Graduate Chemical Engineering Enthusiasts at Asset Integrity Engineering (AIE), win the BP award under the ‘Respect Award Category’ with the idea of incorporating, green solvents, into the existing process of diesel desulfurization to produce ultra low sulfur diesel.
AIE graduate employees, Ammara Shahid, Nadia Mustafa and Rania Ahmed, were honored at the Annual Student Research Award Ceremony held at American University of Sharjah (AUS) on Tuesday, 24th of March by BP representative, Mohammad AlNakhi, Technical Adviser – BP UAE.
AlNakhi from BP spoke and thanked the AUS faculty and students for their hard work. “It was very interesting to go through the projects from different colleges at AUS, see the different teams and their efforts. It gives us a chance to stay up-to-date with new initiatives and projects,” he said.
The AUS Student Research Award is a BP sponsored initiative which was developed to honor the innovative research conducted by the students of AUS in various categories. The competition aims at evaluating each project according to the mastery of research, investigation and innovation carried out by the students conducting it. The winning team comprised of six senior AUS students, who carried out their research under the supervision of Dr. Paul Nancarrow.
Their topic of research was Technical and Economic Evaluation of Ionic Liquid-Enhanced Processing of Ultra-Low Sulfur Diesel Fuel. They won the BP Respect Award category for their work on using ionic liquids for enhanced processing of Ultra-Low Sulfur Diesel (ULSD). Ionic liquids are a new class of “green” solvents that are receiving widespread recognition due to ability to be effective and eco-friendly extractants for desulfurization.
Dr Nancarrow, the advising faculty, added “The release of harmful sulfur dioxide into the atmosphere from the burning of oil-based fuels is a major environmental problem. Traditional methods of sulfur removal used in oil refineries are not designed to meet the new tighter limits set by governments. Our students have carried out excellent research to develop and evaluate new technologies for removing sulfur compounds during the refining process.”
Neil Flemming, managing director at AIE, commented “AUS consistently produces high quality students and we are lucky to have our head offices in close proximity to the University. AIE has a legacy of employing top graduates from AUS and Nadia, Ammara, and Rania are very bright young ladies with a positive future ahead of them.
I am personally very proud to see them all working for AIE and I believe the emergence of more and more skilled female engineers joining the Oil and Gas industry and making a name for themselves is a positive story for the region and the industry in general.”