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GORD collaborates with CESL to foster carbon neutral growth

GORD and CESL have announced a cooperation agreement to foster carbon neutral growth ...

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Ras Bufontas Free Zone achieves sustainability certification under GSAS framework

Ras Bufontas Free Zone has achieved green building certification under the Global Sustainability Assessment System (GSAS)

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Sustainability Pulse Volume 2 Issue 2

Research Themes

Carbon Dioxide

Carbon & Climate Change

Climate change is the global issue of this millennium requiring urgent actions from all walks of the society. GORD has focused its attention on climate change mitigation, primarily through the development of GSAS framework helping to reduce GHG emissions, combat environmental degradation and create a better living environment. GORD Institute activities on carbon and climate change include the development of optimization model for the design of integrated carbon capture, transport and storage infrastructure and the capture and utilization of CO2 to produce useful materials using sea water brine.


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Carbon Capture

Eco Materials

Materials are not infinitely renewable. Therefore, reducing the quantity of materials consumed is important in establishing sustainable building practices. Reusing and recycling practices divert materials from the waste stream for the usable purposes and reduce the environmental impacts associated with producing new materials and products.

GORD tackles the scarcity of materials through comprehensive research and testing programs.  The eco materials related research projects seek the development of sustainable, viable and commercially competitive materials to be used in the construction of durable, high-quality buildings and infrastructure.


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Energy Efficiency

Energy efficiency is the most cost-effective approach to ensure energy security and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. This prompts the search for new effective technologies and materials that have the potential to reduce energy demand and lower the environmental impact. GORD Institute’s research focuses on exploring novel designs and new technologies to reduce energy demands in buildings; efficient systems; and energy harvesting techniques. In addition to the energy-use optimization on micro level, the Institute has also advanced energy efficiency research on urban level.


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Environmental Sciences

GORD Institute’s research activities focus on two broad areas: outdoor native vegetation; and indoor environmental quality.
The outdoor native vegetation research includes: propagation of seedlings in nurseries; assessing drought and salinity tolerances of the seedlings; evaluating the performance of the selected plants under different urban conditions; and, determining the germination requirements for the collected seeds of different species.
The human comfort and health research for indoor environmental quality identifies the key performance indicators and document the relationships between occupant health, productivity and behavior change. 


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HVAC Solutions

In hot and humid climates, air has to be conditioned to the desired comfort level of humidity and temperature. Such climatic conditions impose challenges for the design and selection of appropriate and efficient HVAC systems. GORD Institute aims to develop and deploy Heating, Ventilation and Air Conditioning (HVAC) technologies that can substantially reduce energy consumption and deliver indoor and outdoor human comfort. The HVAC research projects include solar absorption and adsorption cooling, desiccant cooling, membrane heat and mass exchangers, solar and advanced vapor compression air conditioners, and natural gas-driven heat pumps.


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Renewable Energy

GORD Institute renewable energy research aims to enhance the performance of new renewable energy technologies as well as testing and assessing the performance of existing technologies under local environmental conditions. The research projects are related to Photovoltaic (PV), Photovoltaic Thermoelectric Power Generation (PVTEG), Concentrating Photovoltaic systems (CPV), Building Integrated Photovoltaic (BIPV), Photovoltaic and Thermal collectors (PVT), Concentrated Solar Power (CSP), solar cooling, solar ponds, wind energy, solar driven Organic Rankine Cycles (ORC) systems, thermal and power storages, and on-grid and off-grid integrations


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Water Resources & Technologies

The region is among the most water-stressed globally due to lack of adequate precipitation and absence of natural river streams. Overexploitation of limited natural water reservoirs is threatening the balance of ecosystem. For water conservation, GORD is leading the way through the development and deployment of GSAS framework and its water consumption benchmarks for the built environment. Moreover, water research includes the development of cost-effective desalination technologies, membrane distillation, grey & black water recycling and hybrid units that combine processes utilizing wind, solar energy, solar cooling and combined cycles.


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