SCIENTIFIC COMMUNITY > Dr Khaled A. Al Banaa, Associate Research Scientist, KISR, on role of R&D institutes in technological development of energy sufficiency

 

We need to develop & commercialize sustainable energy sources: Dr Khaled A Al Banaa

“Around the world, most of the energy required for industry and house-hold use is derived from different sources like coal, hydro, nuclear, oil and gas etc.  During the last few decades, much importance is given to other energy sources which are renewable, sustainable and pollution free like solar, wind, biomass and energy from oceans.  As on date, most of the Arab countries derive energy from oil, since it is available at ease.  It may be available for another one century or so.  We need to develop and commercialize other sustainable energy sources.  Solar energy is a natural gift and is a boost for the Arab countries.  The highest solar irradiation is occurring on the Arabian Peninsula.  The mean monthly solar irradiance in the Arabian Peninsula is about 300 W/m2.  As of today, Kuwait’s total existing power plant capacity is about 9000 MW.  This is equal to solar power radiating on an area of about 30 square km.

Solar energy can be converted into electric power through many different ways.  One of the method is to super heat the freely available air and transfer the heat energy to working fluid in a closed cycle system (similar to Ammonia or Freon used in Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion), run the turbine and generate power, and cooling the working fluid using the available seawater.  Already R&D works at the level of pilot plant are in progress around the world in this area. The Arab world can make use of this development and use solar power for producing sustainable and pollution-free power.

It is necessary to work for commercial-level power productions with power plants of many times the capacity of the existing thermal power plants in Kuwait.  If used efficiently, an area of about 333 square km can intercept about 100000 MW of solar irradiance.  Even with 20% overall efficiency, the power generated can be used to meet the demands of Kuwait and for sale to the neighboring Arab countries.

Development of such type of power plant will help in employing many thousands of people, generate billions of dollars as revenue through sale of power and we need not depend on the depleting oil resources.  R&D institutes like KISR should take the lead for developing the technology for such type of power production.”

Dr Khaled A Al Banaa is an Associate Research Scientist at the Coastal and Air Pollution Department, Environment and Urban Development Division of the Kuwait Institute for Scientific Research (KISR). He has been associated with KISR since 1994 and has also practiced research at Cornell University, USA, from where he secured a PhD in Civil & Environmental Engineering. He is a member of the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC) of UNESCO; of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), USA; an advisory committee member for international short courses and workshops on coastal process and port engineering, Italy; and was a scientific committee member for the First Regional Conference on ‘Geoinformatics: Disaster Management and Early Warning Systems’. Dr Al Banaa frequently conducts short courses and workshops, as well as authors scientific articles on coastal engineering. 

SCIENTIFIC COMMUNITY > Dr Dorra Cherif, PhD, on the role of research, science & technology in socio-economic progress

 

Advancing science & technological research requires political will: Dr Dorra Cherif

“As the global crisis is unfolding (financial, food and environmental), the development of sciences and technologies will play a major role in the improvement of health conditions, the environment, as well as industrial, agricultural and energy production. 

Yet, the performance level achieved by Arabs states in the field of sciences and technologies remains very low, hampering efforts to reinforce their economic autonomy and capacity to innovate and ensure development on a sustainable basis. It is therefore urgent that Arab leaders should consider promoting sciences and technologies as a priority issue. 

It is above all a choice and a political will needs to be enacted. 

For instance, R&D (research and development) spending account at best for 0.2% of GNP for the entire Arab World, while Israel, in comparison, is spending 4.4% of its GNP, and an average of about 1.7% of the world’s GNP is devoted to R&D (UNESCO’s Report on Science – 2006).

Sciences and technologies in the Arab World require, therefore, an increased investment in terms of resources (both financial and human) and a restructuring of the R&D systems so that the latter might be oriented towards objectives enabling to address national and regional needs (in terms of public health, meeting the demand for food, environmental protection and energy saving).

Research centres in biotechnology equipped with high performance technological capabilities need to be set in place or further strengthened. Research programs to be carried out in partnership with various Arab countries must be stimulated. Incentive measures must equally be set in place to encourage the private sector to invest in the area of R&D. 

It is imperative that Arab populations gain a wider access to the new information and communication technologies (ICT). Indeed, access to available databases provided by scientific research networks, access to libraries and to the various pedagogical resources is indispensable to achieve the transition of Arab countries towards knowledge-based societies.”

Dr Dorra Cherif obtained a PhD in genetic sciences from the University of Paris. She spent the better part of her career in Paris at the National Institute of Medical Research (INSERM), then joined the private sector at GENSET (a biotechnology firm based on genomic). In 2003, she founded MCL (Molecular Cytogenetics Labs) specialized in the techniques of fine analyses of chromosomes. Since 2007, she has been residing in Tunis where she is performing as a consultant.