RESEARCH ON HOLLOW FIBERSMembrane separation using hollow fibersis one of the emerging technologies thatundergone a rapid growth in the pastdecades.. .. .. .. {Continued inside}

KING FAHD UNIVERSITY OF PETROLEUM AND MINERALS

Newsletter, Feb. 2016

CENT VISIT TO SAUDI ARABIA BASIC INDUSTRIES CORPORATION

Upcoming Events . . . .

SEMINAR on the application of advancemodelling tools in the petrochemicalindustry.Presenter: Dr. Ramsey BunamaDate: 2nd of March, 2015Venue: Bld 6, Rm 125Time: 1.30 PM

SEMINAR on multi-scale nanoparticlescontrast agents.Presenter: Dr. Ahmed.Date: 30th of March, 2016

PRESENTATION by Dr. Abuzar Khan on hisprevious research works on 23rd ofMarch, 2016

EARLIER CAREER CHEMIST AWARDDr. Naseer IQBAL of CENT was awarded theEarlier Career Chemist Award" during The2015 international Chemical Congress of PACCHEM™ ..{details inside}

NEW PATENTCENT researchers received a newpatent titled “Method for producingPt-free electrocatalyst for fuel cells andbatteries” . . . . . ..{details inside}

NEW CENT MEMBERDr. Abuzar Khan is a new post-doctoral fellow at CENT, His research focuses on synthesisof advanced & functional nanostructured material and their application for thephotocatalytic degradation of organic pollutants and photocatalytic organic functionalgroup transformation

CENT researchers paid an industrial visit to SABIC onthe 20th day of January, 2016. The activities during thevisit include exploratory stage meeting between CENTresearchers and SABIC scientist .. .. .. ..{details inside}

CENT Laboratories

Synthesis Lab(Building1-Rm 116B)

Application Lab(Building1-Rm 116A)

Characterization Lab(Building1-Rm 119)

Nanopowder Engineering Lab(Building1-Rm 120)

Imaging Lab(Building 15- Rm 3201)

Organic Nano-hybrid group Lab

(building 15, Room 3317 -3319)

THE CENT-SABIC MEETING OPENS WITH STRONGPARTICIPATION FROM SCIENTISTS IN BOTH ORGANIZATION

In his speech, Dr. Zain Yamani gave brief information on the

history of CENT as a KFUPM organ founded in Nov. 2007 based

on Royal Fund donation in Nov. 2006. He elaborated on the

CENT vision to be an internationally recognized leading

research center that develops innovative research and cutting

edge knowledge in the field of Nanoscience and

Nanotechnology. He also emphasized on one of the CENT

objectives to establish Industrial Partnerships with relevant

companies and entrepreneurs as a step toward

commercialization, in coordination with DTV.

At the start of the meeting, , Mr. Al-Naddah welcomed CENT

team and emphasized on the importance of the collaboration

agreement which has been recently signed between SABIC and

KFUPM. He also highlighted the significance of the agreement

toward achieving goal of becoming an enabler and creator of

new technologies. He also gave an overview of SABIC research

portfolio focusing on Chemicals SBU. Majority of the CHSBU

portfolio are in research stage which is a real challenge and

requires a lot of efforts in order to make the expected

achievement.

Newsletter, Feb. 2016

In his presentation, Dr. Oki

Muraza highlighted the

opportunity & challenges

with the use of cost effective

catalysts in the conversion of

methanol to propylene as a

pillar in the valorization of

gas to petrochemicals.

Dr. Nasiruzzaman discussed about

the design and synthesis of re-

usable and green nanomaterials for

specialty chemicals in his

presentation. He also addressed

the potential contribution to

SABIC including Olefins to more

expensive chemicals.

Dr. Khalid Karim shared

his knowledge on the

technological approach of

catalyst design and the

selection of active metal to

find alternate process/

catalyst based on alternate

Feedstock.

Dr. Khalid Ali Almajnouni gave

an overview on the Light Naphtha

Catalytic Cracking project in

collaboration with KFUPM which

has developed more than three

novel zeolite based catalysts that

give high yields of light olefins.

Dr. Abdullah Al-Qahtani highlighted the new Glycol and

Oxygenates technology development including global

technology structure, scope and Key competencies from

catalyst development, piloting capabilities and

commercial implementation support.

Newsletter, Feb. 2016

CENT-SABIC VISIT IN PICTURES

Newsletter, Feb. 2016

HOLLOW FIBRE RESEARCH AT CENTMembrane separation using hollow fibers is one of the emerging technologies that undergone a rapid growth in the past decades. Hollow fiber plays an important role in gas separation and had also found application in other fields due to its high separation areas and selectivity. Hollow fiber membrane modules are the most used module configuration in gas separation industry because of their unique characteristics of self-support, high membrane packing density and high membrane surface to volume ratio.In a video available on CENT website, a polysulfone hollow fibers was prepared by dry-wet spinning technique using a self-fabricated hollow fiber spinning apparatus. In this process, an extruded fiber was passed through an air gap where a controlled evaporation took place. Due to the local evaporation, a high polymer concentration is necessary to form a dense (gas selective) membrane top layer is created near the outer surface, After passing through the air gap, the nascent fiber enters a coagulation bath where phase inversion occurs and the membrane structure is arrested.To prepare macrovoid free hollow fibers, it is important to play with several parameters which includes Spinneret dimensions, Air gap distance, Bore and dope fluid extrusion rate, Composition of bore and dope fluid, Take up speed or draw ratio and Composition of coagulation bath to optimize the properties of hollow fibers.In near future, we hope to apply the same technique to make hollow fibers from different polymeric materials for different gas separation or purification.

The video is also available at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CpFaq_TpkOM

RESEARCH CORNER

For comments, contact 00966 13 8604363 cent@kfupm.edu.sa;

BIOMASS

COMPOSITE

FIBRE

GRAPHENE

MATERIALS

MEMBRANE

MICROWAVE

MORPHOLOGY

SENSOR

STRUCTURE

SYNTHESIS

ZEOLITE

SOLVE THE PUZZLE

NEW PATENT ISSUED TO CENT RESEARCHERS ON AMETHOD FOR PRODUCING PT-FREE ELECTROCATALYST

CENT researchers received a new patent titled “Methodfor producing Pt-free electrocatalyst for fuel cells andbatteries”, the invention documents which was filed onthe 25th of march, 2014 have now being issued on the 9th

day of February, 2016 with patent no 9257705 by the USpatent and trademark office.The invention involved a new method for synthesizing anitrogen-doped carbon electrocatalyst by performingselective catalytic oxidative polymerization of solid anilinesalt on a carbon support with a catalytic systemcontaining Fe3+/H2O2 to obtain a mixture, and then heattreating the mixture under a nitrogen atmosphere at900°C. The inventors are Dr. Belabbes AhmedMerzougui, Mr Saheed Abidemi Bukola, Zain HassanAbdallah Yamani and Tahar Laoui

DR. NASEER IQBAL RECEIVED EARLIER CAREER CHEMISTAWARD Dr. Naseer IQBAL was awarded "Earlier

Career Chemist Award" during The 2015International Chemical Congress of PacificBasin Societies (PAC CHEM™), held in Honolulu,Hawaii, USA, December 15-20, 2015. The

conference was sponsored jointly by the American ChemicalSociety (ACS), the Canadian Society for Chemistry (CSC), theChemical Society of Japan (CSJ), the New Zealand Institute ofChemistry (NZIC), the Royal Australian Chemical Institute (RACI),the Korean Chemical Society (KCS), and the Chinese ChemicalSociety (CCS). The American Chemical Society was the hostsociety for the 2015 Congress.

4