Sohar University students visit Grace
MUSCAT: As part of the Sohar University-grace collaboration agreement, W R Grace has sponsored and facilitated an exceptional tour visit for two of Sohar University students, namely Miaad al Shizawi and Fatema al Badi, to visit Grace facilities in Worms, Germany.
The students have been awarded for their excellent academic performance in Mechanical and Chemical Engineering.
WR Grace is a global leader in specialty chemicals and materials. Grace Catalysts Technologies is the global leader in process catalysts, developing and manufacturing catalysts and technologies used in refining, petrochemical and other chemical manufacturing applications.
This visit was a lifetime experience for the two students as they enhanced and enriched their knowledge through this visit.
They took the opportunity to discuss with the Grace staff the technical issues related to running such a facility.
Miaad said that having made such a visit to world-class facilities has definitely improved her educational experience which will help her in her study and future career. Fatema believes that the visit has opened new directions to her, especially in the field of petrochemical catalysts.
Dr Christoph Fougret, the laboratory manager of the Grace FCC catalyst evaluations research and services laboratories at Worms and at Sohar had organised and accompanied the visit.
He provided access to Grace’s manufacturing plants, to the QC laboratories as well as to the R&D facilities and the Catalyst Evaluations laboratories at Worms. Training sessions were provided to discuss the Quality Management Systems, Environmental requirements of such a complex operation but also on Human Resources topics.
The Sohar University-grace collaboration had started two years back and succeeded to establish $3.5 million world-class laboratories within the Sohar University campus that are fully licensed for material characterisation and evaluation.
The need for such laboratories in Oman has been determined by Orpic as part of their In-country Value programme. The Sohar labs will eliminate the need to send the Orpic samples to the Labs in Germany for testing.
The testing of Grace-supplied catalyst from the Orpic refinery operations allows Orpic to run their refinery at an optimum. The laboratories at Sohar will reduce the time for Orpic to react on changes of the samples. The Sohar Labs have started their dry operation in November 2017 and they have officially been opened on April 11. In the next step these labs will expand their analytical services to all GCC countries and beyond.
The model of this industrialacademic cooperation is unique in the governorate and has provided great opportunities for learning and experimentation. Up to 25 per cent of the facilities work hours are allocated to support the Sohar University academic and research requirements. The Labs are 100 per cent managed and operated by Omani professionals.