KAUST’s Water Desalination and Reuse Center (WDRC) is pioneering the way KAUST works with industry. They were the first center in the University to set up industry partnerships under the Center Industry Affiliates Program (CIAP), the first to set up pilot plants and the first center to utilize the role of the Center Liaison Officer (CLO), which is one of the many duties of Research Engineer Shahnawaz Sinha.

We sat down to talk with him about how the center works with industry.

How do industries work with KAUST?

KAUST is unique as the University has set up the KAUST Industry Collaboration Program (KICP) where any industry that wants to join and work with KAUST, can and be a part of the bigger umbrella of KICP. They are the heart of all the engagement that happens here.

But when a company wants to be specific and wants to work with a center, then they join our Center Industry Affiliates Program (CIAP). 

Who decides on the focus of the research?

We align the industry’s interests and our interests together. Currently we have five areas of interest. The first one is desalination. If an industry comes to us and says they have some desalination issues then right away they are aligning with our research strategy. Wastewater and water reuse is also very important to us and another area of research. The third area has to do with new materials like a new type of membrane or new types of nanomaterials. The fourth area relates to hydrologic systems in regards to monitoring, sensing and modeling the Earth to help us do predictive models of flooding and drought. And finally, we have an area that is industry specific that focuses on sustainable water technologies, and agriculture and aquaculture issues.

If something falls into an area that we are not focused right now, we won’t be interested. We are looking for research that provides mutual benefits between the industry and us.

Why are the pilot plants important to the industry projects?

We do a lot of exciting research in our lab, but if this research does not end up with industry then we are not benefitting the industry or the society. What we want to do is benefit the industry and they want to be able to implement our research at the demonstration or industry level. So we need to do research on an intermediate scale for such implementation.

When you do bench-scale testing, everything is done in small scale. But with our projects, we needed a pilot plant to perform intermediate scale research where everything is running continuously. With a pilot plant, we can do long term assessments that are 6 months, one year or even two years. In the short term the system might work great, but in the long term it could be less effective. The pilot plants help us determine this.

How much research is done in the lab before going to a pilot plant?

We do both applied and fundamental research with the industry projects. When working in small scale, you have more control and you could look into a lot of different research under different experimental conditions. This gives you a very good understanding of basic science and fundamental knowledge – and those need to be tested, as they are critical. Then you can look into piloting.

With piloting, we can take the new ideas and scale them up. This way they can be proven and existing ideas can be improved. The lab and the pilot plants are complimentary. Both are important.

Why is desalination research of special interest?

Saudi Arabia is one of the largest desalinators in the world. A quarter of all desalination is happening here. But they are mostly using a thermal based desalination process. We believe this is an energy intensive desalination process and that eventually they won’t be able to continue with it under the current practices, as it’s not sustainable.

Membrane based desalination will eventually play a greater role within Saudi Arabia, and currently there is one company holding the majority share of membrane desalination in the Kingdom. They approached KAUST and wanted to work with us in a research project. We thought this project would be a good fit for us in the sense that we would have a better understanding of how the membrane desalination is done in Saudi Arabia.

How does the research partnership work with this company?

With this project, we had the opportunity to visit the desalination plants in Saudi Arabia –and that gave us an opportunity to interact with the people on the ground like the managers, operators and others.

This interaction was very rewarding for us. We collected samples within the plant and were able to understand the types of issues and challenges the plant faced and see them operating with these challenges. We then brought these challenges and issues to KAUST and designed a small pilot plant so we could simulate some of the issues and come up with possible solutions for them.

What’s great about this research is that it isn’t being done in isolation. Instead we duplicated the issues and work through them to make the operation more effective and more efficient. It’s not just about making better membranes, but optimizing the downstream operation from all areas.

How are the industry researchers connected to the project?

In Saudi Arabia, the industry appreciates what we are doing. Their researchers and engineers are often working with us side-by-side. Working together with them at KAUST is a wonderful opportunity because some of the current technology can be unfolded or opened up and investigated, and by working together we can address their specific issues and challenges. They become more like a partner as we take the journey together to uncover the solutions.

Of course, we have defined objectives and defined goals. We work forward on them and share the knowledge. In the end they aren’t simply getting a completed research project, but are learning with us along the way. I think this type of interaction with the industry, where we know what is out there and have the opportunity to bring some of the actual issues and challenges back to the center is good for the course of the project. It becomes a win/win situation for both of us.

Why do you think the industry partnerships are so successful?

We are very lucky to have Gary Amy as the director of the center. He always knew the value of the industry and how the academic world and industry could work together. Plus, it’s also part of the design of KAUST. KAUST always wanted to have its research benefit society, industry and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. To do this, we need to work with industry.

With that understanding, when our center was inaugurated, we already planned to bring in industry to join our center as a partner. As of the end of 2013, we had 13 industry partners including DOW, SABIC and Saudi Aramco. We have done eight industry-funded projects, and this past December, we celebrated our 4^th annual CIAP meeting.

How do industries begin to work with the WDRC?

We begin by looking at what the industry needs and what is it that KAUST can offer. Matching the projects together is very important, and once we understand their issues and challenges, we then expand them into a proposal.

We submit it, they review it and then they fund us. We have two funding models: a 50 percent model and a 100 percent model. Some projects are 100 percent funded by the industry and that allows us to hire a post-doc researcher to help us on these projects.

We find that many industries want the 100 percent model, but because the research part of it the project is very important to us, we have the Office of Research Services (ORS) work with the industry so we both get something out it. Each project is tailored so we benefit and they benefit.

What is it that KAUST can offer?

An academic environment like KAUST gives you the opportunity to do more. There is a lot more independence and a lot more research freedom. That is something that is missing in the industry. With our resources we can dig deeper and then we can take it a step farther and duplicate our research in a pilot scale so the findings can be eventually replicated at a full-scale facility. It makes the research much more rewarding and exciting. In a traditional industry setting, you may want to dig deeper, but budget, resources or time won’t allow you.

What’s next for the WDRC?

Our journey with industry started not that long ago. Currently we are working with individual companies that are quite diverse including consulting, service providers, manufacturers and government entities. While we are working with each of them separately, we have created a platform where all the industries can come together. Eventually what we want is a multi-partner project where the research can benefit many companies together.

Another goal is to have more capabilities at our pilot facilities at KAUST. Not only do they broaden our capabilities, but also they help build excitement about the research with the industries involved.

By Michelle A. Ponto, KAUST News

Related links:

• Water Desalination and Reuse Center
• KAUST Industry Collaboration Program
• Office of Research Services