COP28

Over 144 billion cubic meters of "associated natural gas" worth US$21 billion was torched in oilfields worldwide in 2022, drawing the angst of environmental and global-warming advocacy groups. This study proposes an operations research model for seeking the optimum mix of gas re-injection, flaring, and sale. Model results postulate scenarios for achieving near-zero flaring. Capital availability, rather than fiat flaring controls, is shown to be the dominant determinant of sparking mitigation.

The flaring of large volumes of natural gas produced as a by-product of crude oil has puzzled the energy-hungry world for a long. In recent years, it has also drawn the angst of the environmental and global-warming advocacy groups. The issues behind gas flaring are complex, involving a dynamic interplay of geosciences, engineering, economics, finance, and natural resource policy-making.

The purpose of this research is to analyze the associated gas problem quantitatively from a countrywide perspective. Unlike prior studies, this work focuses on the upstream side, where the crucial strategic decisions are made upfront. To this end, a mathematical model is proposed for seeking the optimal integrated management strategy for the said national resource. The model is based on the Mixed Integer Linear Programming (MILP) technique and consists of scores of techno-economic decision variables and constraint equations along with a profit maximization objective.

The model is general in nature but is applied herein to Nigeria as a case study. Several simulation runs are made to provide results for explanatory and prediction purposes. Model results indicate, for example, that a minimum gas price of $4.4/Mscf and minimum spend of $22B are jointly required to achieve zero-flaring, yielding a $10B profit. This is achievable by reinjecting all associated gas produced from medium and large-sized fields but gathering and selling all gas from small fields. Capital availability, rather than nationwide government-decreed flaring control, is shown to be the dominant determinant of profitable flaring mitigation. The model has proven to be a valuable tool for establishing the inter-relations between the key problem parameters under various pricing and resource-based scenarios and for forecasting the trajectory of the gas industry in multiple jurisdictions.

Dr. Gbubemi Harrison is conducting the research.

The global challenges of conventional energy shortages and environmental pollution have assumed critical significance in pursuing sustainable development. However, deploying SGs, a fundamental solution, requires multiple new infrastructures, each vulnerable to various risks to security, reliability, compliance, and human safety. Employing the Delphi method, this research prioritizes these risks through the analytical hierarchy process and presents a comprehensive risk-based framework for evaluating SG implementation risks in the UAE.

Smart grid deployment involves the implementation of multiple new infrastructures with vulnerabilities. Security, reliability, compliance, and human safety are, therefore, paramount concerns. In this research, a risk-based approach is presented for evaluating the risks associated with smart grid implementation in the UAE. To identify the significant risks associated with the implementation of a smart grid in the UAE, the Delphi method will be used. These risks will be then prioritized using the analytical hierarchy process (AHP) method, and then recommendations on best practices to overcome these challenges will be proposed.

The expected outcomes will be a scientific report concentrating on hazard identification while relegating subjective risk estimation. This work contributes significantly to efficiently guiding resource allocations and optimizing practices at all levels of the smart grid platform to identify, measure, minimize, and ultimately engineer out the risks using engineering resources, ensuring that they are acceptable and approved.

This research is led by Dr. Maissa Farhat, Dr. Muataz Al Hazza, and Prof. Ahmad Sakhrieh.

In recent years, the UAE has made progress towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 6. b, which aims to "support and strengthen the participation of local communities in improving water and sanitation management. However, considerable challenges, such as the highest impact to the lowest, deterioration of groundwater and reduction of its quality with priority, limited wastewater treatment, use of water in landscaping, increasing population, and use of water in the industry remain. This research utilizes AHP and Delphi Methods to integrate and prioritize these challenges and propose solutions.

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) is described as a desert country facing significant challenges in managing water resources due to its arid climate and rapid population growth. In recent years, the UAE government has prioritized sustainable water management practices. It has made progress towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 6. b, which aims to “support and strengthen the participation of local communities in improving Water and sanitation management. The primary purpose of this research is to investigate the UAE’s significant challenges in achieving SDG6.b Goal of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals for 2030. Concurrently, this research concentrates on overcoming these challenges. As one of the best qualitative methods, the Delphi method was used to explore these challenges and how to integrate Industry 4.0 to overcome those challenges.

Five experts from various areas linked to and supporting the water field were invited and accepted to be involved in this research. This research involved a comprehensive approach to prioritize the selected challenges to achieve high consistency.

Implementing AHP and Delphi Methods incorporating two rounds of evaluation and expert feedback to reach an 80% consistency threshold. The first round was about identifying and evaluating a set of challenges using the AHP method, which compares challenges based on their importance. While the second round was implemented to clarify the prioritization of challenges, this iterative process allowed adjustments based on expert insights, which increased consistency in the prioritization results.

Achieving 80% consistency by making two rounds of implementation was an important milestone in this research. It ensured that the prioritization results were reliable and consistent.

The research is being conducted by Dr. Muataz Al Hazza and Amel Alnaqbi (AURAK Student).

Urban living presents growing health concerns, including increased exposure to air pollution, noise, and rising temperatures. Sensor technology advancements have paved the way for portable and cost-effective environmental monitoring systems. This study involves placing wireless sensors on public transport vehicles to monitor real-time air quality. This research, conducted in Ras Al Khaimah, measures primary pollutants like CO, NO2, O3, humidity, temperature, and noise levels.

The urban environment is facing a growing threat to public health, driven by rising levels of air pollutants, increased noise pollution, and a higher frequency of hot days. Accurate assessment of different air pollutants, as well as air temperature and humidity, is necessary to study the impact of air quality on different health endpoints. Recent developments in sensor technology have allowed the deployment of portable and relatively low-cost environmental pollutants monitoring systems.

This research presents an experimental study on real-time air pollution monitoring using wireless sensors on public transport vehicles. This research aims to measure CO, NO2, O3, humidity, temperature, and noise level to assess the air quality in Ras Al Khaimah using portable air pollutant sensors. Predefined public bus routes in Ras Al Khaimah are selected to measure the exposure to emissions.

All routes originated from al Manar Mall with different destinations (American University of Ras Al Khaimah, Ras Al Khaimah Airport, Al Jazeera Al Hamra area, and Shaam area). The collected data will be analyzed and correlated to other parameters like traffic, industrial activities, and human density. The results of this research may inspire future efforts to produce a real-time environmental map for Ras Al Khaimah.

The research is being conducted by Prof. Ahmad Sakhrieh and Dr. Mohamed Al Zarooni.

Many countries, including the UAE, have already embarked on a direction towards an energy transition by forming market inducements for hydrogen renewable energy. Since hydrogen possesses extremely high gravimetric energy density and nearly zero greenhouse gas emissions fuel on combustion, the only by-product is water. This study has received AURAK's seed grant funding for an innovative research project development of sustainable Nano photocatalysts for renewable hydrogen production by solar-driven water splitting.

This seed grant proposal aims to pursue research at the forefront of research interest: renewable energy production using sustainable Nano-photocatalyst for green hydrogen production by solar-driven water splitting (H2O/H2 + 1/2O2).

This approach is a highly promising way to harness solar energy and reduce the consumption of fossil fuel and CO2 to tackle climate change and is well aligned with the UN-SDG’s 7. Many countries, including the UAE, have embarked on an energy transition by forming market inducements for H2 renewable energy.

In this regard, the visible-light-driven photocatalysis processes, including transition metal oxides and sulfides with sacrificial reagents, are progressing. However, the target-oriented sustainable photocatalytic process for renewable H2 production by solar-driven water splitting in terms of high quantum yield in the visible region is yet to be accomplished. The existing approaches are affected by the recombination of photocharges, which causes a detrimental role in the efficiency of photocatalysts, and other suppressing concerns are associated, such as back-reaction, the band gap of photocatalysts in the visible light region, catalytic support, the role of co-catalyst, and high surface area as it provides more adsorption sites.

This seed grant project aims to design and synthesize efficient nano photocatalysts based on their efficiency, economic viability, and environmental sustainability metrics. It aims to assess the feasibility of solar-driven H2 production and make it accessible for industrial application. Furthermore, the research infrastructure and facilities will be established for photocatalysis that will facilitate the AURAK’s faculties and students for long-term research activities and open collaborative research opportunities within the AURAK and Wayne State University (WSU). The research findings will be relevant to the publication/patent and beneficial for the scientific community.

The research is being conducted by Prof. Irshad Ahmad and Dr. Shagufta Waseem.