Qatar Foundation Annual Research Conference Proceedings Volume 2014 Issue 1

Synthesis of Ultra-Light, Mechanically Strong and Thermally Insulating Aerogels Thermal insulation is considered one of the main factors of reducing heat and energy consumption in buildings. There are many insulation materials used to reduce energy consumption and heat loss in buildings, such as: cellulose, glass wool, rock wool, polystyrene, urethane foam.., etc. Unfortunately, most of these materials have probl Read More

Alternaria sp. and Helmenthosorium sp. fungi are two main causal agents of leaf spot diseases in Date palm plantations. These diseases are controlled mechanically by cutting and burning the infected frond or by spraying chemical fungicides. For integrated pest management program (IPM), biological control should be included as a safer and more environment-friendly approach. Ideally, a bio-control agent from the sa Read More

Emissions of long-lived greenhouse gases (GHGs) are believed to be a major driver of climate change. Carbon dioxide (CO2) is the most important greenhouse gas, according to latest available studies and one of the most prominent strategies to lower its emissions is carbon capture and sequestration (CCS). CO2 can be stored in geological repositories, such as hydrocarbon reservoirs in which sodium chloride (NaCl) is the Read More

Geothermal refers to existing heat energy in deep rock and sedimentary basins. Unlike other types of renewable energy resources, geothermal energy provides a stable source of energy as it can be exploited regardless of meteorological conditions. Geothermal energy can be utilized for either heating/cooling purposes or for power generation. In such systems the heat exchanged with the surrounding rock mass to the he Read More

Qatar, with its low rainfall and limited natural water resources, is heavily reliant on desalinated water to meet the needs of its rapidly growing population. The agricultural sector alone uses 50% to 60% of ground water (GW) as its water source, where extraction rates are several times the natural GW recharge rate. Present desalination technology employed in Qatar is energy inefficient and uneconomical to replace GW sou Read More

Although, transmission pipelines are being hailed as the safest and most cost-efficient way for transporting oil and gas, they are still prone to a variety of metal-loss defects such as aging, corrosion, cracks, dents, etc. These are mainly due to the nature of the environment pipelines operate in (e.g., extreme temperature and pressure inside pipeline, exposure to highly corrosive chemicals, exposure to water and ground which Read More

Reconstructions of Holocene relative sea levels (RSL) from sedimentary or geomorphic records have important implications for projections of future RSL rise. Such records provide information on glacial isostatic adjustment (GIA), upper limits of ice shield ablation, and the preindustrial variability and possible anthropogenic impact on RSL rise in the future. They are useful to separate eustatic and steric effects from satell Read More

Insects are usually our most important competitors for food and other natural resources. They have a direct impact on agricultural food production by chewing the leaves of crop plants, sucking out plant juices and spreading plant pathogens. They also have a profound impact on the environment by destroying and causing damage on the local biodiversity. Tomato Borer (Tuta absoluta Lepidoptera, Gelechiidae ) was fo Read More

Emissions of air pollutants into the ambient environment are at the origin of atmospheric composition changes. Inventories provide important information with respect to the relation between these emissions and activities, both natural and anthropogenic. These inventories are developed for use in transport models that are being applied to estimate the impact of emissions to the atmosphere. Both, emission inventories an Read More

Aspergillus species belonging to the section Circumdati are important as they can produce several mycotoxins, including ochratoxin A (OTA). OTA in foodstuffs is undesirable and several studies have shown that this compound has teratogenic, neurotoxic, genotoxic, immunotoxic, and nephrotoxic properties. We isolated a novel ochratoxin A producing Aspergillus species from sand samples collected from Salwa beach in Qatar. This Read More

Background: Water management is a key focus area globally, and especially for the state of Qatar given its extremely arid environment. As such, research to develop technologies to enhance beneficial re-use of treated industrial waste water is recognized as a key challenge in this region. As a part of the Water Re-Use Research Program at ExxonMobil Research Qatar, a model was developed in collaboration with Simon Fraser U Read More

The international GEM collaboration is working on instrumenting the high-? region of the CMS endcap with Gas Electron Multiplier (GEM), a candidate detection system for muon particles that could resist the high luminosity and strong magnetic field present in that region. It consists of a thin polymer foil, metal coated on each side and pierced by a high density of holes (see figures). The potential difference between the el Read More

ABSTRACT Coral ecosystems are very important as they provide a foundation habitat to many aquatic species. Laboratory experiments (microcosms: ecosystems under controlled conditions) were initiated to understand Qatari corals physiology. Coral samples were collected and nubbins were cultured in pre-acclimatized laboratory aquaria. Acute orthogonal experiments for two weeks were conducted to test the Read More

Among different crystal structures and morphologies of TiO2, vertically oriented anatase nanotube arrays show the highest activity for solar energy conversion. However, the long-standing bottleneck is the fact that TiO2 is a wide band gap semiconductor, limiting its activation to the deep-blue and ultraviolet spectral region that contains but a small fraction (5%) of the incident solar energy. Herein, density functional theory (DFT) Read More

Mature oil fields are characterized by a high water cut (ratio of water over the total liquid) with the water production sometimes reaching nine times the oil production. Under such extreme conditions, current monitoring technologies such as multiphase flow meters have a decreased accuracy and reliability. The safe and cost-effective operations of fields with high water cut - and/or high gas volume fraction - requires c Read More

On a global level, the IEA estimates that buildings are responsible for more than 40% of the total primary energy consumption (Howe and Gerrard, 2010). In Qatar, RQPI estimates that buildings are responsible for 33% of the country's carbon dioxide emissions (RQPI, 2012). Reducing buildings' energy consumption in Qatar provides an opportunity to reduce its environmental impact as it currently globally ranks first in CO_2 emis Read More

Thermoelectric materials and generators provide the unique capability to directly convert waste heat into electricity. Especially, generators which are suitable for high temperatures up to 600°C have a wide field of application, ranging e.g. from automotive applications to cogeneration power plants. In contrast to alternative waste heat recovery technologies such as the Organic Rankine Cycle, thermoelectric generators work n Read More

Micropropagation of Date Palm (Phoenix dactylifera L.) is being practiced for more than two decade by laboratories or commercial enterprise. Most published protocols are using the MS media in different stages for propagation. This media is either purchased as a ready-made mix or mixed from stock solutions prepared from high grade chemicals. The price of the MS affecting directly the sale price of the produced plantlets. A no Read More

Secure Quality Drinking Water by Safe Mixing and Handling of Chlorine and Chlorine Dioxide Disinfectants in Qatar Elsamoul H. Mohamed1; Khalid Y. Abid2; Hassan I. Nimir3; and Mustafa M Osman4 1Water Quality laboratory, Qatar General Electricity and Water corporation, Qatar; Email: elsamoul4@hotmail.com 2Department of Health, and Safety, Qatar General Electricity and Water corporation, Qatar. 3Department of C Read More

This study is concentrated on the preparation of the soft polymeric materials with flexoelectric effect. The flexoelectricity can be defined as reversible process of the electrical energy harvesting upon dynamical mechanical strain deformation. When the material is mechanically stimulated the charges embedded in the polymer structure are excited and the result of this induction is voltage output generation. Material exhibit Read More

One of the key challenges facing the gas industry in Qatar is to reduce produced/process water (PW) volumes injected in disposal wells by a target of 50% to ensure long term reservoir sustainability. This presentation describes a simplified Forward Osmosis (FO) system design that could meet this target. In contrast with conventional FO designs, this design uses readily available seawater or thermal brine as the draw solution an Read More

Methylammonium lead halide perovskite based solar cells have recently emerged as a potential alternative to silicon based device. They consist of a multilayered device including oxides, organometallic and organic materials. Many Simulation tools have been developed to compute the expected performance of such devices as key characteristics of the layers are changed. In this work, we have SCAPS and AMPS software to comp Read More

Phase-change materials are used to store and release energy through phase changes, be it melting and solidification processes or solid state phase transitions. Among a large number of phase-change materials are paraffin waxes that store and release large amounts of thermal energy through melting and solidification. Since molten wax has a low viscosity, it is important to contain the wax in some medium. A lot of research has Read More

The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is the world's most powerful particle accelerator. It was originally designed to reveal the most fundamental constituents of matter and the understanding of the forces acting in the microscopic world. The recent discovery of the Higgs boson particle in 2012 constitute a breakthrough in science and it allows the possibility in the coming years for a further understanding on how nature wo Read More