The “30th Japan Saudi Arabia Joint Symposium” was held online on December 13th and 14th, jointly-hosted by 4 entities: Saudi Aramco, KFUPM, The Japan Petroleum Institute (JPI), and JCCP.
In the opening, honorable guests presented their remarks. Notably, H.E. Dr. Muhammad M. Al-Saggaf, President of KFUPM, Mr. Eiji Hiraoka, Senior Executive Director of JCCP, Mr. Ahmed Al-Khowaiter, CTO of Saudi Aramco and Mr. Takashi Matsushita, President of The Japan Petroleum Institute (JPI). In the keynote speech, Prof. Jorge Gascon, Director, KAUST Catalysis Center (KCC), KAUST Circular Carbon Initiative and Mr. Takashi Matsushita, President of JPI, Executive Vice President of Idemitsu Kosan Co., Ltd., gave lectures.
The symposium attracted an unusually large audience of more than 150 researchers, students and Japanese companies and Embassy of Japan in Saudi Arabia. The symposium theme of this year was “Technology in Petroleum Refining & Petrochemicals – Innovation towards Circular Carbon Economy” and there were 18 presentations (of which 7 were made by Japanese presenters.) The symposium covers new fields ranging from such as carbon recycling, low carbon technology, and carbon dioxide utilization technology, etc. in addition to catalyst related technology and process. In poster session, 10 young researchers (including 2 from Japan) made presentations. Many questions and answers were actively exchanged between presenters and audience