The establishment of the UAE-government led Gender Balance Council, which was set up by His Highness Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, headed by Shaikha Manal Bint Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, is a step in the right direction for the UAE as it sets out to take its place among the world’s most innovative and prosperous nations.

With the UAE’s track record of being progressive and forward-thinking, the country is ready for the next phase of its social and economic progress. In the past decade alone it has witnessed significant and unparalleled transformations in many of its sectors. Through the efforts of this Council and other bodies, the UAE can better focus on achieving the vision of female participation of our Founding Father.

The late Sheikh Zayed Bin Sultan Al Nahyan left us with these inspiring words: “Nothing could delight me more than to see [a] woman taking up her distinctive position in society … Nothing should hinder her progress … Like men, women deserve the right to occupy high positions according to their capabilities and qualifications.”

And what the UAE needs to achieve this – to support its women as they take the next step towards their ‘distinctive position in society’ – is further support through mandatory gender quotas in corporate boards, which I hope the Council will soon suggest. Women are over half of the UAE’s population, it is only fair that they should have half of the say in the way the businesses that shape their economy and society operate through a set quota for corporate boards.

Today, Emirati women account for nearly 60% of all UAE National university graduates, of which women account for 62% of public university graduates and 43% of private university graduates. Emirati women also make up 43% of the total UAE National workforce, with the proportion rising to 66% in the government sector. But these high percentages do not carry forward into board membership and senior levels of business.

In 2013 a survey carried out by recruitment platform MyHiringClub.com found that only 1.08% of the surveyed companies in the UAE have women in their boardrooms, resulting in the UAE being ranked 42nd in a listing of countries ranked on the presence of women members in boardrooms. This percentage was recorded a year after the UAE Cabinet made it compulsory for corporations and government agencies to include women on their boards of directors. The numbers have only gotten slightly better since then. In 2014 an Ernst & Young report found that in the UAE, women totalled only 1.2% corporate directors.

But we are not alone in this situation. Helping women reach the highest levels of business is a global challenge. A study found that globally, the proportion of senior roles filled by women in 2014 is 24% – a number that has hardly changed over the preceding seven years.

The reasons behind this global challenge are complex and often differ due to the social, cultural and developmental considerations in each country and region. There is likely to be no simple or quick solution that will overcome the various cultural, psychological and sociological barriers that impede women from reaching the top of business, but some strategies have been proven to help.

Mandatory female quotas for corporate boards is one effective and tested way to go.

In 2003 Norway took on the role of chief social innovator in Europe by instituting the continent’s first gender quota. The new law gave market-listed companies five years to increase their female participation on their supervisory boards to 40% or face sanctions, and in extreme cases, even the forced liquidation of the company. That move was able to significantly increase female participation by 33% – taking female corporate supervisory board members from 7% to the required 40%.

By supporting and mandating gender diversity in corporate boards, these European countries are enhancing the chances of improved performance of their companies. A Thomson Reuters report found the average stock price of gender-diverse corporate boards outperform those with no women.

While there are always concerns about the impact on quality and merit when quotas are recommended, the UAE has nothing to worry about. Detractors of quota systems will claim that they undermine the meritocracy that results from the competitive climb up the corporate ladder, instead requiring companies to promote unworthy candidates to meet their quotas. But if you tell these critics that although one demographic accounts for over 50% of the country’s university graduates, only 1.2% of the UAE’s corporate directors were from that demographic, they would worry that the country was missing out on university-educated directors. That is the situation in the UAE today, as Emirati women make up nearly 60% of the country’s total UAE National graduates and 43% of the UAE national workforce. This means that the UAE’s women have the education, experience and dedication to be corporate board members. They are ready, willing and waiting. They just need the opportunity.

Taking a bold decision of a sizeable female quota for the UAE’s corporate boards would not be unusual for the UAE leadership, as it has consistently implemented visionary strategies and policies for the betterment of the country and its people. It would be a move that both supports the country’s goals of female empowerment and its vision of becoming an innovative, progressive and prosperous knowledge-economy, while serving to inspire a new generation of girls to pursue challenging and valuable professions to support the continuing advancement of the UAE.

Dr. Lamya N. Fawwaz is the Vice President of Institutional Advancement and Public Affairs and Professor of Practice at the Masdar Institute of Science and Technology.

Printed in The Gulf Today on 25 August 2015

For the countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), fast-growing populations, increased food consumption rates, relatively small agricultural sectors and limited water resources make food security a vital issue. The UAE is no exception. Of all the GCC countries, in 2013 the UAE had the highest per capita food consumption rate of 1,486 kg per year and is expected to hold the lead through at least 2017.

With high consumption comes a high level of waste. It is estimated that nearly 3.27 million tons of food is wasted in the UAE every year. This wasted food is worth more than USD3.54 billion. In Dubai, for instance, food waste accounts for approximately one-third of all waste that ends up in the landfill.
A significant contributor to food waste is the hospitality sector, which is a crucial part of the UAE’s vibrant tourism and entertainment industries. Hotels and restaurants often cater to large numbers of guests at one time, which can lead very large amounts of food waste.

To help use food more efficiently, over the last three years our research team at Masdar Institute has conducted interviews with representatives of more than 50 UAE hotels to better understand the current status of food waste management in the UAE hospitality industry. We then quantified the amount of food waste generated during meal services in many of these hotels, with interesting results. We found that the waste from serving dishes in a buffet setting was often very significant.

Our team won the best presentation award when our work was presented at the World Resources Forum in Davos, Switzerland, in 2013.
Through our research, which falls under Masdar Institute’s Research Center for Water and Environment (iWater) theme of waste management and utilization, we also were able to pinpoint factors important to determining the “wastefulness” of an event. These factors include the type of service (e.g., breakfast buffets can be less wasteful than an a la carte service) and typical over-estimation of number of diners expected for a meal service.

To account for the interplay of these various parameters, we developed a performance indicator called the Food Waste Rating for Events vis-à-vis Sustainability in the Hospitality sector (FRESH) Number, to rate the sustainability of food service at hospitality sector events. This metric is the first of its kind for the hospitality sector and has the potential to be used to rate events all around the world.
As a consequence of our work, we have been testing several possible solution strategies at different events.

One of the strategies we have developed uses a uniquely-shaped service plate for rice-based dishes. We have observed that in buffet-style meals for dishes containing both protein and carbohydrates, the protein component is often consumed first, causing a portion of the carbohydrates to be left behind, thus generating waste. Moreover, when these dishes are served to guests in this region, the service plates are filled abundantly to ensure a bountiful appearance, leading to more waste.

To meet this challenge, we developed what we call the Anti-Wastage Service Dish, which achieves a better balance between the portions of protein and carbohydrates in the served amount, while ensuring the traditional bountiful appearance. This is accomplished by making the middle part of the plate curve upward so a smaller amount of carbohydrate is needed to make the dish look full. This decreases both food waste and food costs.

Our initial conservative estimate is that use of such a dish could save 73,000 kg of food annually, and that is just in the UAE! In recognition of the difference our innovation can make, early in November we won the Hospitality Innovator Award as part of the Hospitality Technology Forum 2015 inDubai. Currently, this new dish concept is being tested in collaboration with a leading food catering company in Abu Dhabi.

The GCC hospitality sector can play a pivotal role in helping to decrease both food demand and food waste, thereby helping to increase food security and sustainability and decrease food imports to the region. Academic institutes like Masdar Institute can play a key role in generating innovative ideas for the sector.

Sanaa Pirani is a PhD student at Masdar Institute, where Dr. Bruce Ferguson is Professor and Head of the Institute Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship and Dr. Hassan Arafat is Associate Professor of Chemical and Environmental Engineering.

By Eisa Saif Al Qubaisi 

Every year, the emirate of Abu Dhabi generates huge amounts of waste as a result of its booming urban development, large multinational population and progressive tourism sector. This includes household rubbish and waste produced by industries such as agriculture, manufacturing and construction.

Currently most of this waste ends up in landfills, where it is buried and left to decay slowly. Every emirate is faced with the challenge of waste disposal and therefore seeks the best methods to deal with this challenge. Abu Dhabi, in particular, is taking aggressive steps to deal with waste management.

To change the current inefficient and unsustainable landfill waste situation, Tadweer (The Centre of Waste Management – Abu Dhabi) is working in a number of areas to reduce wastage and extract value from waste. With Abu Dhabi’s population expected to reach five million by 2030, relying purely on current disposal methods could see large chunks of the emirate turned into fallow landfills.

One of Tadweer’s primary goals is to divert 60 per cent of total waste away from landfills by 2020 – a key stage in its long-term strategy, which is centred around the concept of “reduce, reuse and recycle”. This strategy will help us maximise the reutilisation of waste while creating a new attitude towards our rubbish: it’s not a waste, it’s a resource.

Tadweer is following best-in-class waste-recycling practices, including reduction at source, reuse and recycling through intensive awareness campaigns and special schemes that contribute to a safer and cleaner environment.

Another initiative is a system to manage used tyres. Tadweer successfully recycled about three million tyres in the second quarter of 2015. It also has a collaborative research agreement with the Masdar Institute of Science and Technology, aimed at converting waste cooking oil into biodiesel. Biodiesel is a renewable resource and a carbon-neutral alternative to the commonly used carbon-emitting petroleum diesel.

Abu Dhabi produces about 20 kilograms per capita of waste cooking oil (WCO) annually. Processing and reusing it as fuel is an environmentally-friendly and energy-efficient solution that could contribute up to 5 per cent of the emirate’s sustainable energy needs by 2020.

The team at Masdar Institute, led by Dr Isam Janajreh, associate professor of mechanical engineering, has successfully demonstrated the small-scale capability of converting WCO to biodiesel and initial studies are targeted at assessing commercial viability.

Tadweer’s contributions include regulating and tracking the transportation and treatment of WCO from restaurants, hotels and cafeterias across Abu Dhabi, through a manifest system.

This research is now in its second year and is focused on achieving fundamental improvement of the waste-cooking-oil-to-biodiesel conversion process through further experimentation and sensitivity studies.

Viewing waste as a material resource, rather than something to be buried, is exactly the change in attitude and perspective required to bring Abu Dhabi closer to a sustainable, closed-loop waste management system where less waste is generated and more is re-used.

Collaborations like the one with Masdar Institute not only bring mutual benefit to the parties involved but also bring benefits to the country overall.

This project, if successful, could provide the UAE with a valuable resource for its knowledge economy – one that diversifies its energy sources away from a purely fossil-fuel based energy system, while safely converting a regular stream of unwanted waste into a valuable clean energy resource.

Eisa Saif Al Qubaisi is the general manager at the Center of Waste Management – Abu Dhabi (Tadweer)

This op-ed originally appeared in print in The National newspaper on 9 December 2015.

By Dr. Steve Griffiths

The convergence of global trends is perhaps nowhere better demonstrated than in the evolution of cities.  As we look toward the future, there are four major global trends driving forward innovation in the power, building, transportation and industry sectors.

The first is population growth. By 2030 an additional 1.2 billion people are expected to inhabit the planet with the majority located in developing countries The second trend is urbanization. Today about 54% of the global population lives in cities and by 2030 this number will be roughly 60%. The third is increasing demand for energy. Energy demand globally is expected to increase by more than one third by 2040. The fourth global trend driving innovation in the power, building, transportation and industry sectors is the growing consciousness of climate change and resource management. Concerns about the long term impacts of climate change are driving a global dialogue to yield significant national commitments to sustainable practices across a number of sectors.

The convergence of these global trends is perhaps nowhere better demonstrated that in the evolution of our cities. Cities will soon account for 90% of global population growth as well as 80% of global wealth creation. Unfortunately, such urbanization comes with challenges as cities today consume 78% of global energy and produce over 60% of global carbon emissions. Therefore, the evolution of cities must be increasingly focused on efficient design and the utilization of technologies that maximize social, economic and environmental welfare.

To achieve this, energy systems must co-evolve with cities and transition away from a slowly changing system of centralized supply and distributed demand toward a system that is adaptable to meeting the demands of urban societies.
This includes changes in energy demand patterns as buildings and transportation systems move toward automated and adaptive control and distribution of energy production with a shift away from the centralized model of supply and demand toward the “prosumer” who both produces and consumes energy.

The co-evolution of energy systems must also include diversification of energy resources to include an increasing share of renewable energy sources, particularly wind and solar energy. It will also need to take into account demand for the highest possible efficiency in both energy supply-side and demand-side technologies that must support high levels of consumer experience across many platforms but with extremely limited space available for power generation and storage.

Today we are already seeing strong signs of convergence in city development and energy system transformation. Dubai, for example, has launched a series of smart city initiatives that include distributed rooftop solar photovoltaics (PV). Distributed PV is gaining traction globally because of continuous reduction of distributed solar technology costs as well as new financing models that support deployment of residential and commercial solar power; emerging energy storage technologies that make distributed solar energy increasingly more resilient and attractive; and innovative solutions that drive the business case for distributed solar, including third-party ownership for solar installations and software platforms that bring together seamlessly consumers, financiers, installers and technology providers.

Despite the positive traction for distributed solar energy, challenges and opportunities for innovation remain. Particularly in growth markets with challenging environmental conditions, such as the Middle East and South Asia, technologies will need to further evolve in order to avoid equipment failures that can negatively affect project economics and scare away future investors. Project developers are today selecting solar photovoltaic (PV) modules based on performance characteristics tailored to the specific project location, such as customized anti-reflective coatings, anti-abrasion coatings for desert geographies, and encapsulants that can withstand humid environments.

In addition to performance improvements and cost reductions related to packaging, high efficiency cells that support distributed solar deployment in confined spaces requires further innovation. High-efficiency crystalline silicon technologies are already entering the distributed generation market and are expected to displace incumbent module technologies in the coming years. What is most exciting, however, for distributed solar are the significant innovations forthcoming that will more radically influence market adoption patterns.
Specifically, the future holds promise for today’s lower efficiency solar systems to be increasingly replaced by a new generation of low-cost, more than 30% efficient systems based on multi-junction PV technologies that use low-cost crystalline silicon (c-Si) substrates or various other types of high efficiency solar absorbers produced using very low cost, next generation manufacturing approaches. Similarly, true building integrated PV will be enabled by low cost, flexible roofing and building systems with PV absorbers made from new material systems.

A present example of this vision for the future comes from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) spinout Ubiquitous Energy, a company that has developed a technology, called ClearView Power, that allows any surface to convert ambient light into electricity, while maintaining up to 90% transparency because only ultraviolet and near-infrared light are converted into electricity. Although conversion efficiency for the technology is relatively low today, the company sees a future where this PV approach can achieve perhaps 12% efficiency, providing power for smart windows and smart buildings.

Perovskites are another class of next-generation PV material shaking up the solar community as perovskite solar conversion efficiencies in the lab have increased from 3.5% in 2009 to 20% in 2015, an unprecedented rate of improvement for solar PV technology. Although to date there is no proven production method to yield a commercially viable perovskite solar module, the potential exists and is being pursued by innovative companies looking for the best approach to exploit an incredible opportunity. In sum, innovation in distributed solar, including radical innovation that can completely change the way in which distributed solar is deployed, is happening today.

Universities, such as the Masdar Institute of Science and Technology, as well as large and small companies continue to push the boundaries of knowledge and R&D in the solar sector in order to position for the opportunities that are becoming apparent for distributed solar energy integrated with smart city design. 

Dr. Steve Griffiths is Vice President of Research at Masdar Institute of Science and Technology.
31 December 2015
This op-ed was first published in Issue 23 of Innovation and Tech

By Mohammed Olfi

Though many UAE residents are enjoying the cool January breezes, there is no denying it – the Earth is heating up. This warming, which has increased average global temperatures by 1°Celsius this year, is due largely to the fossil fuel-fired power plants that pump harmful, heat-trapping greenhouse gases, like carbon dioxide (CO2), into the air. Scientists and analysts have cautioned that a warming of 2°Celsius will cause catastrophic changes to the environment and to avoid this threshold, CO2 emissions must be cut drastically.aarmtechnologies.com

Simply and immediately doing away with fossil fuels, however, is not realistic. Mankind has a huge need for affordable energy in a range of uses that renewable energy cannot yet meet. As we cannot do away with fossil fuels right away, scientists are investigating ways to use those fuels without releasing CO2 from their combustion into the atmosphere. One approach which may be pivotal in the fight against climate change is a technology known as carbon capture, utilization and storage, or CCUS, which captures the CO2 emitted by fossil fuel-burning systems, like power plants, before it enters the atmosphere.aarmtechnologies.com

Recognizing carbon capture’s potential to significantly reduce global CO2 emissions, Engineering Solutions Minerals (ENGSL) – an Abu Dhabi-based engineering company and the technological development arm of Norwegian-owned EnPro of which I am the Director – has been spearheading research and development of innovative CO2 capture technologies to both reduce global CO2 emissions and create a valuable product out of this harmful greenhouse gas.aarmtechnologies.com

To this end, ENGSL has partnered with Abu Dhabi’s Masdar Institute of Science and Technology – the world’s first research‐driven graduate‐level university focused on advanced energy and sustainable technologies. The collaboration leverages the robust research capabilities of both organizations to develop optimal carbon capture technologies that will reduce the cost of capturing carbon while increasing the efficiency by converting the harmful greenhouse gas into a valuable and environmentally-benign chemical, known as soda ash.aarmtechnologies.com

Soda ash is used in many industrial applications, including glass production. According to a report by MicroMarket Monitor, the soda ash market was valued at US$16,407 million in 2014, and is projected to reach US$22,090 million by 2019.aarmtechnologies.com

Creating value out of waste, while contributing to the reduction of harmful atmospheric greenhouse gases, is a major goal of ENGSL. We are continually researching ways to make our CCS technology more sustainable, energy-efficient and low-cost, which is why we have partnered with the Masdar Institute – together, we will work to develop a novel, energy-efficient technology that can be adopted on a large-scale and significantly reduce the harmful effects of climate change.aarmtechnologies.com

Engineers at ENGSL have already developed two patented CO2 capture technologies that I co-invented, which are more energy-efficient and affordable than conventional amine-based CO2 capture technologies and could play a critical role in achieving the UAE’s goal of reduced CO2 emissions to help slow the pace of rising global temperatures.aarmtechnologies.com

The patented CCUS technologies use fly ash – the toxic ash by-product produced when coal is burned – to capture CO2 from exhaust gases. The fly ash technology is currently being integrated at a large-scale pilot plant in Norway, funded jointly with the Norwegian government, and has demonstrated successfully the ability to sequester over 95% of the plant’s CO2 emissions.aarmtechnologies.com

Because CO2 capture technologies are expensive – capturing one ton of CO2 can cost between US$50 and US$100 – ENGSL’s CCS technology offers a cost-effective solution by producing a commodity – soda ash – with a steadily rising market value.aarmtechnologies.com

Researchers from the Masdar Institute, who are working under the supervision of Dr. Mohammad Abu Zahra, Associate Professor of Chemical and Environmental Engineering, will help to improve the CO2 capture efficiency and the quality of the soda ash product of our technology by identifying the optimum combination of fly ash with brine – the salty wastewater produced by thermal desalination.aarmtechnologies.com

During the 30-month project, Masdar Institute researchers will perform a techno-economic evaluation of the combined fly ash and brine technology to determine if the process is economically feasible. Additionally, the researchers will investigate methods to produce soda ash and other sodium-based products, using a combination of fly ash, modified fly ash and brine, in the most efficient and sustainable manner.aarmtechnologies.com

ENGSL is currently constructing a pilot scrubber test column to test this technology at a larger scale.aarmtechnologies.com

The combined fly ash and brine CO2 capture technology can also be used to produce CO2 for enhanced oil recovery (EOR). CO2 for EOR can help recover a significant amount of oil from the ground more sustainably than conventional oil recovery methods, which are either very energy-intensive or environmentally harmful. In the UAE, utilizing CO2 for EOR can significantly help the country achieve its target of 70% oil recovery.aarmtechnologies.com

Collaborating with best-in-class research institute’s like Masdar Institute helps ensure that the CO2 capture technologies ENGSL develops are fully optimized, while providing Masdar Institute faculty and students with the opportunity to develop relevant, cutting-edge systems for a real industrial problem. Through collaborations like these, we hope to develop innovative and affordable CCS technologies that can help bring the world closer to a zero CO2 emission future.aarmtechnologies.com

Mohammed Olfi is Director of ENGSL Minerals in Abu Dhabiaarmtechnologies.com

Printed in The National on 22 February 2016

By Dr. Steve Griffiths

As the global population continues to migrate to cities, the quality of life for city residents is becoming increasingly influenced by the degree of sophistication, sustainability and user-friendliness that city services and infrastructure provide.

Buildings are key pillars of city infrastructure and a primary focus of smart city developments that leverage technology to achieve high levels of resource efficiency and quality of life for city inhabitants. Buildings today are increasingly capable of displaying truly intelligent behavior by learning the resource needs of occupants, integrating electric vehicle charging and discharging into their energy supply and demand profiles, responding to changing weather conditions, and automatically altering behaviors to maximize resource efficiency.

However, such intelligence for resource efficiency is just one aspect of the ultimate value that smart cities and buildings can create for businesses and consumers.

INTEGRATED INFRASTRUCTURE FOR SOCIOECONOMIC SUSTENANCE

The concept of efficient and intelligent buildings has progressed quickly, with a wide assortment of equipment, materials and services now available to support very high levels of building resource efficiency. Between 2003 and 2013, the energy intensity of commercial buildings in the United States fell by 10% due to implementation of standards, regulations and supportive energy efficiency technologies.

Building energy management systems now incorporate a wide spectrum of capabilities ranging from building control systems to rapid energy modeling and assessment tools that support high levels of energy efficiency. A number of companies are competing in the building energy management space with novel technologies and business models that have made cost effective energy efficiency readily achievable.

However, the ultimate goal of building intelligence should not be energy efficiency per se. Rather it should be efficiency that supports triple bottom line sustainability, which includes social and economic sustainability in addition to environmental sustainability.

Intelligent building innovations are therefore increasingly being developed to not only improve energy and broader resource consumption efficiency, but also the productivity, health and comfort of people.

According to the World Green Building Council, staff costs, including salaries and benefits, typically account for nearly 90% of business operating costs and so even modest improvements in employee health and productivity from modifications to the work environment can have significantly larger financial impact than savings associated with building efficiency improvements alone.

Hence, the most important innovations in intelligent buildings and cities will derive from a focus on the comfort, productivity and well-being of people in addition to resource utilization efficiency.
Efficient and intelligent cities and buildings must therefore adopt hardware and information technology solutions that simultaneously address resource consumption and the factors that impact the productivity of people.

AMBIENT INTELLIGENCE & SMART ENVIRONMENTS

Solutions designed to simultaneously optimize resource consumption and worker productivity need to provide integrated sensing, analysis and response capabilities targeted at key ambient environmental factors. In homes and offices, ambient environmental factors of significant importance include air quality, temperature, noise and lighting.

Optimizing each of these factors can have a significant influence on the well-being and productivity of people. For instance, the World Green Building Council has cited studies suggesting a 10% reduction in workplace performance when office temperatures are either 7 ⁰C above or below a baseline range of 21 ⁰C to 23⁰C. Similarly, research has shown that office productivity improvements of 8 to 11% can be achieved as a result of building air quality improvements.

Similar quantitative outcomes are found with the impacts of ambient lighting and noise levels. Based on these data, the ability to measure and analyze ambient environmental data and respond automatically with actions that optimize resource efficiency and building occupant comfort simultaneously is needed for intelligent building systems. One of the interesting solutions that has been developed to meet this need is the “Comfy” system from the company Building Robotics.

Comfy utilizes a combination of human and computer intelligence to allow buildings to quickly adapt to individual perceptions of thermal comfort. The system works by providing building occupants with the ability input their ambient temperature preferences via smartphone and web-based applications.

Based on aggregation of these inputs, the system leverages machine learning to optimize temperature for both energy savings and comfort-related productivity enhancements. The same approach of using collective human feedback to guide learning and adaption can be applied to a number of building systems and operations.

THE ROLE OF MASDAR INSTITUTE OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY IN BUILDING SMART CITIES

At the Masdar Institute of Science and Technology, research is being conducted at the intersection of energy and information science to achieve sustainable, smart city innovations for the UAE that take into consideration how resource efficiency solutions interact with people and their wellbeing.

Research programs have been designed with the integration of urban design, building technologies and human interaction at the core. As an example, a large collaboration with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology is focused on microclimate and urban energy analysis, leveraging data from wide area sensor networks and remote sensing for the development of models that guide building development and adaption in the UAE.

In the UAE, such integrated design is of particular importance because the health and productivity of people inside and outside of buildings is challenged by an ambient environment with high levels of dust, solar insolation, temperature and humidity. Other research projects and programs at Masdar Institute utilize agent based modeling as well as collection and analysis of large and complex data sets from a variety of sensing sources to achieve an understanding of how energy, economics and social well-being converge to realize an optimized built environment.

The underlying paradigm being pursued is that smart cities and buildings must be architected to learn and adapt to the people and environmental circumstances that they are intended to benefit.

Dr. Steve Griffiths is Vice President for Research at Masdar Institute of Science and Technology.
20 March 2016
This op-ed was first published in Issue 24 of Innovation and Tech

By Dr. Steve Griffiths

According to the World Bank, approximately 54% of the world’s population lives in urban areas today and by the middle of the century this proportion will grow to as much as 70%. Coupled with this growth in urbanization is the increasing challenge of water scarcity in many of the most rapidly developing parts of the world, such as the Middle East. The practical ramification of rapid urbanization in water scarce regions is that innovation to achieve water security is urgent. In the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and other water scarce nations, water sector innovation strategies must be pursued on multiple fronts, including desalination, water recycle and reuse and water use efficiency.

Collectively, the UAE and other countries located along Arabian Gulf have populations that are more than 70% located in urban areas and, on a per capita basis, consume much more water than the world average despite having extremely limited rainfall and groundwater supplies. In response, these countries have constructed the most extensive network of desalination plants in the world to produce fresh water. These plants produce millions of cubic meters of fresh water from seawater each day, meeting immediate water supply needs but at a heavy environmental and economic cost. The predominantly thermal desalination plants constructed in the past have contributed to the region’s status as one of the highest carbon dioxide emitting regions in the world and have required the use of natural gas and oil that otherwise could be put to more productive economic purposes, such as international export or use in petrochemical production.

In order to move away from reliance on thermal desalination to meet water supply needs, innovation is required. One area of required innovation is high efficiency and low cost desalination systems. Desalination, however, is just one solution. In the context of urbanization and “smart city” design, “smart water” becomes a very relevant concept as it relates to water and wastewater infrastructure for effective and efficient water management.

A smart water system must be designed to collect meaningful and actionable data about water flow, pressure, distribution and consumption. Likewise wastewater treatment and utilization are key to generating water for residential, agricultural and industrial uses as well as energy production. On the latter point, there are several examples of wastewater treatment facilities that produce more energy than required for their operations and provide the excess energy back to the electrical grid. In fact, at Masdar Institute we are exploring energy neutral and energy positive wastewater treatment with partner organizations such as General Electric.

Necessary innovations in the water sector encompass a wide variety of solutions and are central to the overall clean tech innovation landscape. As an illustration of this point, the 2015 Global Cleantech 100 ranking released by the Cleantech Group in early 2016 contains several geographically dispersed, early stage water and wastewater companies. Included in the list are Fathom (United States), providing cloud based software-as-a-service (SaaS) solutions for municipalities to manage water systems, Orbital Systems (Sweden), developing of an efficient closed loop, water recycling shower unit that uses an off-the-shelf microfilter and nanofilter membranes, Organica Water (Hungary), providing Fixed-Bed Biofilm Activated Sludge (FBAS) wastewater treatment plants in urban and residential population centers, OxyMem (Ireland), developing efficient aeration systems for wastewater treatment that reportedly can reduce energy consumption by 60% to 80% and achieve similar reductions for plant footprint and sludge production as compared to coarse bubble aeration systems, Saltworks Technologies (Canada), providing advanced systems for desalination, brine management and chemical recovery applications and TaKaDu (Israel), providing a web-based platform that monitors water distribution networks and gives real-time alerts on inefficiencies, water loss, faults and other network problems. Perhaps surprisingly, not one of these companies is located in the Arab world where the need for water innovation is significant.

At the Masdar Institute of Science and Technology, the need for locally tailored solutions to address regional water challenges is at the top of our agenda. Our water and environment research strategy reflects the convergence of innovations in materials science, information science and applied technologies that is demonstrated by the 2015 Cleantech 100 list of companies. Specifically, we have developed a strategy that includes at its core enhanced material systems, including computational materials design, smart sensors and artificial intelligence. These platform capabilities feed into the development of new technologies for clean water production, water recycle and reuse and water efficiency.

This approach allows us to partner with leading water technology companies, such as Trevi Systems, Suez Environnement, Abengoa and Veolia in water technology demonstrations, while at the same time advancing our platform capabilities in the materials and information sciences. This strategy of use-inspired fundamental research allows us to move toward the forefront of water sector innovation for an urbanized, water scarce region and, in time, produce new companies that can compete on the global scale.

 
Dr. Steve Griffiths is Vice President for Research at Masdar Institute of Science and Technology.

19 April 2016

This op-ed was first published in Issue 25 of Innovation and Tech

By Dr. Peter Armstrong

Cooling of the UAE buildings may be the single largest drain on the country’s electric grid, with cooling representing approximately 50% of annual and as much as 75% of peak-day electricity use in Abu Dhabi.

This massive energy footprint is significantly related to inefficient cooling systems that require excessive amounts of power to cool the air. Such cooling systems make up a large fraction of Abu Dhabi’s air-conditioners and they are often imported from countries with a milder climate where standards don’t account for the UAE’s harsher climate, resulting in inefficient operation.

Chillers that are specifically designed for the UAE’s climate could play a critical role in reducing the country’s cooling-related energy footprint, with the potential to reduce cooling-related electricity consumption by over 25%. With this prospect in mind I have guided a team of Masdar Institute research engineers and students, with input from industry collaborator SKM, in the development of an optimal chiller design for the UAE that offers high performance, energy-efficiency and a reduced life-cycle cost.

The project was sponsored by the Executive Affairs Authority of Abu Dhabi to establish minimum energy performance standards (MEPS) for chillers in the UAE. Such standards will ensure that cooling equipment built in or imported to the UAE and used in Abu Dhabi’s buildings is the most energy-efficient in the world.

To determine which chiller design generates the highest energy performance levels with the lowest life-cycle cost, we developed a flexible chiller model to test a variety of chiller components and designs. By testing designs on the flexible chiller model, we produced a performance map for each competing design.

The performance maps were then applied to a UAE cooling load model that mimics hourly cooling loads of the UAE building stock to estimate the annual electricity use required for each design. Combining the electricity requirement and cooling equipment cost of each design, we performed a financial analysis to determine which of the competing chiller designs would yield the lowest life-cycle cost. Life-cycle cost represents the entire cost of owning and operating a chiller over its expected lifetime. Inefficient chillers tend to have a lower purchasing cost but higher life-cycle cost because the cost of electricity used throughout their operational lifetime is up to four times the equipment purchasing cost.

As a result, we found that all of our chiller designs are cost-effective and significantly more efficient than current chiller systems in the UAE, including Masdar City’s district cooling plant. The district cooling plant at Masdar City has a seasonal coefficient of performance (SCOP) – which is a ratio of the amount of cooling provided by the chiller over the course of a year to the electricity it consumes – of 3.8, while the modeled SCOP of the UAE-optimized air-cooled chiller is 5.6 – representing a 46% improvement in energy-efficiency.

Although upfront cost of the UAE-specific chiller is roughly 22% higher than that of a conventional chiller, the high energy-efficiency level results in a 14% lower life-cycle cost. In other words, the lifetime operational cost savings of the advanced chiller more than offsets its higher initial upfront cost. Conversely, the higher operating costs of a conventional chiller significantly outweigh that tempting low initial purchase cost.

We found that an improved compressor, larger condenser and evaporator, sub-cooling control, variable speed condenser fans, and a high-efficiency compressor motor all contribute significantly to the energy improvements achieved by the highest-performing chiller design.

While our improved designs were intended for commercial-building-sized air-cooled chillers in the 100 to 800 kW range, similar design changes could be applied to other air-conditioning systems, including window units, mini-split units, variable refrigerant flow systems and even water-cooled chillers.  At the current actual cost of electricity production in Abu Dhabi, the potential savings, at 100% market penetration of all optimized chiller and AC types, amounts to over AED5 billion per year.

Our work has helped identify optimal MEPS for UAE chillers, which, if implemented on all imported and locally-developed chiller technologies in Abu Dhabi, will reduce not only the country’s electric bill, but its high carbon footprint as well.

With innovative know-how acquired in local manufacture of optimized, energy-efficient chiller technologies, the UAE could become the Gulf region’s go-to source and quickly become a net exporter of advanced cost-effective chillers.

Dr. Peter Armstrong is an associate professor of mechanical engineering at the Masdar Institute of Science and Technology

28 April 2016

By Rania Rostom

You may know GE for our high-tech healthcare equipment, advanced jet engines, or turbines that power the world. What you may not think about is that each and every one of these technologies was developed, improved, and created by a GE person. So from my perspective, our most valuable asset is not our technology, but the incredibly diverse workforce that made it. Our employees, numbering over 360,000 globally, are directly responsible for the groundbreaking ideas and solutions that place GE at the forefront of technology and innovation.

These qualified, inventive, and highly-skilled people are not necessarily natural-born experts – although I will say we have our fair share of genius minds! Rather, many of them are skilled as a result of years of education and advanced training, during which they acquire the meaningful experiences, in-depth knowledge, and technical skills required to accelerate and transform industries. This is why GE supports the development and training of our innovative talent pool. In fact, each year GE invests US$1 billion to develop and train our people.

Beyond the development of current GE employees, we also contribute to the development of potential future employees. Through a comprehensive range of outreach initiatives, GE promotes science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) education for youth through undergraduate and graduate-level scholarship programs; college-level curriculum development; specific industry-relevant training courses; and strategic collaborations with research universities.

These initiatives reflect GE’s efforts to foster an ecosystem of innovation in all of the countries in which we operate, as the training and development of a robust talent pipeline drives innovation, which in turn fuels vibrant and diverse economic growth. From the development of technological innovations in the areas of energy, health, aviation and water, to the creation of local jobs and skilled human capital, GE works to develop all aspects of the innovation ecosystem supply chain.

As Chief Innovation & Communications Officer for GE in the Middle East, North Africa & Turkey (MENAT), I am part of a team that works to cultivate the region’s innovation ecosystem. We believe that the 200 million Arab youth in the region can be leveraged to achieve transformational growth, which is why we have partnered with more than 25 universities and educational organizations in MENAT, including Abu Dhabi’s leading research university focused on advanced technologies and clean energy – the Masdar Institute of Science and Technology.

Partnering with sustainability-focused, graduate-level universities to conduct innovative research helps ensure the technological skills developed by their students are aligned with industry needs. Through collaborative research activities, students acquire a perfect combination of highly relevant analytical thinking and leadership skills, which they can then apply in the workplace and transform into real world impact.

One example of this is the Sustainable Bioenergy Research Consortium (SBRC). GE has partnered on this Masdar Institute-led initiative – a non-profit consortium with members such as Boeing, Etihad, Takreer and Safran. As part of the SBRC, GE is contributing to the development of sustainable aviation biofuels, supporting the UAE’s diversified energy goals. Through current and planned research projects being conducted at the SBRC’s innovative Seawater Energy and Agricultural System (SEAS) – the unique pilot facility aimed at cultivating bioenergy and food with seawater and desert land – students will develop valuable engineering skills needed to power and sustain the country’s emerging aviation and aquaculture sectors.

GE has also partnered with Masdar Institute on an energy efficiency white paper that explores various interventions to help decrease the UAE’s net energy demand and high carbon footprint. With a UAE national student contributing significantly to the research, this collaborative project demonstrates the valuable role young Emirati talent play in this field.

The value and impact of our collaboration with academia can also be seen by the fact that GE currently employs a Masdar Institute alumnus who is leveraging his sustainability-focused analytical and technological skills to enhance GE’s energy efficiency innovations.

In addition to partnering with world-class universities like Masdar Institute, other efforts to develop the region’s human capital include the development of GE’s Ecomagination Innovation Center located in Masdar City, which serves as an industrial innovation incubator, bringing together government entities, academic institutions and private sector organizations to drive the development of local innovative solutions to solve sustainability challenges collaboratively.

Through initiatives like these, GE is strengthening the skills being taught in the UAE’s classrooms by focusing on solutions for real industrial-based challenges. These collaborations generate both the technology-based solutions and highly-skilled human capital needed to transform industries, fuel the innovation ecosystem, and build prosperity and success across the Middle East.

Rania Rostom is Chief Innovation & Communications Officer, GE Middle East, North Africa & Turkey

Printed in The Gulf Today on 19 May 2016

The impact of inadequate access to basic sanitation facilities on the world’s poor — which contributes to an estimated 2.4 million deaths from water-related illnesses per year — has inspired one Masdar Institute alumna to dedicate her skills to improving the interconnected issues of sanitation, energy and health in Africa.aarmtechnologies.com

Laura Stupin — a Masdar Institute Class of 2011 MSc in Engineering Systems and Management graduate — is a Senior Process Engineer at an innovative organization called Pivot, which works to deliver city-scale sanitation solutions to low income communities while providing access to renewable energy.aarmtechnologies.com

Stupin credits Masdar Institute as being the influence that made her think about waste-to-energy in low income countries.aarmtechnologies.com

She explained that: “During my master’s thesis at Masdar Institute, I found that waste energy is often overlooked despite the large potential it has in low-income countries. My thesis focused on using agricultural waste for electricity and cooking in villages. This initial introduction to biomass waste energy eventually led me to my current job at Pivot.” aarmtechnologies.com

Pivot has developed an ‘integrated fecal sludge management system’ that has an eye to the long-term sustainability of their system by establishing a broad value chain that turns collected sewage into a renewable biofuel material that can replace coal.aarmtechnologies.com

Their system works by converting human waste into a solid fuel. This fuel is then sold to industry for use in cement and brick factories to burn in their furnaces and the revenues generated by these sales are used to pay for the operational cost of sanitizing and processing the waste, making the cycle commercially viable.aarmtechnologies.com

By collecting human waste for commercial processing, Pivot has contributed to reduced contamination of groundwater supplies, which has had a knock-on effect on the health of citizens, reducing the numbers of those affected by tropical diseases and chronic malnutrition. Additionally, use of the solid fuel produced by Pivot in place of coal contributes to climate change mitigation; Pivot estimates that the average size Pivot factory reduces carbon emissions from coal by 23,000 tons each year.aarmtechnologies.com

Stupin said, “My role at the company has evolved over a variety of projects including repurposing a commercial pineapple juice press for experimental sewage dewatering, designing factory processes, developing IT systems for tracking and analyzing factory data, assembling and running a calorimeter for fuel density measurements, running experiments to reduce production costs, training local staff members, and installing industrial equipment out in the bush in Kenya.”aarmtechnologies.com

In addition to this, Stupin has recognized that her knowledge of organizational structure and technology in the market was expanded during her time at the Institute and has benefited her throughout her professional career.aarmtechnologies.com

“The Managing Technology and Innovation course at Masdar Institute helped me analyze the effect of new technologies on different markets at different stages of their development. The course also opened my eyes to how the structure of an organization can be crafted to foster creativity and enable flexibility to meet changing market conditions. The lessons learned as part of this course have proved extremely beneficial throughout my professional career.”aarmtechnologies.com

Stupin advises new graduates interested in working in energy in low-income countries to gain some experience with larger corporations before working for small and medium enterprises.aarmtechnologies.com

She commented: “Spending one year working as part of a multi-national or larger corporation focused on similar projects may help some graduates gain broader experience they can draw upon while working in a smaller organization. It is also beneficial for building connections and a network of people who may be able to provide assistance with certain projects.”  aarmtechnologies.com

“A large majority of the projects in low-income countries are smaller and very early stage, which is exciting, but having some experience with larger players in the industry first may be an advantage to you in the long-term,” she added.aarmtechnologies.com

Stupin is just one of over 570 Masdar Institute alumni who are making a valuable contribution sustainability across the world through their professional and academic efforts.aarmtechnologies.com

Ciara Sutton aarmtechnologies.com
News and Features Writeraarmtechnologies.com
23 June 2016aarmtechnologies.com