Academia-Industry Interfaces and CollaborationDr. Sulaiman Al-Khattaf

Director, Center for Refining& PetrochemicalsKing Fahd University of Petroleum & Minerals

Dhahran, Saudi Arabia

MANAGING R&D DURING DIFFICULT TIMES: CREATING GLOBAL COMPETITIVENESS

Outline

• Part 1: Academia-Industry Collaboration

• Part 2: KFUPM: An Insight

• Part 3: Olefins Research at KFUPM

• Part 4: Aromatics Research at KFUPM

• Concluding Remarks

2

Part 1

Academia-Industry Collaboration

MANAGING R&D DURING DIFFICULT TIMES: CREATING GLOBAL COMPETITIVENESS 4

Changing Role of Academia

• Besides education, research and community service, universities play a vital role in fostering innovation activities.

• Academia have a wealth of resources including human and intellectual capital and R&D infrastructure.

• Universities contribute to national transformation towards a knowledge-based economy.

• They interact with industry to allow students and faculty to engage in research activities while helping solve industry problems.

MANAGING R&D DURING DIFFICULT TIMES: CREATING GLOBAL COMPETITIVENESS 5

Why Industry Comes to Academia?

• To perform collaborative research and gain insight from internationally-recognized experts.

• Create research synergies, utilize facilities, lab space and infrastructure at universities

• To strengthen strategic decision-making via:

– Developing new products and processes, and

– Achieving effective growth strategies

• Help bridge funding gaps that exist at the technology development and marketing stages.

MANAGING R&D DURING DIFFICULT TIMES: CREATING GLOBAL COMPETITIVENESS

Interfaces of University-Industry Collaboration

MANAGING R&D DURING DIFFICULT TIMES: CREATING GLOBAL COMPETITIVENESS

People Ideas Methods

ApplicationsChallengesFunding

Shared Benefits to Both Parties

University-Industry Collaboration

University Benefits Industry Benefits

Research or project funding Lower research overhead

Student internships; learning opportunities Future employees/recruiting

Equipment/facility fees Access to specialized equipment

Licensing revenue Licensed intellectual property

Academic publication opportunities Publicity for sponsorships

MANAGING R&D DURING DIFFICULT TIMES: CREATING GLOBAL COMPETITIVENESS

• University-Industry collaborations are promoted to commercialize university research and foster economic growth.

• Academic discoveries are developed for the benefit of all stakeholders: companies, universities and public.

• Most frequently cited tensions between university-industry collaboration are:

• Intellectual property management, and

• Publication freedom

University-Industry Collaboration

MANAGING R&D DURING DIFFICULT TIMES: CREATING GLOBAL COMPETITIVENESS 9

Best Practices for Collaboration

• Universities that engage with industry need to offer straightforward research agreements that will:

– Enable researchers to work with industry partners

on all stages of R&D

– Streamline contracting process for companies

– Reduce intellectual property negotiation times

Straightforward Research Agreements

• Many universities have guidelines that outline university and industry responsibilities and profit-sharing.

MANAGING R&D DURING DIFFICULT TIMES: CREATING GLOBAL COMPETITIVENESS 10

Intellectual Property Rights and Royalties

• Negotiating a functional IP policy between universities and industry is becoming an important issue.

• Some universities have:

• Established unified and structured IP policies to guide decisions on rights to IP and division of royalties

• Adopted policies that waive a substantial portion of royalties - in some cases 25 to 35% - on disclosures to the sponsoring industry

• These new IP strategies have reduced uncertainty and financial concerns that surround university-industry partnerships.

• IP disagreements are most frequent in narrowly-focused collaborations.

• In exploratory research, some companies accept the IP management practices of universities.

Part 2

KFUPM: An Insight

MANAGING R&D DURING DIFFICULT TIMES: CREATING GLOBAL COMPETITIVENESS

KFUPM: A Brief Insight

KFUPM

Quality of Education

KFUPM is one of the highest ranked

university in the GCC

Engineering College programs are

accredited by ABET

Established in 1963, KFUPM

has a total of 9,500 students in

6 colleges

950+ Multinational Faculty Members

200 Dedicated Researchers (RI)

12 PhD Programs & 35 MS Programs

Researchers

600+ Yearly Publications in ISI Journals

450+ Issued Patents (USPTO)

Publications and Patents

Facilities

KFUPM Research Institute

5 Centers of Research Excellence

Dhahran Techno-Valley

Top Saudi Talent Pool

First Technical University in KSA

1,200+ graduates per year

MANAGING R&D DURING DIFFICULT TIMES: CREATING GLOBAL COMPETITIVENESS

KFUPM Dhahran Techno-Valley Science Park

DTV Science Park grew rapidly during last 8 years Considered world largest R&D cluster of petroleum energy applications

MANAGING R&D DURING DIFFICULT TIMES: CREATING GLOBAL COMPETITIVENESS

Rank Among Universities

Global Rank

No. Patents University

1 67 536 University of California

2 116 309 Massachusetts Institute of Technology

3 159 222 Leland Stanford Jr University

4 166 213 Korea Advanced Institute Science and Tech

5 172 209 University of Texas System

6 176 209 Tsinghua University

7 189 191 California Institute of technology

8 224 162 Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation

9 235 155 Johns Hopkins University

10 258 138 University of Michigan

11 279 126 Columbia University

12 285 123 Harvard College

13 314 115 KFUPM

IFI CLAIMS® Top 1000 US Assignees for 2015

Global University Ranking (2015)

KFUPM: Innovation Push

Total number of issued patents = 453 (as of Jan. 18, 2016)

KFUPM Technology Landscape

MANAGING R&D DURING DIFFICULT TIMES: CREATING GLOBAL COMPETITIVENESS

Research Agreements and Collaboration

• KFUPM has developed contract mechanisms that enable industry to engage with KFUPM Research Institute at all stages of R&D

• These agreements are carefully crafted to streamline the contracting process and provide straightforward intellectual property terms for companies engaging in collaborative research

• Types of focused collaboration:

• Bilateral Collaboration: KFUPM + International University or Industry

• Trilateral Collaboration: KFUPM + Industry + International University

MANAGING R&D DURING DIFFICULT TIMES: CREATING GLOBAL COMPETITIVENESS

KFUPM Center for Refining & Petrochemicals

16

CRP is active in catalysis research related to refining, aromatics, olefins and polyolefins

Networking with world-class scientists and researchers

Over 40 publications and 4 patents per year

Active participation in graduate study and training

Company

Para-xylene from Toluene and Methanol

Light Olefins from Naphtha Cracking

Propylene from ButenesMetathesis

Technology

• Catalyst testing and screening

• Concept Validation Stage

• Ongoing pilot plant testing

• Catalyst scale-up

• Completed catalyst development

• Dual catalyst for maximum propylene

Status

Examples of Collaborative Research between KFUPM and Industry

Part 3

Olefins Research at KFUPM

MANAGING R&D DURING DIFFICULT TIMES: CREATING GLOBAL COMPETITIVENESS

• Global basic petrochemical market size is around 423 MMT and 530 US$ billion value (2015)

• Methanol: Derivatives include formaldehyde, acetic acid, DME, price at $275/tonne

• Olefins: Many derivatives, PE, PP, PVC, EO,

• Ethylene: Additional capacity expansions is USA and ME. Price at $850/tonne

• Propylene: On purpose capacity is expected to increase 42 MMT by 2020. Price at $590/tonne

• Aromatics: represents 119 MMT and 130 US$ billion value. Derivatives, SM, PET

• Benzene: Price at $550/tonne

• Toluene: current price $520/tonne

• para-Xylene: represents 38 MMT. Price at $680/tonne

Basic Petrochemicals: An Overview

MANAGING R&D DURING DIFFICULT TIMES: CREATING GLOBAL COMPETITIVENESS

30 barrel per day Demonstration Plant, Ras Tanura Refinery Saudi Aramco

3,000 barrel per day HS-FCC in Mizushima JX Refinery, Japan

• Developed a chemical-oriented refining process (HS-FCC) for converting heavy oil to value- added products

• Initiated pilot plant testing at KFUPM

Comparison between conventional and HS-FCC process

Joint Collaboration to Develop Refinery Cracking Process

Development of High-Severity Fluid Catalytic Cracking Process of Heavy Oil

MANAGING R&D DURING DIFFICULT TIMES: CREATING GLOBAL COMPETITIVENESS

Stages for Technology Development:

From KFUPM Laboratory to Commercial Unit at Refinery in South Korea

20

Joint Collaboration to Develop Refinery Cracking Process

MANAGING R&D DURING DIFFICULT TIMES: CREATING GLOBAL COMPETITIVENESS

Collaborative Research between KFUPM and SABIC

Main Objective

• Develop a catalytic system for the conversion of naphtha to light olefins

Specific Objectives:

• Established basic technology for catalyst design

• Optimized cracking conditions for maximum light olefins yield

• Scaled-up catalyst preparation and testing in circulating catalyst pilot plant

Catalytic cracking of

light naphtha

Light olefins (ethylene and propylene)

Catalytic Cracking of Naphtha to Light Olefins

Advanced Cracking Evaluation (ACE) fluidized bed unit

MANAGING R&D DURING DIFFICULT TIMES: CREATING GLOBAL COMPETITIVENESS

C4-C6 olefin streams are becoming undesirable for gasoline blending due to their high volatility

Demand for ethylene and propylene is increasing mainly for polyethylene and polypropylene

Global propylene (90 MMT/yr) is co-produced by naphtha steam crackers (55%), FCC units (30%) and on-purpose processes

Olefins cracking technology may be integrated with an FCC unit or a naphtha steam cracker

Global Propylene Sources Global Propylene Derivatives

Ethylene and Propylene from Olefins Cracking

Selective Global Propylene Production (IHS 2015)

MANAGING R&D DURING DIFFICULT TIMES: CREATING GLOBAL COMPETITIVENESS

Product distribution vs. reaction temperature in catalytic cracking of 1-butene

23

Ethylene and Propylene from Butenes Cracking

Our work on butenes cracking showed that product distributions are function of successive reactions of oligomerization, cracking, and hydrogen transfer. Maximum propylene yield of 39% from cracking 1-butene at 550°C.

MANAGING R&D DURING DIFFICULT TIMES: CREATING GLOBAL COMPETITIVENESS

Novel redox – based nanoparticles supported

catalyst with a hierarchical catalyst pore

24

Catalyst consisting of cohabiting nano-particle oxide stabilized on porous alumina

On-Purpose Catalytic Production of Butadiene

B.Rabindran Jermy, B.P. Ajayi, B.A. Abussaud, S. Asaoka, S. Al-Khattaf,, Oxidative

dehydrogenation of n-butane to butadiene over Bi-Ni-O/-alumina catalyst” J. of Mol. Catal. A:

Chem. 400 (2015) 121-131.

TechnologyExisting 2 steps*C41-C4

=C4

2=

KFUPMC4C4

2=

Rx Temp [oC] 600/400 450

nC4 conversion, % 30 30

Selectivity, %

Butadiene 56 49

Butenes 21 21

Propylene 2 1

Ethylene 14 16

Methane 1 1

CO2 6 12

* Preliminary estimation based on literature

Catalytic Oxidative Dehydrogenation of n-Butane

MANAGING R&D DURING DIFFICULT TIMES: CREATING GLOBAL COMPETITIVENESS

One-Step ODH Process to BD

Single reactor

No butene separation unit at intermediate step

Low-temperature operation

Less coke formation due to low BD concentration

Enable to integrate within refinery crude C4= unit

Advantages of KFUPM One-Step ODH Process and BD Catalyst

KFUPM BD Catalyst

Designed based on commercial catalyst preparation technology

Consist of commercial available materials

No noble metal (Pt)

No toxic element (Cr)

Stabilized by calcination in air at high temperature

On-Purpose Catalytic Production of Butadiene

Part 4

Aromatics Research at KFUPM

MANAGING R&D DURING DIFFICULT TIMES: CREATING GLOBAL COMPETITIVENESS

Collaboration with UOP

• Global demand for para-xylene is about 38 million tonne in 2015

• Demand for PX is growing at 5% per year for use in polyester fibers, PET resins

• More than 70% of PX capacity is located in Asia

• Middle East is projected to have the highest annual growth capacity rates during 2015-2020 for PX at 10.5%

• Conventional routes to PX include toluene disproportionation or transalkylation.

• Both routes produce mixed xylenes and co-produce benzene.

On-Purpose Production of para-Xylene (PX)

MANAGING R&D DURING DIFFICULT TIMES: CREATING GLOBAL COMPETITIVENESS

para-Xylene (PX) from Toluene Methylation

ObjectiveDevelop an alternative alkylation technology for PX production

ProgressDeveloped and optimized catalyst with a high selectivity to PX

Impact & Outcome

• Uses available low-value feedstocks: gas-based methanol and toluene

• Reduced feed requirement per unit PX produced

• Potential cost-effective industrial process

28

A Collaborative Project between KFUPM and UOP (A Honeywell Company)

para-Xylene (PX) from Toluene Methylation

MANAGING R&D DURING DIFFICULT TIMES: CREATING GLOBAL COMPETITIVENESS

• Low-value propane is catalytically converted to valuable aromatics

• Aromatization represents an on-purpose process for aromatics production.

• Developed Ga-Al-MFI zeolite with different Ga/(Ga+Al) and Si/(Ga+Al) ratios

• Hirerarchical porous structure of Ga-Al-MFI was created by desilication

Aromatization of Light Alkanes

KACST Funded Research Project

MANAGING R&D DURING DIFFICULT TIMES: CREATING GLOBAL COMPETITIVENESS

Effect of Ga/(Ga+Al) Ratio

Aromatization of Light Alkanes

• Ga-Al-MFI: Ga/(Ga+Al) ratio of 0.3 and Si/(Ga+Al) ratio of 15 resulted into maximum propane conversion (90%) and aromatic yield (70 %)

• Reaction conditions: 540˚C, GHSV (gas hourly space velocity) = 1600 h-1

0.0

10.0

20.0

30.0

40.0

50.0

60.0

70.0

80.0

90.0

100.0

0.0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6

Convers

ion

%

Ga/(Ga+Al) Ratio

Propane conversion Aromatic Yield

MANAGING R&D DURING DIFFICULT TIMES: CREATING GLOBAL COMPETITIVENESS

• Major innovations result from basic research and university role is essential

• Collaborative research between universities and industry is becoming more important for both parties.

• Universities were known for saying: “Publish or Perish.” Now they say: “Partner or Perish.”

• Collaboration should lead to creation of knowledge: patents, license and/or creation of technology-based companies

• Lock-up of inventions and censoring of academic publications, should be avoided if feasible.

Concluding Remarks

Thank You!

www.gpca.org.ae