Qatar Foundation Annual Research Forum Volume 2010 Issue 1

In 2007, 2,500,000 tons of waste in Qatar was disposed of on the Umalafai landfill, of which 700,000 tons constituted domestic waste, However, only 4600 tons of this waste was discharged to be recycled, and of this 149 tons was paper waste. This high amount of waste paper in 2007, when the population of Qatar was 907,229 means that there should be even more waste as the population reached 1,900,000 in 2009. An immediate response should be taken, and the present research team believes that recycling is the best and easiest solution for this problem. In order to change people's habits, education and awareness programs are needed. A good place to start such a campaign is at educational institutions, such as Qatar University.

Qatar University, with a student population that exceeds 8000, makes a significant contribution to the development of society in Qatar, and plays an important role in leading the public and technology in sustainable protection of the environment.

The project made the students of Qatar aware of the importance of waste paper recycling, with the long term goal of transmitting this awareness to society as a whole. In this project we started paper recycling technology at Qatar University, which will be the starting point in educating society and making Qatar University a leading institution in recycling technologies. Paper recycling equipment will be purchased and installed at the newly built Research Center at Qatar University. The faculty and students of the project are collaborating with the local paper recycling company, Al-Suwaidi Paper Factory, in sharing technical information and building a long lasting collaboration.

The project helped the students understand the life cycle of paper and conducted a survey to gauge people's attitude towards paper recycling in Qatar. At the moment the students are constructing the first recycling plant in a teaching institution, in which the students will be able to synthesise various products made by recycled paper pulp. Attempts are made to develop pulp based composite material products and investigate their mechanical properties. The work will be accompanied by a public awareness campaign for paper recycling.

Date palm is the most important fruit tree in Qatar. Recently developed techniques, based on DNA markers, offer new tools for genetic analysis. The objectives of the present study are to analyze the genetic diversity among 15 different cultivars of date palm at the experimental farm of Qatar University using ISSR and SSR markers, and find out the genetic similarity and/or diversity among the well known date palm cultivars in the state of Qatar. DNAs were extracted from the young fresh leaves. A total of 34 primers of simple sequence repeat (SSR) and inter simple sequence repeat (ISSR) were tested for their ability to generate banding patterns in 15 date palm genotypes. However, 10 SSR and 18 ISSR primers successfully produced clear bands in all of the studied genotypes. Similarity coefficient matrix was computed to cluster the data and to draw precise relationships among the fifteen studied Qatari date palm genotypes. All date palm genotypes are inter-related in spite of their agronomic divergence. Genetic similarities and dendrogram could re-group the Qatari date palm cultivars in a way that one cultivar (Abu Main) was excluded from the group due to its dissimilarity with the other cultivars. Two cultivars (Barhee and Sultana) were much closer and could be considered as coming from one origin. The polymorphic patterns obtained suggested that the ISSR and SSR procedures constitute alternative approaches that are suitable to examine the date palm's genetic diversity at the DNA level.

This study, carried out in the Qatar Carbonates and Carbon Storage Research Centre (QCCSRC) at Imperial College focuses on the interplay between fractures, diagenetic fluid flow and precipitation of diagenetic minerals in an exposed carbonate carapace of a salt dome in Oman. Understanding fault-related mineralization and the differences between diagenesis in the fractures and fracture walls compared to diagenesis in the rock matrix will help prediction of the reservoir quality of such fractured carapaces in the subsurface. The research questions addressed here are a) what controls the timing, distribution and geometry of fractures in the carapace of a salt dome?, and b) what controls the timing of the precipitation of minerals in the fracture network? To answer these questions, a dual approach combining structural geology with carbonate diagenesis is being applied. The origin of the fluids and their role in fracturing and diagenesis is being investigated by means of geochemistry and petrography and the processes of fracturing, fluid flow and the migration of fluids along pathways will be determined by reconstructing the structural history by a combination of field mapping and seismic interpretation. This dual approach is powerful and can be used to determine the history of fluid flow. Ultimately, the aim is to develop conceptual models linking fracturation and fluid flow during halokinesis with diagenesis.

Jebel Madar is situated in the southern foothills of the Oman Mountains and is a folded and fractured salt dome carapace comprising Jurassic and Cretaceous limestones. The structural history of the Jebel is currently being reconstructed using fracture analysis of structural data gathered during fieldwork. This will be augmented with the interpretation of seismic profiles. Initial results indicate that the dominant fracture orientations are ∼ N-S and NE-SW. Using the cross-cutting relationships of the fractures an attempt is being made to establish their chronology.

To understand the diagenetic history of the fracture infill, several techniques are being used including petrography, major and trace elemental analysis, fluid inclusion, and stable oxygen and carbon isotope analysis. An important observation made in the fractures of the Jebel Madar is that several generations of calcite cements exist, with crystals ranging in size from several centimetres in the centre of the fracture to compact, millimetre-sized crystals close to the host rock. In addition, in some fractures barite and calcite have been co-precipitated, an observation which, with the aid of fluid inclusion studies, could yield the composition and possible origin of the parent diagenetic fluids.

The presence of minerals in fractures indicates that these latter acted as fluid pathways. Initial stable isotope results suggest that the precipitating fluids were hot, with average values of δ ¹⁸O of –9.74 ‰ PDB and δ ¹³C of 1.19 ‰ PDB. Initial results indicate that the regional stress stimulated the local development of salt diapirs which produced local stress fields that totally dominated the timing and pattern of fracturing and fluid migration.