Iranian Research Organization for Science and Technology and Omani research centers have reached an agreement to implement three research projects.
"Iran-Oman Science Committee was established four years ago and the two nations maintain good academic relations among their scientific centers," said Dr. Abdolreza Samimi, deputy director of IROST's Technology Development, IRNA reported.
The committee is co-chaired by IROST's President Dr. Fathollah Moztarzadeh and Oman Deputy Minister of Higher Education Dr. Abdullah bin Muhammad Saremi.
"In line with goals to expand the existing cooperation, a number of proposals were put forth by the IROST, affiliated to the Ministry of Science, Research and Technology, three of which were agreed to by the Omani side," Samimi noted.
Farming microalgae as platforms for production of recombinant proteins and valuable compound is the first of the selected projects. Over the last few years, microalgae have gained increasing interest as a natural source of valuable compounds and as bioreactors for recombinant protein production. Natural high-value compounds, which have a wide range of applications in the food, feed, cosmetics and pharmaceutical industries, are currently produced with non-transgenic microalgae.
The research project shows great promise to simplify the production process and significantly decrease production costs.
The second research project to be undertaken by the two sides is treatment of oil production wastewater for reuse in secondary oil recovery.
Although injection of water into the oil deposits is a frequently used method for secondary oil recovery, the resulting wastewater is highly saline and contains large amounts of calcium, magnesium, sulfides and hydrocarbons.
The reuse of this wastewater can help prevent pollution and conserve water.
Another venture concerns the development of a new generation of solar-powered oil extraction equipments to increase the efficiency of extraction process.
According to Samimi, a specialized committee will be established to prepare the framework of cooperation, the project implementation methodology and the amount of investment required by each side.
