Sarah Sausan
TomKat Graduate Fellow for Translational Research
Research Lab: Roland Horne
Year Awarded: 2025
Sarah Sausan is a doctoral researcher at the Stanford Geothermal Program and a PhD candidate in Energy Science and Engineering (ESE) at Stanford University. Her research focuses on multi-scale fracture characterization in enhanced geothermal systems, in collaboration with the U.S. Department of Energy, Sandia National Laboratories, Utah FORGE (Frontier Observatory for Research in Geothermal Energy), and Fervo Energy.
She was awarded the 2022 Stanford LeadX fellowship, the 2023 Marcello Lippmann Award, the 2023 Stanford Impact Founder prize, the 2024 Chevron Energy fellowship, and the 2025 ESE’s Excellence in Student Leadership and Excellence in Teaching Assistance prizes. She served as chairperson in technical sessions at the Geothermal Rising Conference (2024, 2025), the Stanford Geothermal Workshop (2023, 2024), and the Society of Petroleum Engineers Western Region Meeting (2024).
Before joining Stanford, she was based in Houston as a Product Manager at Halliburton, where she managed a global team responsible for launching and developing software technologies for energy production. She holds an MS in Energy Resources Engineering from Stanford University and a BS in Geological Engineering from Universitas Gadjah Mada (Indonesia).
Translational Research on Multiscale Fracture Characterization in Enhanced Geothermal Systems
Enhanced Geothermal Systems (EGS) enable the development of reservoirs that are otherwise considered suboptimal due to lower temperatures or reduced flow rates. Recent commercial advancements, such as those demonstrated at Utah FORGE (Frontier Observatory for Research in Geothermal Energy) and by Fervo Energy, have been achieved by creating additional fractures within geothermal reservoirs using proppants. While the innovative techniques of propped stimulation hold promise, characterization of propped EGS fractures is vital to quantify their connectivity, productivity, and heat transfer capabilities, thereby optimizing the performance and economic viability of EGS resources.
This research aims to develop integrative techniques for characterizing propped EGS fractures across multiple spatial scales: well, inter-well, and field. At the well scale, we developed a novel chemical sensor designed to improve the detection and quantification of inflow from EGS fractures. At the inter-well scale, we are developing a numerical fracture flow model to analyze fluid flow and heat transfer within EGS fractures. At the field scale, we conduct and analyze tracer tests in operational EGS fields to validate the fracture flow model and create a comprehensive model for managing propped EGS fractures.
We have established strong collaborations with national laboratories, government agencies, and industry partners (e.g., Sandia National Laboratories, Utah FORGE, and Fervo Energy) to advance the real-world applicability of multiscale fracture characterization techniques. Ongoing partnerships during and beyond the TomKat fellowship will facilitate the potential commercialization of our solutions.