Inaugurating Activities of the Saudi International Water Technologies Conferences 2011
Dr. Turki Bin Saud: Research, Development and Investment in water technologies are a strategic choice for the kingdom25/12/1432
Prince Dr. Turki Bin Saud Bin Mohammad Al Saud, KACST Vice President for Research Institutes emphasized that research, development and investment in water technologies are considered a strategic choice for the kingdom of Saudi Arabia because of the few traditional water sources, the high cost of conserving these resources and the expensive cost of desalinating water and treating it.
The Prince’s statement came during his inauguration of the Activities of the Saudi International Water Technologies Conferences 2011, organized by KACST in its headquarters, on behalf of Dr. Mohammed Ibrahim Al-Suwaiyel, KACST President and in the presence of Eng. Abdullah Alhussein, Minister of Water and Electricity, Dr. Abdulaziz Mohamed Al Swailem, KACST Vice President for Scientific Research Support and a good number of international and national stakeholders including specialists and experts.
Dr. Turki went on stating that the increasing demand on water as a result of accelerating population rise and the urban and industrial development witnessed by the kingdom doubled pressure on the limited water sources that can be directly made use of, consequently securing purified and safe to use water is one of the vital challenges confronted by the development plans in the kingdom.
KACST Vice President for Research Institutes cleared that out of this concept, the National Plan for Science, Technology and Innovation (NPSTI), supervised by KACST, has given water technologies the first priority among 15 scientific scopes adding that strategic priorities of water technologies in the kingdom have been specified and prepared in collaboration with concerned authorities and bodies and are being currently carried out on the kingdom level. Prince Turki revealed that these priorities concentrate on water researches, desalination and technologies, treating wastewater, purifying drinking water and water resources and caring for innovative ideas in this essential sector that constitute a vital tributary to advance the science, technology and innovation sector to transfer the kingdom from a petroleum-based economy into a science and knowledge-based economy.
Dr. Turki stated that King Abdullah Initiative for Solar Water Desalination is one of NPSTI main fruits that targets finding technology solutions for water desalination with the minimum cost to contribute to supporting the national economy. The Prince added that advanced technologies have been developed through the joint center for Nanotechnology researches including solar energy systems and specialized water desalination membranes while work is currently going on to construct the largest solar desalination plant on the world-level in Khafji city with daily production capacity up to 30000 cubic meters as the first phase of the initiative that is expected to be finalized during the year 1434h.
Concluding his speech, Prince Turki expressed his aspiration that this scientific gathering contributes to efforts of fostering water technologies in the kingdom and the world as a whole, meantime stressing KACST’s readiness to harness all its potentialities and expertise to crystallize outcomes of this conference to provide the benefits to the largest number of water technologies stakeholders.
Dr. Omar Alharbi, the Chairman of the scientific committee of the conference and Director of KACST National Center for Water Technology, indicated that this conference aims at reviewing and discussing the latest developments of King Abdullah Initiative for Solar Water Desalination (Al Khafji Solar Water Desalination Project) that is considered as a leading and unique initiative on the world level, spotting light on local and international experiments besides the latest developments achieved through research and development in areas of water desalination and treatment.
Dr. Alharbi highlighted that the main topics of this conference cover technologies of solar water desalination, utilization and applications of specialized membrane technology in water desalination, future direction and trends in thermal desalination. These topics also include sewerage water treatment technologies through biological treatment, bioreactors membranes, chemo-physic treatment and advanced treatment.
Then Activities of the Saudi International Water Technologies Conferences that included 17 work paper presented in 4 sessions on the span of 2 days started. These papers discuss the latest scientific in research and localization in areas of water desalination technologies with the aim of spreading out awareness in the kingdom about the concept of solar water desalination, specialized water desalination membranes besides successful international experiments in this field.
Activities of the first day of this conference extended for two sessions. The first session, chaired by Ibrahim Babli, from KACST, elaborated on King Abdullah Initiative for Solar Water Desalination. Prince Dr. Turki presented the first paper through which he scanned phases of this initiative and its role in contributing to water security and supporting the national economy. Through the second paper, Dr. Omar Al-Harbi
Director of KACST National Center for Water Technology and Dr. Karl Lehnert, Project Executive for several KACST / IBM Joint Nanotechnology Research Activities, USA spotted light on Al-Khafji Solar Water Desalination plant.
The third paper tackled the issue of New NanoMembranes for Water Desalination and was discussed by Dr. Ankit Vora
Research Scientist at IBM Almaden Research Center, San Jose, CA, USA and Dr. Suleiman Alfadul, Director of the Follow-up Scientific Research, KACST General Directorate for Research Grants.
Ultra High Concentrating Photovoltaics (UHCPV) was the topic of the fourth paper that was discussed by Dr. Theodore Kessel
Senior Technical Staff, IBM, USA and Dr. Hussam Khonkar
UHCPV KACST Researcher Assignee at IBM T.J.Watson Research Center, Yorktown Height, New York and the Researcher at KACST Energy Research.
The second session chaired by Dr. Adel Bushnak, Chairman, Bushnak Group, Saudi Arabia was devoted to discuss water desalination using specialized membranes and comprehended 4 scientific papers; the first of which concentrated on the Recent Progress and Perspectives in Desalination with Integrated Membrane Systems and was presented by Prof. Enrique Drioli
Professor, Chemical Engineering and Materials c/o University of Calabria, Italy.
Dr. Masaru Kurihara, Senior Director of Toray Industries, Inc, Japan followed presenting the second paper that elaborated on Progress in Polymeric Membranes. Dr. Abdurahman Al-Rabiah, Assistant Professor Chemical Engineering, King Saud University took the platform next presenting the third paper on Utilization and Applications of Membrane Technology in Saudi Arabia. The fourth and last scientific paper in the second session of the first day of the conference was presented by Prof. In S. Kim
Professor, School of Environmental Science & Engineering, Center for Sea Water Desalination Plant Environ Gwangju Institute of Science & Technology (GIST), South Korea who dealt with the challenge for large scale, low energy and low fouling in seawater desalination.