Qatar is intensifying efforts to develop ground-breaking technologies that will increase energy efficiency, cut water waste and deliver greater sustainability, the MEED Qatar Projects 2015 Conference was told this morning.

The Qatar Environment & Energy Research Institute (QEERI), launched in 2011 by the Qatar Foundation for Education, Science and Community Development (QF), is leading efforts to conduct and coordinate long-term and multidisciplinary research that addresses these issues.

It is one of three QF research institutes: the others are the Qatar Computing Research Institute and the Qatar Biomedical Research Institute.

“The vision for the institute is to become a leading research centre with a global impact by addressing the grand national energy and water challenges,” the institute’s executive director Mohammad Khaleel said.

Khaleel said QEERI has four objectives:

• Developing solar photovoltaic (PV) and energy storage technologies
• Enhancing the sustainability of Qatar’s water resources
• Developing knowledge partnerships with local and international businesses and agencies
• Expanding Qatar’s capacity to undertake research into energy and water efficiency and sustainability.

“We are assisting Qatar’s plans for the introduction of off-grid and grid-integrated PV and energy storage technologies,” Khaleel said.

“Kahramaa is planning to deploy 10MW of PV capacity on water storage tanks. The issues that need to be addressed are dust, high temperatures and humidity. QEERI is working with Kahramaa to come up with ways to mitigate these challenges. This is a project we are doing jointly with them.”

Desalinated water

To tackle Qatar’s water challenges, QEERI is working with Qatar Electricity & Water Company (QEWC), Qatar’s independent power and water producer, on a plan to introduce membrane-based units that can be used in pre-treatment of seawater for desalination plants.

“We believe we can increase the yield of existing plants by 20-25 per cent and operate these plants at higher temperatures, which increases their efficiency,” Khaleel said.

Developing knowledge partnerships demands the creation of what Khaleel said will be an ecosystem to promote enterprises in the sectors QEERI is addressing.

Solar energy

“We are helping to create SME businesses based on knowledge,” he said. “To do that, you have to have local and international partnerships. Locally, we are partnering in the area of solar energy with Qatar Solar Technologies (QSTec). They are now making solar modules. We are also working on the development of new materials.”

Khaleel said other future projects with QSTec could involve manufacturing high-efficiency batteries to store solar power. “We are working on sulphur-based batteries using local materials,” he said. “We hope in a couple of years that we shall be ready to begin production.”

“We want more companies in energy efficiency and we are thinking about what technologies and policies we need to adopt,” Khaleel said. “We want to develop an Energy Star-type labelling programme. That is something we are trying to do with local partners.”

Other initiatives include a partnership with the Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne (EPFL), one of the two Swiss federal institutes of technology. 

“We have a partnership with EPFL dealing with projects related to solar energy and the grid,” Khaleel said. “We also are working with the Hangyang University in South Korea on energy storage and we are about to sign an agreement with the Boston Institute for Climate Change.”

A partnership with Japan’s National Institute for Materials Science is training technicians for solar-powered solar desalination.

“The motivating factor behind the international partnerships is the desire to capitalise on established knowledge and to speed up our activities,” Khaleel said.

Building careers

QEERI’s fourth objective is possibly the most important. QF has devised the Qatar Science Leadership Programme (QSLP), which aims to help nationals build careers in science and research with guaranteed placements at the QF and its centres. The QSLP offers opportunities in a range of sciences relevant to Qatar’s national research agenda, from undergraduate to postdoctoral studies. 

“We want to enhance our research capabilities in energy and water in Qatar,” said Khaleel. “We have the QSLP and we have a lot of very bright Qataris doing their PhDs. They are the next generation of scientists and researchers.”

Khaleel said QEERI is working with Hamad bin Khalifa University (HBKU), a QF member, to support two doctoral programmes: one in research into sustainable energy and one in researching sustainable environments. This will start in September.

Khaleel said QEERI’s work complements the extraordinary contribution QF is making to the creation in Qatar of the infrastructure needed to support the scientific and research community.

“QF is building world-class research laboratories and these will be operational sometime this summer,” said Khaleel. It will comprise 40,000 square metres of research labs.

“We are building a membrane fabrication facility for water desalination,” Khaleel said. “What progress we make will fuel the creation of a company that will make membranes for desalination and other purposes.”