The overall aim of this project is to develop an evidence based blueprint for a sustainable biomass utilization industry for the State of Qatar. The primary objective of which is to create a market for waste biomass which contributes to the Qatar National Vision 2030. Biomass and solid waste are an important part of our society. Whilst, Qatar’s population has grown rapidly over the years, reaching 2,576,181 as of January 2017 (MDPS, 2017), the quantity of solid waste has increased accordingly. It is estimated that Qatar generates 28,000 t per day of mixed solid waste of all types and a variety of different sources, of which only 3% is recycled, 4% is incinerated while the remaining is disposed of into landfills (QDB, 2012). Approximately 30% is organic waste material. Furthermore, the revenue potential for the solid waste value chain in Qatar is estimated to be worth USD 636M (QDB, 2012). Other wastes include industrial biosolids and biosludges (almost 2 tonnes per day), agricultural wastes including date stones/pits/vegetable/fruit wastes, dried sewage (15 tonnes per day), vegetable/fruit wastes, manure (horses/cattle) and wood wastes eg. wood wastes eg. pallets, boxes, packaging. Solid organic wastes are generated from household, industrial and commercial use daily and on an annual basis the masses generated range from a few thousand tonnes per year to over a million tonnes per year. The main objective of this project is to provide solutions to food and water security in Qatar and leading to the development of Doha as a Smart City and Qatar as a Knowledge Based Society especially through the societal acceptance survey involvement in this project. The proposed project aims to achieve these objectives by developing a process based on the pyrolysis of solid organic wastes to produce biochars for use in agricultural and landscaping applications. The agricultural applications could be related to the production of foodstuffs or cattle/horse animal feeds with selected properties in particular water retention/desorption capabilities and/or plant/crop fertiliser/nutrients adsorption/desorption chemicals. A major and immediate requirement of the project is to produce these biochars to assist in landscaping for the 2022 World Cup Football competition throughout Qatar. For both applications, the use of these biochars will save considerable amounts of water and provide additional soil conditioning benefits. The biochars will be characterised and assessed to determine the process conditions to produce biochars of optimum quality for crop production. The pyrolysis gases will also be sufficient to provide the energy for the pyrolysis charring reaction. The novelty of this project is the use of Qatar wastes to drive the project and especially the use of blends of wastes to optimise the overall process and designing waste blends for certain agricultural applications depending on the specific nutrient requirements and soil type. The project will provide a potential inventory and roadmap of wastes generated and wastes applications available in Qatar. In addition, at least 4 HBKU students will receive research training in the subject area during the period of the project. The Project Team is of an interdisciplinary nature with the Lead Principal Investigator, Professor Gordon McKay, a chemical engineer with over 45 years of academic and industrial experience, Principal Investigator - Dr Tareq Al Ansari, Assistant Professor and sustainability engineer with three years industrial experience, and Principal Investigator - Dr Hamish Mackey, Assistant Professor and civil engineer with 3 years industrial experience. In addition, Dr Udeogu Onwusogh, from Qatar Shell RTC is a Principal Investigator offering guidance and advice in specialist areas of the project. In-service assistance is provided by horticultural scientists at Umm Slal Ali Turf Nursery and the Qur’anic Botanic Gardens. Further in-kind support is provided by Qatar Shell in the form of supplying industrial biosludge and biosludge analyses. The Project Team will execute the overall project objectives by setting, implementing and executing six objectives which are sub-divided into work packages in Sections 2 and 3. The expected outcomes are: • Inventory and location of Qatar wastes • Qatar waste materials database characterisation report • Public Acceptance Survey for the various usage options of the various wastes. • Logistics Study Report • Biochar Production Simulation and Optimisation Report • Prototype Pilot Pyrolysis Plant Design Report • Patent Filing – Pyrolysis Reactor and System Design • Prototype/Pilot Plant Installation and Commissioning Report • Biochar Production Report – Conditions, Yields and Properties • Biochars Applications Performance Report – on crops, shrubs, turf. • Project Reports The expected impacts of the project are: • The major role of the biochars is to reduce the irrigation requirements for the Qatar agricultural industries by around 25% and provide soil conditioners with controlled nutrient release thus providing more food and water security for Qatar. • A special outcome will be to supply the World Cup 2022 landscaping organisations with local biochars for landscaping and possibly turfing applications – and as the Project Team are Challenge 22 winners the Supreme Committee for Delivery and Legacy have granted 100,000USD co-funding towards this project. • In addition, at least 4 HBKU students will receive research training in the subject area during the period of the project. The total estimated cost of the project is 799,446USD; comprising 100,000USD from SCDL as co-funding and 699,446USD requested from QNRF. The project, for 48 months duration, will eventually play a lead in water conservation for agricultural and horticultural applications and initially playing a major role in horticultural landscaping applications for the football World Cup competition in Qatar in 2022.