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Dr. Nimir Elbashir

Dr. Nimir Elbashir

Professor of Chemical Engineering, Director of TEES Gas and Fuels Research Center and Chairman of ORYX-GTL Gas-to-Liquid Excellence Program

Office Number: 219
Office Phone: +974.4423.0128


Dr. Elbashir is a professor of Chemical Engineering and Petroleum Engineering at Texas A&M University at Qatar and the Director of the Gas & Fuels Research Center of Texas A&M University, a major research center that involves 30 faculty members from both the Qatar and College Station campuses of Texas A&M University. His research activities is focused on design of reactors and catalysts for Gas-to-Liquid (GTL) technology, petrochemical conversions, and CO2 utilization. In addition, Dr. Elbashir is the chair of the ORYX GTL Excellence Program in gas-to-Liquid Technology and the Director of the Fuel Characterization Lab that support the research and service in the area of synthetic fuels and chemicals obtained from natural gas. Dr. Elbashir collaborators from the industry include: TOATAL, SHELL, GE (Oil& Gas); ORYX GTL, Qatar Fuels & Additives Company (QAFAC), Qatar Airways and others. More details are in his research team website: http://www.carefuel-lab.net/.

Biography

Dr. Elbashir holds a joint appointment as a Professor in the Chemical Engineering Program and the Petroleum Engineering Program at Texas A&M University at Qatar. He is the Director of Texas A&M Engineering Experiment Station Gas and Fuels Research Center; a major research center that involves 27 faculty members from both the Qatar and College Station campuses of Texas A&M University (http://gfrc.tamu.edu/). Dr. Elbashir is also the Chair of the ORYX GTL Gas-to-Liquid Technology Excellence Program. He has extensive research and teaching experience from four different countries around the world, including his previous position as researcher at BASF R&D Catalysts Center in Iselin, New Jersey. The focus of his research activities is the design of advanced reactors, catalysts and conversion processes for natural gas, coal and CO2 to ultra-clean fuels and value added chemicals. He has established several unique global research collaboration models between academia and industry with research funds exceeding twelve million dollars during the past six years. He holds several US and European patents and a large number of scientific publications in form of peer reviewed journals, conference papers, technical industry reports as well as invited and conference presentations. The scholarship of his research activities has been recognized by awards from Qatar Foundation, BASF Corp., the Gordon Research Conferences, Texas A&M University Qatar, the American Institute of Chemical Engineers, Shell, and the 3rd and 4th International Gas Processing Conference.

Education

  • 2004    Doctor of Philosophy Chemical Engineering, Auburn University
  • 1998    Master of Engineering (Chemical), Universiti Teknologi Malaysia
  • 1994    Bachelor of Science First Class Honors, Chemical Engineering, University of Khartoum

Experience

  • 2016-present  Professor of Chemical Engineering & Petroleum Engineering, Texas A&M University at Qatar
  • 2015 - 2016      Associate Professor Petroleum Engineering, Texas A&M University at Qatar
  • 2012 - 2016      Associate Professor Chemical Engineering, Texas A&M University at Qatar​
  • 2008 - 2012        Assistant Professor, Texas A&M University at Qatar.
  • 2005 - 2007        Researcher, BASF (The Chemical Company) Catalysts Research team.
  • 2004 - 2005        Postdoctoral Fellow, Auburn University.
  • 2001 - 2004        Graduate Research Assistant, Auburn University.
  • 1998 - 2001        Research Scientist, King Saud University-Riyadh

Awards

  1. 2017th Faculty Excellence Award, Texas A&M University Qatar, April 2017.
  2. 2017th Texas A&M University Laboratory Safety Excellence Award, April 2017
  3. Texas Engineering Experiment Station 2016th Genesis Research Excellence Award for establishing and leading multimillions research projects in collaboration with industry (November 2016).
  4. ORYX GTL Excellence Recognition Award for GTL Diesel Fuels Campaign (April 2016)
  5. Texas A&M University Association Former Students Distinguished Achievement Award in Teaching – College Level (Fall 2015).
  6. The Dean’s Leadership Award for Outstanding Service (April 2015).
  7. The First Place Best Paper Award in the 4th International Gas Processing Conference (November 2014).
  8. The Best Paper Award in the Reaction Engineering Division of the 2014th Spring Meeting of American Institute of Chemical Engineering (AIChE) in New Orleans, Louisiana (March 2014)
  9. Qatar Shell’s Research Accomplishment Recognition in the GTL Jet Fuels’ Consortium (Doha, Qatar May 2013).
  10. Qatar Foundation’s 2012 Best Energy & Environment Research Program of the Year. During the Joint Qatar Foundation Annual Research Forum and Arab Expatriate Scientists Network Symposium (US$100,000 Award) (Doha, Qatar October 2012).
  11. The Scientific Visualization Competition First Place Award (US$6,000 Award sponsored by Qatar Foundation & Texas A&M Qatar University) (Doha, Qatar May 2012).
  12. American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE) Students’ Chapter at Texas A&M at Qatar (TAMUQ) Excellence Recognition Award (Doha, Qatar June 2009),
  13. Office of Students and Community Relations of Texas A&M Qatar Outstanding Support Award (Doha, Qatar June 2009).

Dr. Elbashir’s Research Team Awards:

  1. Marwan El-Wash 2018th Texas A&M University 2014 Richard E. Ewing Undergraduate Student Research Excellence Award (April 2018).
  2. Marwan El-Wash, Best Undergraduate Student Research Award (April 2017).
  3. Mohamedsufiyan Challiwala, Best Graduate Student Award (April 2016).
  4. Muaz Selam Best Research Award from the Chemical Engineering Program (April 2015).
  5. Omega Chi Epsilon (Texas A&M University at Qatar Chapter) Best Poster Award for Mohammed Hafis and Muaz Selam, Dr. Elbashjr’s Undergraduate Research Students (October 2014).
  6. Samah Warrag 2014th Texas A&M University 2014 Richard E. Ewing Graduate Student Research Excellence Award (May 2014).
  7. Moiz Bohra, 2014th Texas A&M University 2014 Richard E. Ewing Undergraduate Student Research Excellence Award (May 2014).
  8. Qatar Shell’s award for Undergraduate Research Students in Shale Gas Monetization Dr. Elbashir’s graduate and undergraduate research students received US$10,000 Travel Award, (March 2014).
  9. Sasol’s Travel Award for the Graduate Students Researcher in GTL (Graduate students received US$10,000 travel award to attend the Shale Gas Monetization Workshop in Montgomery, Texas (March 2014).
  10. Moiz Bohra, The Harry West Award Plaques from the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE) in recognition for his paper on GTL Synthetic Fuels in the 2013th AIChE Annual Meeting (December 2013).
  11. Moiz Bohra, The American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE) 2013 First Place Poster Award under the category of Energy, Petrochemicals and Fuels presented during the AIChE Annual Meeting (San Francisco, California November 2013).
  12. Moiz Bohra and Asma Sadia (undergraduate research students of Dr. Elbashir team) published the first TAMUQ research paper in “The Exploration”, a highly selective journal of Texas A&M University about undergraduate students’ successful research activities. The paper entitled “Synthetic Jet Fuels Produced from Natural Gas” 2013, volume 5, pp. 11-12.
  13. Laial Bani Nassr Qatar Foundation’s 2nd Place Best Poster Award under the category of “Energy & Environment” during Qatar Foundation’s Annual Research Conference (ARC’13) (Doha, Qatar November 2013).
  14. The Energy & Fuels Division of the American Chemical Society (ACS) for the High Quality Research Contribution of the Undergraduate Students Research Work in San Diego 2012th ACS Annual Meeting.
  15. Shell’s Award of Excellence in GTL Fuels for the Undergraduate Research Students in GTL Synthetic Jet Fuels (US$10,000 Travel Award for three of Elbashir’s undergraduate students researcher to present their the research results in the 2013th  Spring Meeting of the American Chemical Society in San Diego, California  (March 2012).
  16. The Best Research Team Award from the Chemical Engineering Department for Dr. Elbashir’s Undergraduate Research Students Team (April 2012).
  17. The First Place Poster Award from the 3rd International Gas Processing Conference Elbashir’s undergraduate students’ research team received (US $1,000 Award) Doha, Qatar (March 2012).

Publications

  1. Elbashir, N. O.; El-Halwagi M. E.; Hall, K. (2019) “Natural Gas Processing from Midstream to Downstream” Wiley. West Sussex, UK.  ISBN: 978-1-119-27025-6.
  2. Mujtaba, I. M.; Srinivasan R.; Elbashir N. O. (2017) “The Water-Food-Energy Nexus: Processes, Technologies and Challenges” Part of the “Green Chemistry and Chemical Engineering Series” by Sunggyu Lee- Series Editor. CRC Press Taylor & Francis Group. Bota Racon, Florida, USA. ISBN 9781138746077.
  3. * C Choudhury H.A., Cheng X., Afzal S., Prakasha A.V., Tatarchukb B. J. and Elbashir NO (2019) “Understanding the Deactivation Process of a Microfibrous Entrapped Cobalt Catalyst in Supercritical Fluid Fischer-Tropsch Synthesis”  Catalysis Today, In press, corrected proof, Available online 22 January 2019.
  4. Zhang, L.; Kalakul, S.; Liu, Linlin; Elbashir, N.; Du, J.; Gani, R. (2018) "A Computer-Aided Methodology for Mixture-Blend Design. Applications to Tailor-Made Design of Surrogate Fuels" Industrial & Engineering Chemistry Research. 57(20): 7008-7020.
  5. * C Afzal, S., Sengupta, D., El-Halwagi, M.M., Sarkar, A., Elbashir, N. O. (2018) “An Optimization Approach to the Reduction of CO2 Emissions for Syngas Production Involving Dry Reforming” ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering. 6 (6); 7532–7544.
  6. * C Challiwala1 M. S., Wilhite B. A., Ghouri M. M., Elbashir N. O. (2018) “Multi-Dimensional Modeling of a Microfibrous Entrapped Cobalt Catalyst Fischer-Tropsch Reactor Bed” AIChE Journal. 64(5): 1723-1731.
  7. * C Choudhury H.A., Intikhab S., Kalakul S., Gani R., Elbashir N.O. (2018) Integration of computational modeling and experimental techniques to design fuel surrogates. Journal of Natural Gas Science and Engineering. 55: 585-594.
  8. El-Naas M.H., Zacharia R., Elbashir N., Zhang Z., Dindoruk B (2018) “Special issue (GPS, 2016): The Fifth International Gas Processing Symposium (Qatar)” Journal of Natural Gas Science and Engineering. 55: 563-564
  9. * C Afzal, S., Sengupta, D., El-Halwagi, M.M., Elbashir, N. (2017). Minimizing CO2 emissions for syngas production units using Dry Reforming of Methane. Computer Aided Chemical Engineering, 40: 2617-2622.
  10. * C Challiwala, M., Sengupta, D., Ghouri, M.M., El-Halwagi, M., Elbashir, N. (2017). A Process Integration Approach to the Optimization of CO2 Utilization via Tri-Reforming of Methane. Computer Aided Chemical Engineering, 40: 1993-1998.
  11. * C Choudhury H. A., Intikhab S., Kalakul S., Khan M., Tafreshi R., Gani R., and Elbashir N. O. (2017) “Designing a Surrogate Fuel for Gas-to-Liquid Derived Diesel” Energy Fuels, 2017, 31 (10), pp 11266–11279.
  12. * C Afzal S., Elbashir, N. O. (2017) “Multi-scale modeling of fixed-bed Fischer Tropsch reactor” Computers and Chemical Engineering Journal 38–48.
  13. * C Challiwala M.S., Ghouri M.M., Linke P., El-Halwagi M.M., Elbashir N.O. (2017) “A combined thermo-kinetic analysis of various methane reforming technologies: Comparison with dry reforming Journal of CO2 Utilization, 17; 99-111.
  14. * C Choudhury H. A., Intikhab S., Kalakul S., Gani R., Elbashir N. (2017) “Integration of Computational Modeling and Experimental Techniques to Design Fuel Surrogates” Journal of Natural Gas Science & Engineering.
  15. Bukur D. B., Todica B., Elbashir N. O. (2016) “Chemical Role of water-gas-shift reaction in Fischer–Tropsch synthesis on iron catalysts: A review.” Catalysis Today; 275; 66–75.
  16. * C Ghouri M. M., Afzal S., Hussain R., Blank J., Bukur D. B., Elbashir N. O. (2016) “Multi-scale modeling of fixed-bed Fischer Tropsch reactor.” Computers and Chemical Engineering. 91; 38–48.
  17. * C Al-Nuami I., Bhra M., Selam M., Chaudhary H., El-Halwagi, N. I., Elbashir, N. O. (2016) “A Property Integration Approach to Optimizing Jet Fuel Blends from Petroleum- and GTL- Based Fuels” Chemical Engineering & Technology; 39(12): 2217–2228.
  18. * C Hussain R., Blank J., Elbashir N. (2015) Modeling the Fixed-Bed Fischer-Tropsch Reactor in Different Reaction Media Computer Aided Chemical Engineering. 37: 143-148.