This side event, moderated by Tidjani Niass, Saudi Aramco, focused on the role of technology and innovation relevant to research on climate change.
Noting that global carbon emissions are 16 times higher than they were in the year 1900, Mohamed Eddaoudi, King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), Saudi Arabia, discussed efforts in Saudi Arabia to increase the use of renewable energy via research and development at KAUST, including the Solar and Photovoltaics Engineering Research Center and the Clean Combustion Research Center. Eddaoudi drew attention to the development of a new generation of advanced adsorbents from a family of Metal Organic Frameworks (MOFs), which are compounds consisting of metal ions or clusters joined to organic ligands from one-, two- or three-dimensional structures, constituting a cost-effective and energy-efficient way to capture CO2. Regarding MOFs, Eddaoudi addressed, inter alia: their design strategies; the MOF platform for CO2 capture and separation; and strategies for pore-size tuning.
Ibrahim Hoteit, KAUST, presented a data-driven modeling system for studying and forecasting the climate of the Red Sea. Underscoring the utility of the Red Sea as a source of water, food and energy, he noted that it is one of the warmest and most saline ecosystems in the world. He described the modeling system as the largest effort to build an integrated data-driven high-resolution modeling and forecasting system for the Red Sea’s water circulation and climate, which will allow for the optimal exploitation and protection of its resources. Hoteit also underscored, among others: developing interactive information and visualization tools for efficient handling and exploitation of system outputs; and creating the foundation for understanding the large-scale variability of the Red Sea ecosystem, which will provide guidance for future research on large marine ecosystems.
Focusing on emerging technologies with long-term impacts on climate change, Osman Bakr, KAUST, addressed high-performance, low-cost perovskite semiconductors for solar cells and optoelectronics. Bakr discussed challenges around the development of high-performance semiconductors, including that they: melt in very high temperatures; have to be treated in specialized facilities; and are costly. He then focused on the development of large, single-crystals of hybrid perovskites, via simple and inexpensive methods, whose purity and electrical properties are comparable to costly optoelectronic-grade silicon. Bakr discussed potential applications, including enhancing the sensitivity and response time of photodetectors, and improving the performance of solar cells.
In the ensuing discussion, participants addressed, inter alia: a timeline for commercial applications; related costs of utilized materials and chemicals; desalination activities in the Red Sea; decreasing trends in winds; and the cost of technology for the perovskite semiconductors and their efficiency compared to solar cells.
