Justin Birdwell
My USGS research involves a range of energy-related issues, including: assessing undiscovered, technically recoverable oil and gas resources in U.S. petroleum systems; evaluating geothermal, critical minerals, and energy storage potential in sedimentary basins; examining environmental impacts of energy development; and researching paleoenvironmental conditions using geochemical methods.
Justin Birdwell is a research engineer and geochemist with the USGS Energy Resources Program’s Gulf Coast Geologic Energy Assessments and Research project. As a Mendenhall Post-doctoral Research Fellow he helped refine previous assessments of Green River oil shale resources, conducted experimental work to evaluate in-situ retorting approaches to oil shave development, and studied the environmental impacts of oil shale utilization. His current work is focused on petroleum resource assessments in Gulf Coast and Rocky Mountain basins, geochemical characterization of source rocks and petroleum using standard and advanced methods, evaluation of non-petroleum resource potential in petroliferous sedimentary basins, and development of geochemical reference materials.
Justin is the current Chair of the Geological Society of America’s Energy Geology Division (2024), past-president of the American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG) Energy Minerals Division (EMD; 2021-2022), an Associate Editor of AAPG Bulletin, Member of the Editorial Board of the International Journal of Coal Geology, a representative of the Rocky Mountain Association of Geologists in the AAPG House of Delegates, and three-time technical program chair for the AAPG Rocky Mountain Section annual meeting (2022-2024).
https://www.scopus.com/authid/detail.uri?authorId=16174195400
https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Justin_Birdwell
https://scholar.google.com/citations?hl=en&user=7xr20ZQAAAAJ
Professional Experience
10/2012-2/2024, Research Environmental Engineer, USGS
11/2011-9/2012, General Research Engineer, USGS
10/2009-10/2011, Mendenhall Postdoctoral Fellow/Research Engineer, USGS
1/2008-9/2009, Research Associate, LSU
8/2002-12/2007, Graduate Student/Research & Teaching Assistant, LSU
Education and Certifications
Ph.D., Chemical Engineering, 2007, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, Louisiana (Advisor: Louis J. Thibodeaux)
B.S., Chemical Engineering, 2002, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, Louisiana
Science and Products
The role of water in unconventional in situ energy resource extraction technologies
Detailed description of oil shale organic and mineralogical heterogeneity via fourier transform infrared mircoscopy
Molecular-level characterization of crude oil compounds combining reversed-phase high-performance liquid chromatography with off-line high-resolution mass spectrometry
Simultaneous Gaussian and exponential inversion for improved analysis of shales by NMR relaxometry
Application of binomial-edited CPMG to shale characterization
In-place oil shale resources in the saline-mineral and saline-leached intervals, Parachute Creek Member of the Green River Formation, Piceance Basin, Colorado
Differentiation of pre-existing trapped methane from thermogenic methane in an igneous-intruded coal by hydrous pyrolysis
Multivariate analysis of ATR-FTIR spectra for assessment of oil shale organic geochemical properties
Application of uniaxial confining-core clamp with hydrous pyrolysis in petrophysical and geochemical studies of source rocks at various thermal maturities
Changes in porosity and organic matter phase distribution monitored by NMR relaxometry following hydrous pyrolysis under uniaxial confinement
A new laboratory approach to shale analysis using NMR relaxometry
Low-field nuclear magnetic resonance characterization of organic content in shales
Science and Products
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Filter Total Items: 83
The role of water in unconventional in situ energy resource extraction technologies
Global trends toward developing new energy resources from lower grade, larger tonnage deposits that are not generally accessible using “conventional” extraction methods involve variations of subsurface in situ extraction techniques including in situ oil shale retorting, hydraulic fracturing of petroleum reservoirs, and in situ recovery of uranium. Although these methods are economically feasible aAuthorsTanya J. Gallegos, Carleton R. Bern, Justin E. Birdwell, Seth S. Haines, Mark A. EngleDetailed description of oil shale organic and mineralogical heterogeneity via fourier transform infrared mircoscopy
Mineralogical and geochemical information on reservoir and source rocks is necessary to assess and produce from petroleum systems. The standard methods in the petroleum industry for obtaining these properties are bulk measurements on homogenized, generally crushed, and pulverized rock samples and can take from hours to days to perform. New methods using Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscoAuthorsKathryn E. Washburn, Justin E. Birdwell, Michael Foster, Fernando GutierrezMolecular-level characterization of crude oil compounds combining reversed-phase high-performance liquid chromatography with off-line high-resolution mass spectrometry
A reversed-phase separation technique was developed in a previous study (Loegel et al., 2012) and successfully applied to the de-asphalted fraction of crude oil. However, to the best of our knowledge, the molecular-level characterization of oil fractions obtained by reversed-phase high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) coupled with high-resolution mass spectrometry (MS) has not yet been repAuthorsArum Sim, Yunju Cho, Daae Kim, Matthias Witt, Justin E. Birdwell, Byung Ju Kim, Sunghwan KimSimultaneous Gaussian and exponential inversion for improved analysis of shales by NMR relaxometry
Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) relaxometry is commonly used to provide lithology-independent porosity and pore-size estimates for petroleum resource evaluation based on fluid-phase signals. However in shales, substantial hydrogen content is associated with solid and fluid signals and both may be detected. Depending on the motional regime, the signal from the solids may be best described using eiAuthorsKathryn E. Washburn, Endre Anderssen, Sarah J. Vogt, Joseph D. Seymour, Justin E. Birdwell, Catherine M. Kirkland, Sarah L. CoddApplication of binomial-edited CPMG to shale characterization
Unconventional shale resources may contain a significant amount of hydrogen in organic solids such as kerogen, but it is not possible to directly detect these solids with many NMR systems. Binomial-edited pulse sequences capitalize on magnetization transfer between solids, semi-solids, and liquids to provide an indirect method of detecting solid organic materials in shales. When the organic solidsAuthorsKathryn E. Washburn, Justin E. BirdwellIn-place oil shale resources in the saline-mineral and saline-leached intervals, Parachute Creek Member of the Green River Formation, Piceance Basin, Colorado
A recent U.S. Geological Survey analysis of the Green River Formation of the Piceance Basin in western Colorado shows that about 920 and 352 billion barrels of oil are potentially recoverable from oil shale resources using oil-yield cutoffs of 15 and 25 gallons per ton (GPT), respectively. This represents most of the high-grade oil shale in the United States. Much of this rich oil shale is found iAuthorsJustin E. Birdwell, Tracey J. Mercier, Ronald C. Johnson, Michael E. Brownfield, John D. DietrichDifferentiation of pre-existing trapped methane from thermogenic methane in an igneous-intruded coal by hydrous pyrolysis
So as to better understand how the gas generation potential of coal changes with increasing rank, same-seam samples of bituminous coal from the Illinois Basin that were naturally matured to varying degrees by the intrusion of an igneous dike were subjected to hydrous pyrolysis (HP) conditions of 360 °C for 72 h. The accumulated methane in the reactor headspace was analyzed for δ13C and δ2H, and moAuthorsRobert F. Dias, Michael D. Lewan, Justin E. Birdwell, Maciej J. KotarbaMultivariate analysis of ATR-FTIR spectra for assessment of oil shale organic geochemical properties
In this study, attenuated total reflectance (ATR) Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) was coupled with partial least squares regression (PLSR) analysis to relate spectral data to parameters from total organic carbon (TOC) analysis and programmed pyrolysis to assess the feasibility of developing predictive models to estimate important organic geochemical parameters. The advantage of ATR-AuthorsKathryn E. Washburn, Justin E. BirdwellApplication of uniaxial confining-core clamp with hydrous pyrolysis in petrophysical and geochemical studies of source rocks at various thermal maturities
Understanding changes in petrophysical and geochemical parameters during source rock thermal maturation is a critical component in evaluating source-rock petroleum accumulations. Natural core data are preferred, but obtaining cores that represent the same facies of a source rock at different thermal maturities is seldom possible. An alternative approach is to induce thermal maturity changes by labAuthorsMichael D. Lewan, Justin E. BirdwellChanges in porosity and organic matter phase distribution monitored by NMR relaxometry following hydrous pyrolysis under uniaxial confinement
Artificial maturation methods are used to induce changes in source rock thermal maturity without the uncertainties that arise when comparing natural samples from a particular basin that often represent different levels of maturation and different lithofacies. A novel uniaxial confinement clamp was used on Woodford Shale cores in hydrous pyrolysis experiments to limit sample expansion by simulatingAuthorsKathryn E. Washburn, Justin E. Birdwell, Michael D. Lewan, Michael MillerA new laboratory approach to shale analysis using NMR relaxometry
Low-field nuclear magnetic resonance (LF-NMR) relaxometry is a non-invasive technique commonly used to assess hydrogen-bearing fluids in petroleum reservoir rocks. Measurements made using LF-NMR provide information on rock porosity, pore-size distributions, and in some cases, fluid types and saturations (Timur, 1967; Kenyon et al., 1986; Straley et al., 1994; Brown, 2001; Jackson, 2001; Kleinberg,AuthorsKathryn E. Washburn, Justin E. BirdwellLow-field nuclear magnetic resonance characterization of organic content in shales
Low-field nuclear magnetic resonance (LF-NMR) relaxometry is a non-invasive technique commonly used to assess hydrogen-bearing fluids in petroleum reservoir rocks. Longitudinal T1 and transverse T2 relaxation time measurements made using LF-NMR on conventional reservoir systems provides information on rock porosity, pore size distributions, and fluid types and saturations in some cases. Recent impAuthorsKathryn E. Washburn, Justin E. Birdwell, Joseph D. Seymour, Catherine Kirkland, Sarah J. Vogt