Industrial Collaboration
The team efforts and the perseverance to achieve excellence in research has enabled the chemistry department to cater to the industry partner’s needs in R & D and to initiate new research projects. As a result, the Chemistry department has been very successful in procuring industry projects worth 12,700,000 USD. Given our close physical proximity to the largest oil company in the world (Saudi Aramco at Dhahran) consequently our R & D focus areas compromise natural gas and oil treatment, corrosion, scale inhibitors, fracturing and HT/HP cement applications.
Like, Stanford and UC Berkley, with their close proximity to Silicon Valley, the Chemistry department at KFUPM is helping boost overall R & D efforts and add value to the local industries in Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
The major contribution of Chemistry department in conjunction with Saudi Aramco and other industrial partners, is in designing and developing innovative research and potential products related to the upstream and downstream operation.
Upstream Oil and Gas
In upstream, the major goal of Chemistry department is to design, synthesis, and evaluate a series of chemicals for their use as; (i) corrosion inhibitors especially under acidic conditions and high temperature, (ii) development of viscoelastic surfactant (VES) based fracturing fluid and acid divergent for enhanced oil recovery. In addition, new polymers (linear, hyperbranched) and organic-inorganic hybrids for high-temperature hydraulic fracturing applications to ensure excellent proppant carrying abilities, anti-scalants and their non-damaging effects on the reservoir.
Downstream Oil and Gas
In this direction, we are closely linked with the Carbon Management Division of Saudi Aramco (SA) and the catalysis laboratory at KFUPM. We are well aligned with the Kingdom’s long-term vision of oil free economy (vision 2030) of utilizing oil and gas products for the synthesis of chemicals and CO2 valorization for valuables employing homogeneous and heterogeneous catalysis.
Green Energy and Sustainability
The Chemistry department is leading the research in both green energy and sustainability. Our researchers are developing photo(electro)catalytic materials, in particular for solar hydrogen production and energy storage devices such as batteries and supercapcitors employing crude petroleum products. Also, the researchers are working on the development of novel methodologies for the re-utilization and purification of industrial wastewater and seawater. Chemistry department has developed an efficient process of purification of industrial wastewater with an efficiency of 99%. Furthermore, chemistry researchers are enthusiastic in developing green chemistry based scale inhibitors (for iron sulfides, calcium sulfate and carbonate scales). Moreover, the removal of air pollutants (namely NOx, SO2, and volatile hydrocarbons) is a part of the chemistry department research activity.