Qatar Foundation Annual Research Forum Volume 2013 Issue 1

Intelligent building envelopes can significantly reduce the environmental impact of our buildings during their whole life cycle. Intelligent means that user comfort is reached through subtle use of devices to manage indoor climate (temperature, air quality, humidity and light) in the most energy-efficient way while involving outdoor conditions as suitable. A promising methodology consists in keeping the building services as basic and user-friendly as possible without compromizing energy efficiency and minimal environmental impact. This is achieved through active control of the building skin functions, adapting them to the constantly changing outdoor conditions. This approach not only fits to new buildings, but can be implemented as well on existing building stock, for example in the context of a renovation/refurbishment project. Qatar will see intensive building activities taking place in the coming years. A great challenge and opportunity to put the intellectual approach into practice. Since end of 2012, the ZERO ENERGY AND EMISSION BUILDING LABORATORY of Hydro Building Systems GmbH which has been set up at Qatalum can be used for experimental researches on façade systems under natural weathering conditions. The target of the first series of measurement is to analyse the energetic efficiency of four different types of façades. Reference is a SSG façade with insulating double glazing with a g-value of 0.16. Optionally, an external blind can be operated. Further façade types are a SSG façade identical to the reference façade, fitted with a fixed external brise-soleil made up of aluminium blades, a high insulation stick type façade with triple glazing and Venitian blind in the pane interspace as well as a box-type window with turn/tilt sash inside and parallel outward sash outside with a Venetian blind fitted in-between. Calorimetric measurements regarding the required energy needs show that a fixed brise-soleil (blades) reduces the cooling energy requirements by approx. 22%. An external venetian blind offers potential savings of approx. 40%. Replacing a standard stick type façade with double insulating glass by a high insulation façade with coated triple glazing and integrated sun protection, the cooling energy consumption can be reduced by more than 57%. A double skin box-type window solution with sun protection in the interspace cuts the energy consumption for cooling the room by 40%.

Marine Environmental Legislation in Qatar: Current Mechanism and Future Challenges Max-Planck Foundation, Heidelberg,Germany Omar Mohammed-Faraj, LL.M. Research Fellow The state of Qatar witnessed rapid developments in the last decade, booming economy and solid steps towards the building of a prosper state. These changes in economy and the market demands for Qatari gas and oil put the country's marine environment under serious threats. It is so hard to assess the magnitude of the threats to the marine environment in Qatar and to Qatar's coastal waters; however potential threats can be identified. Over exploitation of fish stocks, (catch of fish in Qatar increased from 4271.3 tons in 1995 to 7139.6 tons in 2000 according to State's report in 2000) for an increase of approximately 67% since 1995. Many marine species like turtles are under serious danger. This constitutes a threat to the marine ecosystem in this country. Critical effects for onshore, offshore discharges including oil spills, ship ballast and pipeline releases damages severely the marine environment. This paper is to examine the marine environment legislation in power at the State of Qatar. Environment Law No.30 of 2002 and Law No.4 of 1983 together with many other decrees, regulations will be examined. The focus will be on pipelines releases and the liability according to the Qatari marine environmental legislation. The existing law did not provide a clearly identifiable responsible party, matters like the compensation for damages to the marine environment must clearly clarified. The paper will include a comparative study of the liability for any pipelines releases in other maritime jurisdictions with an overview to the legal status of marine cables and pipelines in the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea 1982 (UNCLOS) which Qatar is a member since December 2002. Qatar needs a unified marine environmental legislation to replace the existing marine environment protection regulations which can be modified or referred to in the new legislation. The methods used to conduct this study are comparative legal analysis, various updated surveys, and existing laws. The aim of this study is to put a focus on the legal mechanism for countering marine pollution in the State of Qatar and identify the needs for improvements in the existing marine environmental legislation. Extending the protection given by law to the marine protected areas (only 0.25% of marine areas in Qatar are protected according to a report by the State of Qatar in 2010) and encouraging legal research in the field of marine pollution is important tool to fill any gaps in the current mechanism. The role of the international conventions ratified by the State of Qatar will be substantial in modulating the current statutory mechanism. The study paper will develop recommendations regarding the identified points of discussion taking into consideration the Qatari context.

Emissions of long-lived greenhouse gases are believed to be a major driver of climate change. Carbon dioxide is the most important greenhouse gas[1] and one of the most prominent strategies to lower its emissions is carbon capture and sequestration (CCS)[2]. CO2 can be stored in geological repositories, in which sodium chloride (NaCl) is the most common dissolved salt. For the optimum design of any CCS process, accurate experimental data and computational models are necessary. This study focuses on generating and validating molecular-based models and methodologies to allow for reliable prediction of the thermodynamic and transport properties of CO2-brine mixtures over a broad range of temperatures and pressures relevant for geological storage. We employ Atomistic Molecular Dynamics (MD) simulations, which is widely used to predict phase equilibria, transport, and other properties of gases, liquids etc. The current study aims at: (a)Determining the accuracy of current molecular models over a broad range of temperatures, pressures and salt concentration relevant to CCS processes with respect to phase behavior and transport properties of CO2 - H2O - NaCl mixture, (b)Developing efficient computational methods and improved potential models for these properties, (c) Assessing the accuracy of SAFT/PC-SAFT based models for the phase behavior of CO2-H2O-NaCl mixture and improving the models using also data generated through molecular simulations and (d)Developing appropriate engineering models for the correlation of viscosity and self-diffusion coefficient experimental and molecular simulation data for the CO2-H2O-NaCl mixture. More specifically, in this work, we study the mutual solubility and interfacial tension in the CO2-H2O-NaCl system over a broad range of temperatures, pressures and NaCl concentrations, using direct interfacial MD simulations. Also we calculate transport properties such as viscosity, self-diffusion coefficient, thermal conductivity. Additionally, we assess the predictive abilities of several combinations of existing H2O, CO2 and NaCl models. To describe water, CO2 and NaCl we use various intermolecular potential models[4,5,6,7,8] that provide property predictions for the CO2-H2O-NaCl mixture over a broad range of temperature, pressure and composition. In addition, the estimated accuracy of the model for each property and for specific conditions will be reported. Our group takes advantage of recent developments of efficiently parallelized codes such as LAMMPS[9] and GROMACS[10]. [1] Metz B, Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Working Group III. Climate Change 2007: Mitigation of Climate Change: Contribution of Working Group III to the Fourth Assessment Report of the IInter-governmental Panel on Climate Change. Cambridge; New York: Cambridge University Press (2007). [2] International Energy Agency, A Policy Strategy for Carbon Capture and Storage (2012). [3] Jorgensen, W.L. J. Am. Chem. Soc., 103(2), 335 - 340 (1981). [4] Berendsen, H.J.C., Grigera, J.R. and Straatsma, T.P., J. Chem. Phys., 91(24), 6269 - 6271 (1987). [5] Harris, J.G. and Yung, K.H. J. Phys. Chem., 99(31), 12021 - 12024 (1995). [6] Potoff, J.J. and Siepmann, J.I. AlChE J., 47(7), 1676 - 1682 (2001). [7] Smith, D.E. and Dang, L.X. J. Chem. Phys., 100(5), 3757 - 3766 (1994). [8] Deublein, S., Reiser, S., Vrabec, J. and Hasse H. to appear (2012). [9] See: http://lammps.sandia.gov/. [10] See: http://www.gromacs.org/.

Hydrates are non-stoichiometric inclusion compounds that mainly consist of water molecules that form three dimensional cavities that are stabilized by entrapped guest molecules. Hydrates have been under investigation for many years due to their wide variety of applications in engineering and scientific problems. In particular, their characteristic to encage selectively large amounts of gas into the crystalline structure has attracted significant attention for possible practical applications including the separation of gas mixtures, desalination, storage and transportation of gases (e.g., methane, hydrogen). Vast amounts of natural gas hydrates that contain significant amount of methane could possibly be used as a future energy source. Assessing thermodynamic properties of hydrate-containing systems, such as the hydrate equilibrium pressure and temperature conditions or the exact amount of gas stored in the hydrate structure has been addressed by either molecular level simulations (e.g., Monte Carlo) or continuum level modeling. In either case the Lorentz-Berthelot (LB) combining rules are by far the most common used for the parameters between different types of atoms. This is a result of their success in describing fluid mixtures of nonpolar molecules. However, the LB combining rules perform inadequately when describing the gas - H2O interactions without using a correction factor. An extensive discussion on the use of combining rules is provided in the studies of Delhommelle and Millie (2001), and Haslam et al. (2008). The effect of combining rules has not been addressed adequately in the hydrate-related literature. The vast majority of studies have considered the LB combining rules. In the current study we report two series of Grand Canonical Monte Carlo (GCMC) simulations: (i) simulations along the three phase (H-Lw-V) equilibrium curve, and (ii) simulations at pressure and temperature conditions that are off-hydrate-equilibrium. For both cases the exact geometry of hydrate crystals is known from diffraction experiments and therefore, the formation of hydrates can be simulated as a process of gas adsorption in a solid porous material. In the first case, we examine the effect of deviations from the LB combining rules on the cavity occupancy of Argon hydrates. The specific system is selected as a result of the characteristic behavior of Argon to form hydrates of different structures depending on the prevailing pressure. In particular, sII hydrate is formed at lower pressures, while sI hydrate is formed at intermediate pressures, and finally sH hydrate is formed at higher pressures. In the second case, an extensive series of GCMC simulations for the case of all the known hydrate structures, sI, sII, and sH that hydrogen is known to form, is performed. During the simulations a number of water force-fields are examined regarding their effect on the storage capacity of hydrates. In particular, the following popular water force-fields are considered: SPC/E, TIP4P, TIP4P/Ice, and TIP5P. The Langmuir constants for each type of cavity and hydrate structure are reported as a function of temperature and pressure. Therefore, the storage-capacity of the different hydrate structures can be calculated. Acknowledgment Financial support by Qatar National Research Fund (project NPRP 6-1547-2-632) is gratefully acknowledged.

Identifying fugitive emissions from large scale LNG and gas processing and handling facilities is a difficult time and resource intensive process. Because of the limitations of hand held gas detection devices, and the sheer size and complexity of these facilities, smaller leaks may go undetected for extended periods of time and unintended releases may occur when plant personnel are not present or the area monitored. While fugitive emissions are typically not of immediate safety and human health concern taken individually, reducing the total emissions from a large plant or a regional industry footprint could very well have an appreciable positive impact on the environment. ExxonMobil Research Qatar (EMRQ) has developed a Remote Gas Detection (RGD) system that integrates computer vision algorithms and infrared (IR) optical technology that can autonomously scan for and identify small leaks such as those associated with fugitive emissions. Efficient identification of these emission sources will lead to better control and maintenance activities. The RGD system utilizes a custom build component based IR camera and integrated cooler assembly, and a computer vision algorithm that analyses the video output from the IR imagers to determine the presence of hydrocarbon plumes. Most hydrocarbon plumes have strong absorption peaks in the narrow mid-wave IR region. The algorithm takes advantage of the difference in contrast between a hydrocarbon plume and the background in each pixel of an IR image and the temporal changes due to plume behavior for the analysis. The algorithm compares sequentially collected IR images and uses a multi-stage confirmation process to confirm the detection and has built-in multiple filters that mitigate interferences like steam, and other moving objects such as humans and trees. Early field tests indicate that a 4 lb/hr propane leak could be autonomously detected from a distance of up to 800 feet. Also, initial testing comparing the RGD system to point and path detectors showed that a 2 lb/hr propane leak was successfully detected from 60 feet using the RGD system but did not elicit any response from a point detector located downwind 18 feet away. Multiple deployment opportunities at process facilities are currently underway. Results from field testing at these process facilities will help researchers investigate the effect of temperate and harsh weather conditions, the effect of varying temperatures and gain a better understanding of equipment wear and tear, maintenance requirements and possible life expectancies. These data sets will produce an accurate assessment of the performance of the RGD system under actual working conditions and will be used to qualify the technology for widespread adoption within the industry.

Worldwide, the current energy system increasingly shows economic, social and environmental drawbacks and it does not appear to be sustainable. Among the most pressing problems are climate change due to CO2 emissions, the depletion of fossil resources, the security of energy supply, and threats to economic development. These problems can be addressed by moving towards energy systems that increasingly rely on renewable and sustainable energy sources. At the same time, the rapid progress in renewable energy harvesting and information and telecommunication technologies offer unprecedented opportunities for energy generation, distribution and management, and to more strongly involve people in the process of energy generation and management, which is needed to further enhance the sustainable energy systems. Indeed, renewable and sustainable energy sources are likely to be produced and distributed in a decentralised manner, and require energy management systems that differ greatly from the current centralised system. Hence, the integration of renewable sources has major implications for the design and management of energy systems, relying on innovative ICT solutions and stronger user involvement that facilitate supply and demand matching. Effective energy management requires the active participation and support of end users, who should accept the energy management systems, and adapt their energy use to the available demand as to enhance the efficiency and stability of the energy system. Hence, the design of future smart grids should be based on sound behavioural models, which should be integrated in ICT centred solutions that facilitate supply and demand matching. More specifically, we need to understand how truly complex information on energy production, use and storage can be effectively communicated among relevant actors, and what type of information and incentives should be provided to realise effective supply and demand matching. In addition, we need to understand how to take into account cultural specifics in the design of energy management systems, to enhance effective energy management across the world. The active and aware involvement of the end-user can only be achieved if a scalable and reliable ICT infrastructure is in place, which naturally interfaces the energy flows with the decision autonomy of the people. Hence, the design of effective energy management systems should be take into account key behavioural as well as ICT requirements in an integrated way. Our proposal is thus to investigate (1) ICT based solutions for monitoring and controlling the power grid focusing on the distribution networks (medium-low voltage) and buildings (offices and residential complexes) specific to the Qatar context; (2) behavioural models on effective and acceptable incentives to match energy supply and demand; (3) cultural specificities in the design of energy management systems by comparing results from research in Qatar to similar research in other parts of the world, in particular Europe. Together, these will provide important insights in how to promote efficient and stable renewable energy systems that meet Qatar's sustainability goals.

Increasing development along the coastline and offshore Qatar results in continuous interaction between industrial activities and the biodiverse Qatar Marine Zone. Enhancing the understanding of this environment and the potential for impacts is essential to Qatar. The ExxonMobil Research Qatar (EMRQ) Environmental Management Research Program is working with local and international partners to develop the scientific knowledge needed to better understand environmental risks specific to this region, and is developing technologies to enhance environmental management capabilities. Scientists at EMRQ are using state-of-the-art research labs combined with field studies and eco-risk model development to understand, assess, predict and mitigate potential impacts to the local marine environment that may occur as a result of Qatar's industrial activities. In addition, we are developing state of the art technologies and data acquisition / management systems that will allow for effective identification of baseline environmental resources, monitoring ecosystems to identify change, and analyzing environmental data to support rapid and successful decision making. Taken together, the projects undertaken in this integrated program are supporting Qatar's ability to understand and manage its resources responsibly. Several projects are described in detail within the framework of how the information and tools developed are integrated into the environmental management process. Sensitive ecosystem monitoring, laboratory based ecosystem risk assessment tool development, hydrodynamic modeling, ecological baseline surveys, remote sensing and mapping are the main projects to be discussed. Monitoring Qatari corals and seagrass over the last few years with the use of new technology as well as in-situ temperature monitoring devices has provided insight into the factors affecting these sensitive ecosystems. The development of laboratory based environmental risk studies provides methods to utilize indigenous species to determine the potential effects of chemicals and other parameters in the environment. Three dimensional modeling of hydrodynamic processes in the Qatar marine zone allows visualization of fate and transport of pollutants and can be used to assess and predict impacts. Baseline surveys provide a great deal of data cataloguing biodiversity, and documenting physical and chemical processes in land, sea and the interface in-between. New cutting edge techniques like remote sensing from space born satellites or small autonomous vehicles deployed in the sea allow large or targeted areas to be studied and classified in a more rapid manner than traditional field studies. This data, if properly formatted and managed, allows for accurate mapping and temporal analysis by acquiring imagery at timed intervals. The system used to integrate environmental data and modeling analysis tools is a geographical information system (GIS). In today's world, a single development project can result in tens or hundreds of thousands of electronic files and terabytes of data characterizing the environment. A structured file geo-database and GIS system provides a mechanism to manage and analyze enormous amounts of information and to provide reports and visual tools for managers within government and industry to make informed decisions for environmental management or risk assessment purposes.

An increasing number of firms are integrating carbon emission concerns into their operational decision-making. Some of these actions are motivated by individual initiatives towards corporate environmentalism. While some other are driven by environmental regulation pressures. Policies such as carbon caps under the Kyoto Protocol and carbon tax have been introduced in many countries as mechanisms to induce firms to adopt the low carbon society. In this setting, we present a model for analyzing the impact of carbon emission considerations on the coordination between two/or more different business entities. In the absence of carbon emission considerations, channel coordination has been widely studied in the supply chain management literature. It has been shown that both entities are often better off under the coordinated channel. Several mechanisms and contracts have been then studied to settle down such coordination under different scenarios. The purpose of this research is to investigate these traditional (cost driven) results under carbon emissions considerations. In other terms our objective is to illustrate how the incentives for the coordination are affected by the presence of carbon emission firms' concerns. In our initial analysis we consider traditional buyer-vendor coordination by associating carbon emission parameters with ordering and holding decision variables. We examine how the values of these parameters as well as the considered regulatory emission control policies affect cost and emissions. The corresponding carbon emissions are incorporated into the model through the consideration of various regulatory policies that include : (1) strict emission caps: both of the supplier and the buyer are subject to mandatory caps on the amount of carbon they emit, (2) carbon tax policy: the supplier and the buyer are taxed on the amount of emissions they emit and (3) cap and trade system: the supplier and the buyer are subject to carbon caps but are rewarded /penalized for emitting less/more than their caps. Under carbon emission considerations, the centralized solution remains profit-optimal but not necessarily emission-optimal. This means that the joint profit is often increased when the channel is coordinated. However, the amount of total carbon emissions may be higher than what could be emitted by the retailer and the supplier when they work individually. We identify conditions on cost and emission parameters under which the joint policy is both profit and emission optimal. We also show that the outcome of the coordination is very sensitive to the type of the regulatory policy, for instance some policies are providing greater incentives than others for coordination.

Considerable interest has been directed in recent years toward the use of self-healing materials in concrete. The concept of microcapsule healing is based on a healing agent being encapsulated and embedded in the concrete. The objective of this study was to evaluate the effects of preparation parameters, namely, temperature, agitation rate, and pH on the shell thickness and size (diameter) of the microcapsules; as well as to evaluate the self-healing mechanism in concrete through experimental testing performed in laboratory. Two healing agents were evaluated in this study, i.e., dicyclopentadiene (DCPD) and sodium silicate. The experimental test matrix used in this study is shown in table 1. The anatomy of the microcapsules is shown in figure 1. Based on the results of the experimental program, it was determined that, as the pH was increased, the shell thickness increased for sodium silicate, while the shell thickness reached a minimum at a pH value of 3.4 for DCPD. Sodium silicate shell thickness was almost twice the shell thickness for DCPD. The most uniform and coherent microcapsules were produced at a temperature of 55°C. For the DCPD microcapsules and up to 49°C, the solution remained an emulsion and no encapsulation took place. The increase in agitation rate resulted in a decrease in the average diameter of the microcapsules for DCPD as shown in figure 2. On the other hand, the diameter of the microcapsules remained constant for sodium silicate microencapsulation as the agitation rate was increased. Testing of concrete specimens modified with the two healing agents (DCPD and sodium silicate microcapsules) was conducted. For sodium silicate, improvement in the modulus of elasticity of the concrete before and after healing was observed at a pH value of 3.1 and sodium silicate content of 5.0%. At other pH values, the effect of the sodium silicate microcapsules on the concrete performance was negligible. For DCPD and sodium silicate microcapsules, the healing agent was effective in increasing the modulus of elasticity of concrete after cracking as shown in figure 3.

The increasing price of conventional fossil fuel and the need to reduce green-house gas emissions have prompted the adoption of clean electrical energy generation sources. The abundance of renewable energy, particularly solar and wind, over the world combined with increasing efficiency of the Photovoltaic (PV) cells has led to reducing cost per kWh of generated green electricity and created potential for establishing high power renewable energy systems at medium voltage scale. The design, fabrication, installation and testing of a large PV power generation systems still, however, pose great challenge in term of obtaining highly-efficient, highly-reliable, transformer-less with buck/boost voltage capabilities, and reduced cost and maintenance. This work is aimed to present the status of renewable energy installation worldwide and to discuss grid connected issues. The increasing penetration of PV energy has motivated the establishment of grid connection requirements. The requirements for power injection should be clearly defined: The grid requires sinusoidal AC with stable voltage and frequency, and the harmonics content should be kept within limits as addressed in various standards, codes, and guidelines. Hence, PV plants connected to the public grid give rise to two highly important requirements: the power quality of the grid should not be reduced when solar power is fed into the grid; and personal safety must be ensured in the event of mains interference. Large PV systems are usually tied at high-voltage level. Such systems consist of generation, transmission, distribution phases, and consumers at the end [1]. This proposed work will discuss the status of renewable energy worldwide installation at high level and will [resent the standards and regulations for the connection of PV renewable energy sources to electric grid. Different technical and non-technical issues related to the installation and the operation of such systems will be carefully discussed, analyzed and related problems investigated. There is a pressing need to review and to evaluate the design and operational constraints of large-scale renewable energy systems, therefore this work aims to discuss and open-up new avenues in this direction. References [1] H. Abu-Rub, M. Malinowski, K. Al-Haddad, Power Electronics for Renewable Energy Systems, Transportation and Industrial Applications. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, 2014 (in press).