Saudi Aramco reinforced its commitment to cutting-edge research and education in the oil and gas industry recently when Ahmed M. Alzayyat, managing director of Aramco Overseas Co., made a donation to the Delft University of Technology (TU Delft) on behalf of the company.
It was Saudi Aramco's second such donation to TU Delft. Both the original 2009 donation and the 2010 donation are being used to fund postdoctoral research in hydrotreating activities focusing on desulfurization. In that process, sulfur contaminants are removed from hydrocarbons.
As Alzayyat reminded the audience, including professor Karel Luyben, rector magnificus of TU Delft, and Michiel Makkee, the supervisor of the postdoctoral student carrying out the research, "Research such as this is of great importance to Saudi Aramco, the energy industry, and the world at large" because it will "help protect our environment."
Sulfur contaminants produced from hydrocarbon combustion are a major cause of pollution, causing, for example, acid rain. One of Saudi Aramco's main corporate responsibilities, and a long-standing priority of the company, is to mitigate the worldwide impact of petroleum use.
Alzayyat stressed that Saudi Aramco is proud to partner with "top-notch" universities worldwide to discover "new breakthroughs" in the energy industry. As president and CEO Khalid A. Al-Falih said in a September 2010 speech at the World Energy Congress in Montreal, Canada, "There are significant opportunities to make petroleum more environmentally friendly" and that "it is incumbent on our industry to do its utmost to realize those enhancements."
Saudi Aramco's partnership with TU Delft allows the company to fund research that will help ensure the company will continue to act as a responsible environmental steward, supplying, as Alzayyat noted, "reliable energy sources for future generations."
