ExxonMobil has announced that it is forming a partnerships with two universities in Singapore with a view to opening a Singapore Energy Center less than two years from now. The focus of the facility will be new discoveries as well as making improvements to technologies which are likely to enhance energy efficiency, improve energy production and other efforts aimed at mitigating the risk climate change poses.
An MoU was signed between the National University of Singapore and the Nanyang Technological University. This is the first such partnership that ExxonMobil has formed in research and development outside the U.S.
“With the rapidly growing demand for sustainable, low-carbon energy options in Asia Pacific markets, the importance of increasing our research and development capacity in the region to explore emerging technologies that could eventually help meet this demand has never been greater,” said ExxonMobil Engineering and Research Company’s president, Bruce March.
As the founding member, the oil giant will offer support to early-stage projects initiated at the center. Company scientists and researchers will also enter into collaborations with faculty and students from the two universities upon the opening of the center in early 2019.
Quacquarelli Symonds ranks the National University of Singapore and the Nanyang Technological University as Asia’s top two universities. The two, which are also recognized as leading institutions of research, will be co-leaders of the energy center. There are plans by the two educational institutions to bring on board other leading firms in the sector in order to foster interdisciplinary research partnerships between industry and academia.
New energy technologies
This is not the first time that ExxonMobil is collaborating with research and academic institutions with a view to supporting the development of new technologies, cutting greenhouse gas emissions as well as improving energy efficiency. Currently the oil major has formed partnerships with around 80 universities located in Asia, Europe and the United States to explore new energy technologies.
Three years ago ExxonMobil signed a partnership with MIT Energy Initiative when the oil giant committed for provide $25 million for five years support the efforts of the students and the faculty. The focus of the initiative is to explore ways of enhancing efficiency when conventional energy resources are in use to exploring next-generation energy sources. Some of the achievements of the initiative since it was launched include the development of bio-inspired catalysts as well as computational modelling focused on understanding the properties of iron-based alloys that are used in pipelines.
