Led by scientists at the Technical University of Delft (‘Delphi team’), ca. 30 international companies in the geo-energy sector finance together new options in the field of geophysical imaging. With modern geo-imaging technology it is possible to look into the earth at large depths, making the complex geological structures visible and showing the composition and properties of rocks in great detail.
Advanced geophysical imaging is vital for the exploration and production of the Earth’s resources (hydrocarbons and minerals). Furthermore, it may play a crucial role in reducing the CO2 footprint on our planet by CO2 sequestration in a safe and sustainable manner. On a smaller depth scale, this technology can be utilized for geothermal activities or characterizing the near-surface area for engineering applications like underground construction and installing wind turbines.
The Delphi research is not only important for production, injection and engineering processes. Better understanding of the complex dynamic processes in the Earth – think at earthquakes and volcanic eruptions – is also of significant importance for society as a whole. In particular, geological layering represents an impressive archive that reveals the changing natural environment on planet Earth over millions of years. It is expected that the geo-sciences will play a key role in the research on climate change, revealing the many big changes in the Earth’s climate in the past.

The Delphi Consortium, founded in 1982 by professor Guus Berkhout, and currently directed by Dr. Eric Verschuur, provides participating companies insight into the world of the latest technological opportunities in the field of advanced acquisition, closed-loop, full wavefield seismic imaging and high-resolution characterization of the target area. The Delft research group focuses on the major bottlenecks that all companies have in common. Therefore, the research is fundamental and forward-looking (‘strategic fundamental’) and does not aim at solving specific problems of individual companies.
The research findings – being distributed in the form of reports, presentations and algorithms – are pre-competitive and are used by all participating companies to update their vision of the future. In addition, the Delphi algorithms function as an enabling ‘technology platform’ for the renewal of their products and services portfolio. Delphi creates options for the future. The participating companies make their own choices about what they do with those options.

The research within Delphi is based on maximizing the information from geophysical measurements and optimally making use of prior knowledge in terms of gravity data, EM and geologic information. Within this framework the topics of acquisition, processing, imaging and characterization of geophysical measurements are fully inter-connected, where the resolution requirements in the characterization phase drive the innovations in acquisition, within the given economic constraints. This is according to the Cyclic Innovation Model (CIM), which is the basis of our strategies.
The full wavefield approach ensures that all higher-order scattering in the measurements are considered as part of the total illumination of the subsurface. In this way, all ‘noise’ in the data becomes ‘signal’, multi-scattering problems become opportunities for additional illumination! Furthermore, the strategic use of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning technology provides a great support to our physics-based solutions.
In the long run, Delphi aims at extending its research to other application fields such as medical imaging and non-destructive testing. We believe that – despite its difference in scales – the high-resolution challenges and potential innovations are common in these fields. Examples are imaging in the human body in areas with bone (the chest, the brain) and using all high-order scattering in complex constructions.