Dr. Muhammad Wakil Shahzad

The inevitable escalation in economic development have serious implications on energy and environment nexus. The International Energy Outlook 2016 (IEO2016) predicted that the Non Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (non-OECD) countries will lead with 71% rise in energy demand in contrast with only 18% in developed countries from 2012-2040. In GCC countries, about 50% of primary energy is consumed for cogeneration based power and desalination plants. In the past, many studies were focused on renewable energy based desalination and cooling processes to accommodate 5 fold increase in demand by 2050 but they were not commercialized due to intermittent nature of renewable energy such as solar and wind. We proposed highly efficient energy storage material, Magnesium oxide (MgO), system integrated with innovative hybrid desalination and cooling/heating cycle for future sustainability. The condensation of Mg(OH)2 dehydration vapor during day operation with concentrated solar energy and exothermic hydration of MgO at night can produce 24 hour thermal energy without any interruption. Combined system mathematical model was developed and simulation was conducted in System Advisory Model (SAM) and FORTRAN. It was showed that, Mg(OH)2 dehydration vapor condensation produce 120oC and MgO hydration exothermic reaction produce 140oC heat during day and night operation respectively correspond to energy storage of 81kJ/mol and 41kJ/mol. The produced energy can be utilized to operate desalination and cooling/heating cycle to reduce CO2 emission and to achieve COP21 goal. In future, the simulation results will be verified at pilot facility under commissioning at KAUST, Saudi Arabia. 

Dr. Wakil is working as a Research Scientist in the Water Desalination and Reuse Center of King Abdullah University of Science and Technology. He worked as Research Fellow in the National University Singapore (NUS) in 2014 and as a lecturer at UET (Pakistan) from 2008-2009. His research focused on renewable energy, energy storage materials, desalination, cooling, heat & mass transfer and system economic analysis. He is working on integration of desalination processes for overall system performance improvements. They proved that the hybridization of Adsorption Cycle with Multi-effect Desalination or Membrane Distillation can improve water production to 2-3 folds. Their innovative hybrid MED+AD cycle won “GE-ARAMCO global water challenge” award for high efficiency and lowest water production cycle <$0.5/m3 . Dr. Wakil also working on economic analysis of single and hybrid systems and their developed primary fuel cost model is widely accepted in the industry. He also has expertise on complex system modelling and simulation. Dr. Wakil holds four international patents. To date, he published 32 peer-reviewed journal papers and over 70 conference papers. He also published one book and co-authored 5 book chapters. He received two best paper awards in international conferences. He is selected as a regional coordinator for International Desalination Association Young Leader Program (IDA-YLP) for Middle East & Africa region. He is a member of many professional organizations namely; International Desalination Association (IDA), The International Water Association (IWA) and American Society of Mechanical Engineer (ASME).