Dr Yaw A. Boakye-Ansah joined UENR in 2014 following his MSc (2012–2013) at the University of Aberdeen, BSc (2005–2009) at Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology. He has recently completed his PhD (2017–2021) at the University of Strathclyde, and is currently serving as the Acting Head of Department of Petroleum and Natural Gas Engineering.

Working on the similarities and contrasts between drainage in soils and foams, Dr. Boakye-Ansah has created a niche that compares materials (porous media and foams) which are described by similar physical laws but are bounded by varying physical properties. Foams are interesting scientifically in their own right(!), and secondly they are important in a multitude of engineering operations (e.g. froth flotation in minerals processing, and foam improved oil recovery). Drainage in soils is important in many areas of science not limited to hydrology, environmental engineering, soil science, civil engineering and petroleum engineering. Hence, knowledge in these two research areas is relevant in many major global economic area, not limited to groundwater flow and sustainability.

Work on drainage has primarily been at the continuum scale. One major research success in drainage has been modelling flow in unsaturated porous media, and demonstrating the role that capillary and conductivity laws play in drainage processes in soils and foams. These findings can be applied to an irrigation process for agriculture or a recovery process in the case of remediation of contaminated soils.

His recent works include research on waste management in Ghana’s oil and gas industry; considering natural gas as a transition fuel; natural gas transportation; pipelines operations and asset integrity management.

Dr. Boakye-Ansah is also interested in reservoir engineering focusing on relative permeability studies, reservoir fluid properties and interactions in the saturated porous media that influence both injection and recovery processes.”