Chemical Engineering Department visit to Saudi Aramco Strategic Storage and Abha Bulk Plant

 

Each semester the Faculty of Engineering under the supervision of the Dean of the College Dr. Ibrahim Falki arranges the industrial field visits. In this semester also a group of graduating students of the Department of Chemical Engineering visited to Aramco Strategic Storage Company on 09th April, 2019 in Abha under the supervision of Dr. Atef El Jery and Dr. Yasser Fahmy. The aim of this visit was to identify the advanced systems ascribing to the methods and stages adopted in the storage and distribution of oil and gas. Strategic storage is located in north of Abha city in Asir region of the kingdom. This facility is supplied with petroleum products from the Jazan distribution station via a 245 km pipeline through Asir mountain ranges. The petroleum products are pumped from the storage site to the distribution station via a 7 km pipeline for local consumption since 1424 AH. Strategic storage and distribution are amongst the most important places in the region. The storage facility is well equipped with health and safety standards. This visit was a great success as our students received detail information about the facility from the integrated team that oversees the distribution process in the strategic stores. The students received a warm welcome and encouragement from the group of members of Saudi Aramco. The program began with the screening of a film about Saudi Aramco's energy from storage to distribution. The aim of Saudi Arabia is to develop a safe and secure system to ensure the protection of petroleum products and secure the needs of safe distribution of petroleum products in times of crisis and emergency.  The importance of oil and gas and their derivatives are paramount as they are used  in many vital activities such as extracting pure water from the land, desalination, civil and military transportation, and the generation of electricity on which all industries depend. As oil installations are usually subject to sabotage or natural disasters, it is necessary to consider developing a safe and efficient system aimed at protecting these facilities and providing petroleum products permanently to all vital facilities and sectors under different circumstances. The main site of the project is about 40 km north of Abha city. The pipeline runs about 240 kilometers long and has two pumping stations, pumping sea-level products to the high mountains up to 2,800 meters, through a tunnel that crosses the mountains. It contains a nuclear, chemical and biological bomb-protected area. It also contains the main control room through which all the station equipment and systems can be operated automatically and equipped with the main computers, which are connected to Saudi Aramco computers to know the size of the stored products and all environmental matters. The system is also linked to the Ministry of Defense and Aviation in Riyadh so that the Ministry is kept informed of the size of strategic stocks. In the end, the accompanying doctors expressed their thanks and appreciation to the team supervising the station for valuable information that they shared with our students.

 

  The Committee of Higher Studies for Masters and Research at the Department of Electrical Engineering recently held an Orientation Program for new MSc students to mark the beginning of the first semester of the academic year 1446. The event commenced with a welcoming address from the Department Chairman, Dr. AbdulRahman Alayedh, who set a positive tone for the sessions to follow. In the subsequent discussion, Dr. Mohammad Mastoor Alammar, the Coordinator of the Research and Higher Studies Committee, presented crucial information regarding the MSc Program's norms and regulations, which included guidance on the advising committee, course credits, and thesis requirements. The orientation program sought to educate students about the structure of the Master’s Program at both the college and university levels. It also introduced faculty members and their respective specializations, clarified the roles of various units within the academic system, and outlined how the College of Engineering and the Department of Electrical Engineering can support students throughout their academic journey. Additionally, committee member Dr. Javed Khan Bhutto shared his research experiences and discussed future prospects related to the Masters Course. The session concluded with Dr. Mohammad Mastoor Alammar delivering a vote of thanks to all attendees, marking a successful start for the incoming MSc students.
The College of Engineering at King Khalid University achieved the top 200 majors in the world after achieving a rank of 151-200 in the field of chemical engineering. The university also achieved record numbers in the field of electrical and electronics engineering by ranking 401-450 in the world.
  Based on the keenness of the College of Engineering at King Khalid University - represented by the Training Unit - to perfect and develop its outputs and link them to the labor market and for its male and female students to receive the best quality and distinguished learning methods, a number of college students, under the supervision of the head of the Training Unit, Dr. Dhafer Ali Alqahtani, coordinated a field visit. The students visited Al Watania for industries and Tasnee factory  in Riyadh on Wednesday and Thursday, November, 22-23, 2023. The visit aims to acquaint the students with the technologies that fall within their specialization and are used in the Al watania for Industry (its plastic and container manufacturers) and Tasnee (the battery factory), which allowed the college students to learn about the nature of factory work by meeting with the engineers working in the factories. The visit began with a visual presentation of the factories’ parts and components, the developments that took place in them from their inception until today, and what are the security and safety precautions. This visit included a field tour of the factory facilities and their effective contribution to the latest technologies and quality of production in the field of plastics, containers and batteries. An open meeting was also held to discuss and answer students’ inquiries related to factory operations and technologies. At the end of the visit, the college employees expressed their thanks to the representatives of the factories for the warm reception, and the efforts they made to make this visit a success, which comes within the cooperation and constructive interaction between the universities with the governmental and private sectors in the field of industry to link the theoretical reality with the practical and applied, because of its great positive impact and great benefit to its graduates and graduates of the College of Engineering.