Masdar Institute Wins Three R&D Awards at ADRAC International Conference & Exhibition 2014

Faculty and Students Present 11 Scientific Papers on Clean Energy and Advanced Technology at Event Held in Abu Dhabi

Abu Dhabi-UAE: 05 March, 2014 – Masdar Institute of Science and Technology an independent, research-driven graduate-level university focused on advanced energy and sustainable technologies, today announced  that it has won three awards for research and development at the ADRAC International Conference & Exhibition 2014.

The awards included the receipt of the R&D Shield by Masdar Institute for successfully securing funding from the ADNOC R&D, the R&D Research Top Ideas for the ‘Digital Rock Physics’ project and R&D Research Top Ideas for the research project called ‘Smart Mud’. Two awards were received by Dr. Mohamed Sassi, Interim Dean of Faculty, while the third one was received by Dr. Irfan Saadat, Professor - Microsystems Engineering.

At ADRAC 2014, the Masdar Institute faculty and students presented 11 scientific papers, focusing on future energy, including one co-authored with Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Abu Dhabi’s Petroleum Institute,

Supported by Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) Operating Companies, the event held from 24–26 February in Abu Dhabi, hosted over 60 academic and research institutions and more than 2,000 attendees, attracting scientists, researchers, experts and students. The ADNOC Research & Development Academic Conference (ADRAC) gave professors and students an opportunity to network with industry experts and collaborate to find new solutions through effective research.

Dr. Fred Moavenzadeh, President, Masdar Institute, said: “The awards and the number of scientific papers presented by Masdar Institute faculty and students reflect the magnitude of our research projects in advanced and sustainable technologies across the energy system, including the oil and gas sector. With the support of the UAE leadership, we have established an institution that productively contributes to driving region-specific solutions. We foresee more industry collaborations enabled through forums such as the ADRAC International Conference & Exhibition.”

Masdar Institute has a number of research partnerships with companies such as BP, Total, Abu Dhabi Company for Onshore Oil Operations (ADCO) and Takreer in the oil and gas sector. Each partnership enables Masdar Institute to contribute its research capabilities towards achieving sustainability in that particular sector. For instance, geomechanics is technical domain relevant to a challenge in the oil and gas sector in which tat Masdar Institute has the skills and knowledge.

Among the presented papers, the paper on technology for enhanced oil recovery and reservoir monitoring was authored by Dr Irfan Saadat, Dr. Mohamed Sassi, and Dr. Amal Al Ghaferi from Masdar Institute, Dr Abdellatif Bouchalkha and Dr Khalid Al Hammadi from Petroleum Institute, as well as Dr. Tomás Palacios, Dr. Anantha Chandrakasan and Dr. Jeffrey Lang from MIT.

Student authors of various papers include Ayah Alassali, Iwona Cybulska, Fabian Bonk, Juan-Rodrigo Bastidas-Oyanedel, Ahmed Sodiq, Akinola A. Olanrewaju, Elham A. Abdulkarem, Oghare Victor Ogidiama, Saad Asadullah Sharief, Grzegorz Brudecki, Reda Farzanah, Charles C. Okaeme, Saif Saeed Al Mheiri, Jong Eun Ryu, Jungrae Park and Eun Sung Kan, Humair Nadeem, Shahid Rabbani.

Other Masdar Institute faculty authors of papers include Dr. Mette Hedegaard Thomsen, Dr. Jens Ejbye Schmidt, Dr. Tariq Shamim, Dr. TieJun Zhang, Dr. Mohamed Sassi, Dr. Daniel Choi, and Dr. Jerald Yoo.

The subjects covered by the scientific papers included biofuel production from native halophytes, production of volatile fatty acids from Abu Dhabi’s organic waste, evaluation of using Hallawi Palm production of bioethanol and biogas, systems for controlling post-combustion nitrogen oxides (NOx), bioethanol and fertilizer produced from low quality date fruits, effect of different biomass on methane yield, expanding-solvent steam-assisted gravity drainage, pressure buildup due to fine deposition in trickle-bed reactor, smart on-chip wireless hydrogen sulfide sensor for oil exploration and biological removal of hydrogen sulfide in natural gas.