PhD Students

Emmanuel O Alor

Alor Emmanuel completed his undergraduate and Masters Studies at Federal University of Technology Minna, and obtained a BEng and MEng in Chemical Engineering (with a distinction in both). He has over six years lecturing experience at Federal University of Technology Minna. Currently, he is a PhD student in EGIS, Heriot Watt University Edinburgh. His PhD work is focused on the thermo-physical properties affecting CO2 Enhanced oil Recovery. This involves both detailed experimental work and modelling. The experimental work covers investigating the effect of the presence of CO2 on the density, viscosity, IFT and VLE of Hydrocarbon mixtures and crude oil.

Abdullah A Alassi

Abdulla Ali Hassan Al Assi is an ADNOC (Abu Dhabi National Oil Company) scholar that holds a BEng degree in mechanical engineering from University of Sheffield. Also, MSc degree in chemical process engineering from University College London. This PhD aims to identify minimum water content for various compositions at different pressure and temperature conditions. In addition to, developing isentropic and isenthalpic hydrate flash that resembles thermodynamic behaviour in Turboexpander and Joule Thomson hydrocarbon production systems, respectively. The effect of inhibition on the cases mentioned above will also be examined. The outcome of this work will avoid hydrate formation as a result maintaining optimal gas production at ADNOC’s operating company. Email: aaa54@hw.ac.uk Phone: +44(0)131 541 8192 Location: Room C1.6, Conoco Building, Institute of Geoenergy Engineering, Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh, EH14 4AS.

Mustapha Goni Umar

Mustapha holds a bachelors and master’s degrees in petroleum engineering from Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University (ATBU), Bauchi, Nigeria (2012) and the Petroleum Institute, Abu Dhabi, UAE (2016) respectively. He has been lecturing with the petroleum engineering department of ATBU, Bauchi since 2016. He is currently a PhD student with the hydrates, flow assurance and phase equilibria (HFAPE) group. His research focuses on studying the PVT properties of gas condensate components systems with the main goal of generating phase equilibrium datasets for binary systems of light and heavy components of gas condensates.

OWUNA Friday Junior

OWUNA Friday Junior holds a Master of Science Degree in Petroleum Chemistry (M. Sc) with CGPA of 4.04 and a Bachelor of Science Degree in Chemistry (B. Sc) Second Class Honours (Upper Division) from Usmanu Danfodiyo University Sokoto. Also, he has a Master in Business Administration (MBA) with over 12 years of experience in the financial service sector (Commercial Bank). Prior to joining Heriot-Watt as a PhD student, he was a lecturer in the University of Maiduguri, Nigeria. FJ Owuna is highly interested in the business of oil and gas with passion in the field of Chemical/Petrochemical/Petroleum/Environmental Engineering. My specific areas of interest include geoscience, energy conversion and transition, catalysis, renewable energy, energy economics, and other value adding chemical/industrial processes that have great impacts on carbon dioxide reduction and cleaner environments. His PhD studies focus on Thermophysical Properties of Hydrogen-Natural Gas Blends. The project will utilise state-of the art experimental equipment, for measurements of density, speed of sound, viscosity, thermal conductivity, water content and hydrate stability, including modelling and simulation. This project will help us to solve industry challenges of hydrogen product mobility as we aim to integrate hydrogen into the existing natural gas transport and storage facilities, and other applications.

FRANKLIN OKORO

Franklin holds a B.Eng (Chemical Engineering) from Federal University of Technology Owerri, Nigeria and ,MSc (Oil and Gas Engineering) from University of Aberdeen, UK. He worked as a Project Engineer with Nigerian Indigenous Oil Service Company ‘Oil and Industrial Services (OIS) Limited’. Prior to joining OIS Limited, he was a Reservoir Engineer Intern with Chevron Nigeria. Franklin’s PhD research is on the phase behaviour of CCS fluid systems. The work programme is an integrated experimental and modelling study focusing on Vapour liquid equilibria. Fundamental to the project is the generation of high‐quality experimental measurements to tune and validate phase and flow behaviour models. Two main results are expected: the production of new experimental data and the development of original models.

Mohammad Hassan Mahmoodi

Mohammad Hassan Mahmoodi holds a B.Sc. degree in Petroleum Engineering from Petroleum University of Technology (P.U.T), Ahvaz, Iran (2013) and an M.Sc. degree in Petroleum Engineering from Tarbiat Modares University (T.M.U), Tehran, Iran (2021). He also has five years of experience in the upstream oil and gas industry (two years as a Drilling Supervisor and three years as a Process Engineer) at the National Iranian South Oil company (NISOC). As a PhD student, his research focuses on studying the impacts of impurities on the thermophysical (equilibrium and transport) properties of the CCUS fluids by using the Molecular Dynamics simulation technique. The aim of his PhD research is to generate more thermodynamic data at conditions that are tough, dangerous or expensive to be measured in a laboratory. The outcome of his PhD research will be used in developing accurate and robust models for predicting thermodynamic behaviour of the CCUS fluids.

Ihtisham Ul Haq

Ihtisham Ul Haq holds a B.Sc. degree in Chemical Engineering from Sarhad University of Science & Information Technology (SUIT), Peshawar, Pakistan (2018) and M.Sc. degree in Chemical Engineering from Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS, Malaysia (2023). He worked at the Phase Separation Laboratory of the Research Center for CO2 Capture (RCCO2C), Institute of Contaminant management in the Chemical Engineering Department of Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS (UTP), Seri Iskandar, Perak Darul Ridzuan, Malaysia. The Thermodynamics and kinetics of reservoir fluid phase modelling, gas hydrate in flow assurance, production of naturally deposited methane hydrates, and application of gas hydrate-based desalination technology and natural gas storage and transportation are among the research specialties of this individual. He also has two years of experience in the oil and gas industry as a Process Engineer at the Oil and Gas Development Company Limited (OGDCL). As a PhD student, his research focuses on measuring and modelling the thermophysical properties of CCUS fluids.

Abdullahi Jibril

Abdullahi Jibril is a PTDF (Petroleum Technology Development Fund) scholar who holds a B.Eng. and MSc. in Chemical Engineering from Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, Nigeria. During his MSc, he was the best graduating student of the Department of Chemical Engineering, Ahmadu Bello University Zaria, with a CGPA of 4.8/5.0. He is a certified Engineer by the Council for the Regulations of Engineering in Nigeria (COREN). In his MSc thesis, he focused on biomass conversion, where he studied the kinetics and production of glucose and bioethanol from elephant grass using Aspergillus niger. He worked as a Research Assistant from 2018 to 2023 with Ahmadu Bello University Zaria. During this period, his research involved the modelling, simulation and design of Packed Bed Reactor for the catalytic conversion of carbon monoxide (CO) to carbon dioxide (CO2) with copper II oxide (CuO) as catalyst. This project was undertaken to provide solutions to the accumulation of too much carbon monoxide in the Fluidised Catalytic Cracking (FCC) unit of the Kaduna Refinery and Petrochemical Company, Nigeria. He is presently a Ph.D. research student at the Centre for Gas Hydrate Research, Heriot-Watt University, UK. His research focuses on the effects of MonoEthylene Glycol (MEG) on hydrate formation in pure and rich CO2 streams. This involves generating experimental data, developing, and tuning thermodynamic models and validating the developed models.