Jubail Industrial College successfully completed a new innovation through applied research carried out at Prince Saud bin Abdullah bin Thunayan Al Saud Center for Research and Training by converting the Flue-Gas Desulfurization (FGD)-Gypsum produced by Sadara Chemicals Company into an added value product.
The team at Prince Saud bin Abdullah bin Thunayan Al Saud Center for Research and Training worked to find the best solutions available to meet SADARA requirements based on different factors. First of all, the proposal must meet SADARA environmental requirements such as SO2 emissions, and must not produce new waste. The other constraint is not to change the adopted FGD process since it has already cost SADARA a lot without getting the payback benefit yet. Moreover, the suggested solution must take into consideration the enormous amounts of waste produced.
As a result, the team preliminary identified four main market areas where the by-product gypsum can be utilized. These areas are Cement Plants, Gyps Factories, Agriculture usages, and Recycling the waste back to Lime. These opportunities have been prioritized by the consumption bases to focus the initial investigation on the areas that may make a business case and can be feasible to SADARA. Eventually, the team decided to focus only on those opportunities, 
which are believed to be developed into business cases, cement industries and recycling. As the work was ongoing in JIC labs, the team established communication with different cement industries to get their feedback on the developed chemical gypsum. Many samples of this chemical gypsum were produced by the Center and sent to the cement factory for their assessment, which ultimately reached their requirements.
At the end of the project, Prince Saud bin Abdullah bin Thunayan Al Saud Center for Research and Training came up with two proposals or options that can be implemented in three different plants; these proposals are backed-up by the theoretical background and the financial analysis. The two options are: (1) FGD-Gypsum in the Cement industry implemented in in Sulfuric Acid Treatment Plant and Hydrogen Peroxide Treatment Plant, and (2) plant for Recycling the FGD-Gypsum to Lime.
Dr. Ali Hassan Asiri, the General Manager of the Colleges and Institutes Sector, has commended the unified efforts of Jubail Industrial College, which is now a distinguished institution in applied research. He stressed that the cooperation between colleges and companies has become a distinctive feature of higher education in its modern concept. He also emphasized that the promotion of openness to the industry provides a great opportunity to exchange information, opinions and experiences in the fields of education, training and research, which contributes to the development of national cadres.
On the other hand, Dr. Eid M. Al-Hajri, JIC Managing Director, has stressed that the College enjoys a long tradition of cooperation with the industry in the field of training, and seeks to expand this collaboration through applied research and industrial solutions as an integral part of the College's mission to serve the industry. Dr. Al-Hajri added that Jubail Industrial College, through the Prince Saud bin Abdullah bin Thunayan Al Saud Center for Research and Training, is always ready to cooperate with the industry.
Truly, this project has brought the collaboration between Jubail Industrial College and Sadara Chemical Company to another level, and definitely, the output of this project will be beneficial to the manufacturing industries. In closing, Jubail Industrial College is thankful that this project has been completed successfully within the target period; this was only possible because of the tireless and collective efforts of the team who worked to achieve this goal.
