Energy Education and Research Collaboration
Petroleum Institute (PI) of Abu Dhabi, UAE and the University of Maryland
In line with its mission to provide world-class education to the citizens of the United Arab Emirates in engineering and the applied sciences, The Petroleum Institute (PI) of Abu Dhabi, UAE, entered a long-term collaborative effort with the University of Maryland (UMD) in April 2006 to enhance its own undergraduate, graduate studies/research, and continuing education practices. The PI was founded by Emiri decree in 2001 under the direction of H.H. Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al-Nahyanand. It is sponsored by a consortium of Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) and its international partners (Shell, BP, Total, and Japan Oil Development Company.
The PI and UMD recognize the many potential benefits for both institutions that could result specifically from collaborative educational and research activities in the field of Energy Sciences and Engineering. The Energy Education and Research Collaboration (EERC) has been created within the A.J. Clark School of Engineering at the University of Maryland to provide the administrative structure and academic oversight for these collaborative efforts.
EERC Leadership
Prof. Nariman Farvardin, Provost
Principal Investigator and EERC Project Director
Prof. Avram Bar-Cohen, Chair
EERC Project Deputy Director
Dr. Azar Nazeri
EERC Research Manager
EERC Key Contributors
- University of Maryland – College Park, MD, USA
Sami Ainane
Shapour Azarm
Balakumar Balachandran
Avram Bar-Cohen
John Cable
Serguei Dessiatoun
Nariman Farvardin
Ashwani K. Gupta
Ali Haghani
Yunho Hwang
Greg Jackson
Mohammad Modarres
Linda Schmidt
Reinhard Radermacher
- Petroleum Institute – Abu Dhabi, UAE
Ali Almansoori
Ahmed Abdala
Tareq Al Ameri
Saleh Al Hashimi
Valerie Eveloy
Afshin Goharzadeh
Mansour Karkoub
Rocky Kubo
Michael Ohadi
Peter Rodgers
Mohamed Sassi
Abdennour Seibi
Current Collaboration Projects
Fundamentals of Engineering Education
S. Ainane (UMD), P. Rodgers (UMD)
Objective: To design a review course to prepare PI students for Fundamentals of Engineering examination; to prepare and grade “practice” Fundamentals of Engineering examination for PI students; and to use the practice exam results to identify the program strengths/weaknesses.
International Student Exchange Initiative
S. Ainane (UMD)
Objective: Strengthen the relationship between the PI and UMD by providing the opportunity for the PI and UMD students to study at each other’s institutions.
Robust Optimization of Petrochemical Systems
S. Azarm (UMD), S. Al Hashimi (PI), T. Al Ameri (PI)
Objective: The objective of this study is to develop a framework for robust optimization the design of a distillation column, while considering the net profit effect at the plant level.
Dynamics and Control of Drill Strings on Fixed and Floating Platforms
B. Balachandran (UMD), M. Karkoub (PI), Y. Abdelmagid (PI)
Objective: To develop and analytically and numerically study control-oriented models for drill strings; to investigate control of an under-actuated nonlinear system (drill string) with complex interactions with the environment; and to build a drill-string testbed at the PI/UMD to test the theoretical findings.
Thermally Enhanced Polymer Heat Exchanger for Seawater Applications
A. Bar-Cohen (UMD), Dr. Peter Rodgers (PI), Dr. Ahmed Abdala (PI)
Objective: To address the fundamental thermal performance issues associated with the use of thermal high-conductivity polymer materials in heat exchangers.
An EHD-Enhanced Gas/Liquid Separator
S. Dessiatoun (UMD), M. Ohadi (PI), A. Goharzadeh (PI)
Objective: To study hybrid inertia-EHD gas-liquid separation phenomena for electrically conductive and nonconductive liquid particles suspended in a moving gaseous medium.
Force-Fed Cooling of Photovoltaic Arrays for High-Efficiency Solar Energy Conversion Systems
S. Dessaitoun (UMD), M. Ohadi (PI)
Objective: To create a database on the available cooling techniques for high heat flux solar concentrator arrays necessary for efficient conversion of solar energy to electric power, and to design and fabricate an experimental prototype and associated setup to verify the feasibility of this concept and the capacity for force-fed cooling.
Study of Condensing Flows in a Micro-scale Channel with a Micro-element Array and Visual Techniques
S. Dessiatoun (UMD), A. Shooshtari (UMD), A. Goharzadeh (PI)
Objective: To investigate the fundamentals of the two-phase condensing flow phenomenon in a sub-millimeter microchannels.
Sulfur Recovery from Gas Stream using Flameless and Flame Combustion Reactor
Prof. A.K. Gupta (UMD), M. Sassi (PI)
Objective: To obtain fundamental information on the thermal process for sulfur recovery from sour gas by conventional flame combustion and flameless combustion using numerical and experimental studies. The ultimate goal is to determine optimal operating conditions for sulfur conversion.
Development and Delivery of Course Material for Engineering Project Management Courses
A. Haghani (UMD), J. Cable (UMD)
Objective: To develop and deliver course material for an Engineering Project Management program at PI, develop and deliver a short course for GASCO, and perform a feasibility study of establishing a graduate program in Engineering Project Management at PI.
Solid Oxide Fuel Cells for CO2 Capture and Enhanced Oil Recovery
G. Jackson (UMD), S. Dessaitoun (UMD), V. Eveloy (PI), A. Almansoori (PI)
Objective: This multi-faceted project will investigate the feasibility of implementing advanced solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) technology for producing power from oil well off-gases while providing a source of concentrated CO2 for sequestration and enhanced oil recovery.
Development of a Probabilistic Model for Degradation Effects of Corrosion-Fatigue-Cracking in Oil and Gas Pipelines
M. Modarres (UMD), A. Seibi (PI)
Objective: To propose and validate a probabilistic model for health management of oil pipelines in process plants.
Waste Heat Utilization in the Petroleum Industry
R. Radermacher (UMD), Yunho Hwang (UMD), S. Al Hashimi (PI), P. Rodgers (PI)
Objective: To utilize waste heat in petroleum processing plants to minimize overall energy consumption.
Undergraduate Design and Best Educational Practices
L. Schmidt (UMD), R. Kubo (PI)
Objective: To partner with PI design faculty to (1) assess existing PI curriculum to profile the design content and (2) compare the design content level to that of a top-ranked, ABET-accredited, US institution; and, (3) prepare design modules and recommend their selected placement within existing PI courses.
