![\"\u0627\u0644\u062f\u0643\u062a\u0648\u0631](\"https:\/\/www.aspdkw.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/DSC09944-300x200.jpg\")
Kuwait's oil and gas wealth traces back roughly 100 to 150 million years ago, to when the region lay beneath a warm, shallow sea teeming with marine life. As organisms died and sank, their remains accumulated in thick layers on the seafloor. Over millions of years, heat and pressure cooked that organic matter into fossil fuels. The process preserved a kind of chemical memory of the ancient ocean above. Because those waters, like modern seawater, contained abundant dissolved sulfates and the conditions on the seafloor helped to preserve them, the oil and gas that formed ended up rich in sulfur compounds.<\/p><\/p>\n
Today, Kuwait holds a little over 100 billion barrels of proven oil reserves \u2014 around 6% of the global total \u2014 placing it among the world\u2019s top reserve holders, alongside Venezuela, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Iraq, the UAE and Canada. And while the natural gas that rises alongside crude oil was once often burned off at the wellhead, it is now increasingly recognized as a valuable resource in its own right. Properly treated and processed, it can fuel power plants and heating systems, be sold commercially, or be fed back into industrial processes.<\/p><\/p>\n
But the legacy of the prehistoric ocean creates complications for Kuwait's gas. In addition to the sulfur compound it contains, called hydrogen sulfide, it also holds notable amounts of carbon dioxide. Both of these gases are acidic \u2014 they react with water to form corrosive acids \u2014 creating what engineers call sour gas. Left untreated, these impurities corrode pipelines. Being toxic, hydrogen sulfide also poses hazards for workers and can pollute the air. <\/p><\/p>\n
Yousef Alqaheem, a research scientist at the Kuwait Institute for Scientific Research (KISR), has spent more than a decade developing a solution to this challenge. His focus is on polymer membranes: thin, flexible sheets of engineered material that act as molecular filters. \"It lets some gases pass through and rejects others,\" he said. By selecting the right membrane material and configuring it correctly, engineers can strip out hydrogen sulfide and carbon dioxide from natural gas while letting its useful parts \u2014 mainly methane and other light hydrocarbons that we use for heat and power \u2014 pass through. For his research, Alqaheem received a 2025 Jaber Al-Ahmad Prize. <\/p><\/p>\n
His path to this work began with a love of chemistry that emerged in high school and carried him through a bachelor's, master's, and doctoral degree \u2014 all in chemical engineering. He joined KISR in 2010, and the institute encouraged him to pursue his PhD at Newcastle University in the United Kingdom, focusing on gas separation using membranes. Back in Kuwait, he built up a laboratory at KISR to further refine this technology and run process simulations. Membrane units that he tested are now operating in Kuwaiti refineries, pulling hydrogen from gas flows. In the future, Alqaheem hopes to push the technology further upstream \u2014 to the wellhead and the moment gas first emerges from the ground.<\/p><\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.aspdkw.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/DSC09957-300x200.jpg\")
His membranes are designed to replace \u2014 or supplement \u2014 the conventional treatment processes that Kuwait's gas-gathering centers rely on. Today, gas-gathering centers typically treat sour gas through amine scrubbing, a chemical process in which the gas is washed with a solvent that absorbs hydrogen sulfide and carbon dioxide. Additionally, the gas is passed through a dehydrator, which contains chemicals that latch onto water molecules \u2014 much like a molecular sponge \u2014 thereby stripping moisture from the gas before it can form corrosive acids in pipelines.<\/p><\/p>\n
These processes are energy-intensive, require large installations, and generate liquid and solid toxic waste streams that must be carefully managed and disposed of. They also take considerable time and capital to set up. <\/p><\/p>\n
The membranes, by contrast, are compact and can be integrated into an existing facility easily. The membranes themselves require little maintenance and operate without chemical solvents. This means they produce no toxic liquid or solid waste. The technology \u201cis environmentally-friendly, there is no harm coming from the membrane,\u201d Alqaheem said. In his modeling and economic assessment, Alqaheem found that membranes can be profitable for the refinery by recycling hydrogen from the hydrotreatment unit instead of producing a fresh hydrogen stream. The membrane payback period was only 4 months, and for this reason, the membrane unit has already been installed in Kuwait.<\/p><\/p>\n
Despite the benefits the membrane provides, there are still some challenges. Because they are made from polymer materials \u2014 essentially plastic \u2014 they cannot withstand temperatures above roughly 80 degrees Celsius. They also struggle under very high pressure (>175 bar). In some settings, that means that the gas stream must be pre-cooled and\/or relieved before it reaches the membrane, said Alqaheem. But his team is working on a patent to push those thresholds higher. <\/p><\/p>\n
With their molecular filtering abilities, the membranes could even help reverse climate change. Kuwait has pledged to achieve zero carbon emissions by 2050, while aiming to raise oil production capacity to around 4 million barrels per day by the mid-2030s and also significantly increase gas output by 2040. Conventional methods alone could not achieve Kuwait\u2019s 2050 zero\u2011emissions goal, Alqaheem said. \u201cWe have to implement new technologies.\u201d <\/p><\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.aspdkw.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/DSC09961-300x200.jpg\")
He has been pushing to adapt his membrane to capture CO2, the gas that drives much of the climate change. Technologically, capturing CO2 with membranes is already possible. But the costs remain prohibitive, he acknowledged. \"That is one challenge we want to overcome.\"<\/p><\/p>\n
His team is now experimenting with sustainable alternatives for producing the membranes. Instead of creating them from petroleum-derived polymers \u2014 the current standard \u2014 Alqaheem is, for example, considering coconut shells and sugarcanes, which can be ground into powder and then heated to make the membranes. These bio-carbon membranes offer better separation performance and a longer lifespan, therefore reducing operating cost.<\/p><\/p>\n
If it works, the ancient chemistry that loaded Kuwait's petroleum with sulfur may ultimately be countered by a membrane made from a plant that thrives in the same tropical heat that once warmed Kuwait's prehistoric sea. But the technology needs to become cost-effective, Alqaheem knows. Otherwise, the industry won\u2019t advance.<\/p><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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