extent and rate under Gulf of Mexico environmental conditions.

Bio:

Dr. Zhanfei Liu is an Associate Professor of Marine Science Institute, University of Texas at Austin. He received his B.S. and M.S. both from Xiamen University, and Ph.D. from Stony Brook University. He conducted his postdoctoral research at Old Dominion University. Dr. Liu’s research focuses on understanding decomposition of natural and anthropogenic organic matter in natural environments.

Conference ID (For Tencent): 885 801 638

Tencent (腾讯会议) Link: https://meeting.tencent.com/s/eMrmgLBFKnph